It goes beyond taking stock of regenerative agriculture use, also investigating the significance of regenerative agriculture in major food and agriculture companies’ climate strategies and seeing if a common definition of regenerative agriculture has solidified. [...] In the first section, we give a more detailed overview of regenerative agriculture – describing the history of the term, its definitions, and the scientific foundations and debates surrounding regenerative agriculture practices. [...] 2.2 REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE FOR AGRIFOOD COMPANIES’ EMISSIONS REDUCTIONS AND REMOVALS In the context of the food and agricultural sector’s impact on GHG emissions and the challenges met in reducing these emissions, this report focuses mainly on the carbon sequestration and GHG emissions reduction component of regenerative agriculture, as mentioned in Section 1.2. [...] REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE AND SOIL CARBON SEQUESTRATION In part due to the lack of a single definition, the focus of regenerative agriculture has shifted from soil health to soil carbon sequestration in recent years, especially among those seeking to operationalise regenerative agriculture at the company level and use the practice for reaching climate targets (see Box 1 for an overview of soil carb. [...] 3.2 ASSESSING TYPES OF ACTORS: INDICATORS INVESTIGATED We assessed the integration of regenerative agriculture in the corporate climate strategies of the 30 largest agrifood companies using four indicators: the number of references to regenerative agriculture, the definitions provided, the existence of pilot projects, and the existence of targets and frameworks.
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- Pages
- 72
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- Germany
Table of Contents
- Introduction 9
- 1.1 Background and knowledge gaps 10
- 1.2 Objectives 12
- 2.2 Regenerative agriculture for agrifood companies’ emissions reductions and removals 15
- 2.1 Current understanding of regenerative agriculture 14
- Summary of methods 21
- 3.1 Company selection and data sources 22
- 3.2 Assessing types of actors: indicators investigated 22
- Results 25
- 4.1 Results on the indicators 26
- 4.2 Levels of company use of regenerative agriculture 34
- 4.4 Regenerative agriculture as a tool for emissions reductions and carbon sequestration 44
- Discussion 52
- 5.1 Companies use a watered-down definition of regenerative agriculture to continue business-as-usual 54
- 5.2 Soil carbon sequestration given more importance than emissions reductions under regenerative agriculture 55
- 5.3 Regenerative agriculture for beef and dairy may divert focus from other actions needed in these sectors 56
- Conclusion and recommendations 58
- 6.1 Conclusion 59
- 6.2 Recommendations 60
- REFERENCES 62
- appendix 68
- Fig. 1 26
- Overview of mentions of regenerative agriculture in company sustainability reports or climate transition plans 26
- Fig. 2 30
- Distribution of process-based, outcome-based, and both process- and outcome-based definitions among major food and agriculture companies 30
- Fig. 3 31
- Outcomes and practices mentioned in company regenerative agriculture definitions 31
- Fig. 4 45
- Outcomes and practices mentioned in company regenerative agriculture definitions 45
- Tab. 1 15
- Practices and outcomes often associated with regenerative agriculture 15
- Tab. 2 28
- Food and agriculture companies’ definitions of regenerative agriculture 28
- Tab. 3 33
- Companies’ regenerative agriculture targets and frameworks 33
- Tab. 4 35
- Categorisation of companies’ engagement with regenerative agriculture 35
- Box 1 17
- What is soil carbon sequestration? 17
- Box 2 48
- Regenerative beef and dairy 48
