The Big Bite: Fields of Change

This is regenerative agriculture: a type of farming that restores the land, boosts biodiversity, and nurtures healthier food, all while supporting the farmers and communities who depend on it.

“Regenerative agriculture is a way of farming that focuses on actively improving the health of the land, ecosystems and communities over time,” says Jodi Clarke, Industry Development Team Manager from Sustainable Table, a not-for-profit supporting farmers who are working to revitalise their land.

It involves adapting to the unique circumstances and working with nature, not against it. “This approach grows food in a way that restores ecology and soil health, increases biodiversity, minimises reliance on synthetic inputs, and works in ‘right relationship’ with nature and communities,” she adds.

For farmer Daniel Kelton, from Holistic Pastoral, a regenerative farm based on Taungurung Country in Mansfield, it’s all about caring for the country: “It's about a reciprocal relationship with our land community, that we are very much a part of.”

For Daniel, that means managing pastures with Holistic Planned Grazing - moving mobs of cattle, sheep, and chickens through a yearly rotation, mimicking natural herd movement. This rest and recovery period allows pastures to grow in diversity and biomass while improving water and energy cycles.

Eli Court, CEO of Soils for Life, a not-for-profit that supports Australian farmers to regenerate soils, explains that soil ecosystems are complex: “It's not like organic where essentially to get organic certification you pretty much need to tick a certain set of boxes...some practices that work somewhere else might not work, or they might not work at that time, or they may need other practices to be implemented at the same time in order to work.

“The one principle to rule them all is mimicking nature because nature's had billions of years and certainly hundreds of thousands of years in this sort of climate to work out how to function in different places,” he adds.

Credit: Sustainable Table

Why make the shift?

For many, the decision to embrace regenerative agriculture comes from a moment of crisis or deep reflection. Daniel recalls a harsh winter when his small mob of sheep suffered heavy losses from predator attacks.

“When we started growing our own meat, a few years ago, we had a mob of sheep on a heavily timbered lease block...We had a really tough winter one year, where we lost nearly all of our small mob of sheep to predator attack,” he recounts.

According to conventional farmers in the region, there were only two options available to Daniel - shoot the predators, or call in the local dogger to trap and kill them.

But, the farmer who lived next door told Daniel that dingoes and dogs had always been in those hills and always be: “He said, ‘If you want to farm sheep here, you've got to work with the land instead of trying to fight it’.”

Credit: Sustainable Table

Credit: Sustainable Table

That wisdom set Daniel and his family on a new path. They adopted portable electric fencing, inspired by farmers in the US protecting livestock from bears and wolves. Keeping animals in small areas to protect them from attack also led to other benefits.

“Once you confine animals in small areas, they need to keep moving to new areas for more feed. Once you are moving animals across landscapes everyday, and they are not eating next to where they shit the day before, then you don't need drenches and chemicals to keep them healthy anymore and the pathogen cycles are broken.”

And, the landscape changed too. “When you come back to areas you have grazed months before, they are thicker, healthier looking and more vivacious then non-grazed areas, which means better feed for your animals and better meat quality. It just all made sense, and it spurred us on to keep developing our regenerative grazing systems.”

Eli says many pioneering regenerative farmers also made the switch following financial, or health crises linked to chemical use. “Part of the work that we're doing is trying to avoid people having to get to that point of a crisis,” he says.

“Farming is inherently a risky business...Our focus now is supporting as many of those newly curious farmers as possible to get to that point of confidence and readiness to actually implement,” he explains.

From a broader perspective, Jodi points to climate pressures and supply chain vulnerabilities as driving forces behind regenerative adoption: “Unpredictable weather and climate-related events are becoming more frequent across Australia...putting serious pressure on farmers and our food supply.”

However, when landscapes are healthy, they endure in times of drought, flood, or unexpected shocks. Regenerative farming is not just about growing food, but about creating resilient food systems and supply chains that can weather whatever comes.

Principles and practices in action

At its core, regenerative agriculture revolves around five key soil health principles: minimize soil disturbance, maximize soil cover, increase plant diversity, maintain living roots year-round, and integrate livestock.

Eli stresses that bare soil is “a real killer” - leading to erosion, higher temperatures, and poor water infiltration. Diverse plants with different roots foster rich microbial communities essential for nutrient cycling. Practical tools like monitoring water infiltration and ground cover, organism counts, and photo points help farmers track progress over time.

Sustainable Table also highlights innovation beyond the paddock. “One example we’re really proud of is Woodstock Flour,” Jodi said. With support from Sustainable Table, the family-run regenerative grain and milling enterprise in North East Victoria purchased a commercial sifter, enabling them to produce high-extraction flour from organic grain grown on their own farm.

This innovation, she explained, “not only filled a critical market gap but also created a pathway for other regional regenerative growers to access fair prices and expanded markets.” Now, Woodstock Flour is working towards scaling up and widening those market pathways for regenerative grain.

“Strategic investment in the right infrastructure can unlock market opportunities for regenerative products, strengthening local food systems while supporting more farmers to transition their practices,” Jodi says.

