The Regenerative Agriculture Alliance was created in 2018 as the non-profit arm of a larger ecosystem designed to build a regenerative, equitable, and socially just agriculture sector. We are focused on scaling up a systems-level regenerative poultry solution that restores ecological balance, produces nourishing food, and puts money back into the hands of farmers and food chain workers. To do so requires a completely new supply chain that integrates grassroots organizing of farmers with physical infrastructure and other regeneratively stacked enterprises.
Mission
The mission of the RAA is to scale up regenerative poultry in the movement to make regenerative agriculture the norm.
Strategy
We approach regenerative agriculture by way of ecosystem management. Just as the regenerative poultry system works with the entire ecosystem of the land to produce abundant food, scaling regenerative poultry takes an ecosystem of businesses to produce regenerative outcomes. That is why collective ecosystem management forms the backbone of what we do.
Nature doesn’t work in linear ways. It works in circles.
Under a regenerative view, an acre of land is a four-dimensional space. Starting many feet below the ground and going as far up as the tallest tree, regenerative thinking follows the carbon cycle. Regenerative outcomes therefore inherently call for holistic, circular-based indicators, verifiers, and criteria. Circular thinking unlocks the fourth dimension, which is Spirit. The spiritual connection is what makes us take care of the earth with passion and dedication.
We have determined that the criteria for regenerative systems falls into three categories: Social, Economic, and Ecological. When these three criteria are met according to holistic indicators and verifiers, we unlock the Spiritual to achieve a four-dimensional regenerative landscape. It is our hope to assist in reigniting the core spiritual connection required to sustain a truly permanent regenerative system.
Regeneration requires a four dimensional approach, because for a system to be economical, it must be ecological. For a system to be ecological, it must be social, because ecology is what humans make of it. People need spirituality to create balanced social systems. It is in this way that Spirit unlocks regeneration.
Social
People are the key to systems change. Without a happy and healthy farming community and workforce, there is little hope of seeing the changes we need in the US food and agriculture industries. Our theory of change is centered on designing a system-level strategy for peoples’ engagement. A major indicator of social balance is that ownership, governance, and control of the system’s infrastructure is in the hands of the people who work in it. A verifier would be leadership that represents the workforce relative to its ethnic populations.
Economic
We work based on circular economics. The chicken is at the center of the farm economic cycle, but the chicken also supports stacked farm enterprises like hazelnut and elderberry production. These crops provide additional revenue streams for farmers while delivering an environment for chicken production that optimizes the carbon cycles. An indicator of economic balance is that ownership, governance, and control of the system's value-added infrastructure is in the hands of the people who work in it. A verifier would be farmers and food chain workers making a dignified living.
Ecological
Each farm is designed to integrate perennial native crops with annual crops to build the soil and critical, land-based resilience infrastructure of each farm and their surrounding communities. Perennial crop infrastructure can buffer the impact of climate change. In addition to a return of wildlife, a key indicator of ecological balance is soil rich in minerals and organic matter. Verifiers are healthy chickens and bigger yields.
