Caring Food Systems? The Transformative Potential of Regenerative Agriculture in New Zealand

Agri-food systems around the world are facing an urgent need to transition to more sustainable forms of production. A growing body of literature argues that achieving radical change in the agri-food system requires a radical renegotiation of our relationship with the environment alongside a change in our thinking and approach to transformational food politics. To do this, this study uses a feminist political ecology approach to investigate the degree to which components of a more-than-human ethic of care are embedded within New Zealand’s emerging regenerative farming movement. The purpose of this research is to understand the potential of regenerative farming to act as political and social spaces for radical and transformative change. The research is based on farm visits and interviews with farmers and key organizational stakeholders who are either practicing or supporting regenerative agriculture in Otago, Southland and Canterbury. It was found that undertaking regenerative agriculture requires a significant shift in mindset away from the reductionist paradigm that dominates conventional farming towards a more holistic and relational understanding of biological and social ecosystems. This shift is characterized by greater attentiveness to on farm biology, but also the use of this engagement to complement data-driven guidance for on-farm decisions and care of the land. Personal wellbeing and fulfilment through farming seems to increase with reframed, holistic and principle-based perspectives being applied to personal and social lives, as well as to on farm biology. Collaboration is found to be favoured within social networks of regenerative spaces. The relational approaches to farming represent a challenge to the existing social norms and economic-political structures of the New Zealand farming landscape. In conclusion, it is argued that the mindset shift is what differentiates ‘being regenerative’ from the technical practices of regenerative agriculture. While the two overlap, it is the mindset that is crucial to the transformational potential of regenerative agriculture