Six years ago, a group of friends gathered in Ryland Engelhart’s living room in Venice, CA, inspired by one thing – healthy soil microbes, working with plants and animals, can sequester carbon from the atmosphere. Our inspirational weekly meetings became the nonprofit Kiss the Ground. Our first “aha” was soil carbon sequestration, but as we learned more we discovered that communities all over the world have been pushing forward “regeneration.” Many indigenous communities have always practiced a regenerative, stewardship relationship to the planet, although they never called it “regeneration”. In the decades before we sat in Ryland’s living room people such as The Regenesis Group, Carol Sanford, Bob Rodale, and Allen Savory were using the word, and bringing forward a “regenerative” vision for the future. When we discovered it, we found that it was a concept we couldn’t shake. It’s become a guiding vision for our lives and many that we work with. 

A definition: Regenerative Agriculture is a system of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem services. Regenerative Agriculture aims to capture carbon in soil and aboveground biomass, reversing current global trends of atmospheric accumulation. At the same time, it offers increased yields, resilience to climate instability, and higher health and vitality for farming and ranching communities. The system draws from decades of scientific and applied research by the global communities of indigenous people, organic farming, agroecology, Holistic Management, and agroforestry. (Credit: Terra Genesis).