Research mapping: regenerative agriculture in Latin America 

About the researchers

Massimiliano has a plural mix of experiences in social and natural sciences, including collaborations with leading experts in regenerative agriculture and grazing, permaculture, holistic management and fieldwork such as regenerative farming, teaching, designing and consulting in tropical, dryland and cool temperate regions.

Michael has a background in social sciences, development studies and permaculture. In recent years, he has been engaged in grassroots landscape restoration work in the Mediterranean (including with John Liu’s Ecosystem Restoration Camps in Jordan) while also working as an international sustainability consultant.

What’s in this report?

This research report was written for Mustardseed Trust to expand its knowledge about Regenerative Agriculture (RA) in Latin America.

Massi and Michael first defined what they understood as ‘Regenerative Agriculture’, included historical background and provided a wealth of information on inspiring companies, projects and networks within RA.

Innovations, Enhancing and Inhibiting factors for RA in Latin America

RA innovations are summarised in the report according to the level of food system they are leveraging at the beginning of each chapter. This framework is adapted from Gliessman’s Levels of Conversion (Gliessman, 2014). Factors of influence are listed under the relevant sphere: political, social, economic, environmental and technical factors.

Latin America is a continent of contrasts. On the one hand, Latin America’s largest agricultural exporters (i.e. Brazil, Chile and Argentina) have numerous export-oriented commercial farms. These operations are usually monocultures that rely on synthetic inputs and heavy machinery. On the other end of the spectrum, small-scale subsistence farming is characteristic of the entire region. It is intimately linked to agroecology, which emerged largely through social movements of small farmers protesting against the Green Revolution during the 1960s and 1970s.

The report outlines the background for the problems and opportunities followed by a list of innovators in the fields of livestock, agroforestry, broad-acre annual cropping, funding for regenerative agriculture and regenerative agriculture networks.

Under each section on enhancing or inhibiting factors, there is a detailed list of innovators in the field who either take advantage of the enhancing factor or are providing a solution to the inhibiting factor. This will allow Mustardseed Trust and other interested parties to home in on the areas where they feel they want to work and find the leaders in that field.

Michael and Massi emphasise that early RA adopters are essential, as are the networks in spreading the good practice. Many of the actors within the report are at the early stages of scaling up; however, according to Massi and Michael’s price analysis, real, life-changing scaling will require government support and changes in the carbon, water and biodiversity markets.

They identified a crucial role for funders such as Mustardseed Trust in starting conversations with those actors involved at the ‘nodal points’. It is vital that. whilst retaining its integrity, RA should be multi-scalar and multi-sectorial. It should engage all types of farms, from the micro- to the large-scale and interact with as many target groups as possible. The development of blueprints and the sharing of best practices is crucial to providing proof-of-concept examples to onboard large-scale producers, funders and policymakers.