“When you come back to areas you have grazed months before, they are thicker, healthier looking and more vivacious then non-grazed areas, which means better feed for your animals and better meat quality.”

Daniel Kelton

Barriers on the road ahead

Despite growing interest, transitioning to regenerative agriculture is far from straightforward. Cash flow challenges and access to capital can stall progress, and the shift itself often takes time, with delayed returns and benefits.

And there are systemic challenges too: “...a shortage of regenerative agronomists and training programs... limited access to land for new or tenant farmers, insufficient education pathways for new regenerative farmers, policy bias to support large scale, export oriented and often conventional agriculture, and ‘middle infrastructure’ gaps such as local abattoirs, processing hubs, or distribution systems” are all factors that can affect the uptake of regenerative farming practices, explains Jodi.

She adds that these challenges are compounded by a lack of consumer knowledge about the advantages of regeneratively farmed food, such as health and environmental benefits. Also, smaller producers having to compete against the giant supermarkets makes it hard to build “strong, resilient markets for regenerative produce.”

Cultural and social barriers abound too, especially in traditionally conventional farming areas.

“Lots of early adopters described feeling like people don’t want to talk to them at the pub or people were looking over the fence thinking their place looks untidy because they haven’t sprayed all the weeds,” says Eli.

To address this, Soils for Life publishes case studies, resource guides, and fosters peer-to-peer learning to build farmer confidence and ecological literacy. “Farmers who sustain changed practices have access to a supportive network of like-minded peers,” explains Eli.

But Daniel, on the other hand, has found his local community more curious than hostile: “I’m sure that others are probably watching over the fences and wondering why we are doing things differently or maybe wondering what the hell we are up to, but we find that the local community is more curious than anything else."

Daniel frequently shares his farm’s approach at local LandCare field days, giving presentations that showcase his methods and philosophy. Time and again, the response is the same - curious farmers eager to understand how and why they choose to do things differently.

Credit: Blackbarn Farm, Sustainable Table

Credit: Blackbarn Farm, Sustainable Table

Ripples beyond the farm gate

The differences between regeneratively managed land and conventionally farmed paddocks are often striking. “The change is really evident on fence lines we share with neighbours who are managing differently to us,” says Daniel. “You can always spot a well managed pasture by how it looks – it’s always healthier and more vibrant.”

That visual contrast hints at something bigger as regenerative agriculture’s benefits reach well beyond individual farms: healthier soils lead to nutrient-dense food, cleaner air and water, and entire landscapes more resilient to droughts and floods. And there are economic and social impacts too.

“Regenerative farms often rely on local supply chains, which keeps money circulating within regional communities and supports local jobs, allowing farmers to retain more of the profit," says Jodi.

She also explains that this model “helps reconnect consumers with where their food comes from, creating opportunities to engage with the people who grow it.”

And, as regenerative farmers often take this a step further by selling directly to consumers or working with local supply chains and food networks, this helps to build trust and transparency - and can give communities greater control over how their food is grown and distributed.

Eli adds that there is growing evidence that healthier soils produce more nutritious food. “One study took hundreds of carrots...the levels of antioxidants between the worst carrot and the best carrot was 40 times. The only thing that that study found could correlate to increased levels of nutrients was the amount of biological activity in the soil. It didn't matter whether you were organic certified or not...only the amount of life in the soil.”

And Eli thinks this connection between soil life and human health can be a powerful motivator for change. “That's huge because the vast majority of people are not farmers. They're going to struggle to connect to a lot of this stuff. They don't know what soil is, really. And where is it going to hit home? When it's about my health, my kids' health.”

Supporting the transition

To realise regenerative agriculture’s full potential, coordinated support is essential.

Eli says: “A lot of farmers are now getting free advice from agronomists who are employed by companies that sell fertilisers, chemicals or agricultural equipment.” He calls instead for publicly-funded, independent advice and education to replace the scaled-back extension services of the past.

Soils for Life also values ecological literacy, as Eli explains: “So, building farmers' skills in reading the landscape, understanding the ecology, understanding what's going on in the soil and interpreting that information to make decisions about farming practices that will take the ecological health of the land forwards.”

Jodi says capital and networks are vital to activating the regenerative farming system. To help facilitate this, Sustainable Table maps the sector nationally - via their Australian Regenerative Food & Farming Map - and connects “high-impact regenerative enterprises with values-aligned funders, supports producers with identification of capability and readiness needs, and ensures the sector’s stories and outcomes are visible and valued.”

For Daniel, the internet and social media have been valuable, if imperfect, tools in his regenerative agriculture journey. “Although the relationships, I think, are a poor second to real human interactions, the internet has given us the ability to ask farmers [whose podcasts we listen to in North America], how they are doing something. It has given us untapped access to scientific studies and to farmers or researchers who have tried things we are interested in. It has given us so much learning.”

And his advice for those farmers keen to make the change? “Keep doing the things you know are good for your land, and be curious about how to do things better."

“Most farmers will see that, if increased profit margins and healthier financial systems are a big focus on their operations, the key to these goals can be addressed through regenerative agriculture systems - which are quite often more profitable, healthier, and more enjoyable. Who wouldn't want more of that in their life?”

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