The Education of Regenerative Agriculture – Creating and Future-Proofing a Sustainable Food Supply

I am not going to sugarcoat it. Do we need to eat food? Yes. 

Do we need to drink water? Yes. What if we have no food or water? We all get hungry and thirsty. What if we stay hungry and thirsty for too long? We all die.

The Carbon Pulse is ending. Cheap oil is running out. Humanity currently struggles to feed over 8 billion people even with the current means of industrialized agriculture and food distribution. Once we run out of cheap oil, our supply chains will significantly weaken. Additionally, since potash is a non-renewable resource, the disappearance of cheap potash will weaken industrialized agriculture’s production capacities. Ultimately, the global food supply will struggle to meet increasing food demands. If there is no alternative agricultural plan, then billions will starve to death, and humanity will collapse.

We do have solutions. One of our fellow MAHB authors, Julian Cribb, stated that there are three pillars to a sustainable global good supply: regenerative farming and grazing, urban food production, and marine aquaculture redoubling [1]. Another MAHB author, Steven Salmony, suggested biomimicry to match and limit humanity’s food supply with the natural world’s carrying capacity [2]. Russell Hopfenberg also pointed to the same issues of industrialized agriculture fuelling the massive economic and population growth of humanity and, subsequently, to the predicament that humanity currently faces, and a suggested modification to the Demographic Transition Model (DTM) into a more sustainable version [3].

However, most communities do not have a plan that implements any of these solutions. Most metropolitan areas are almost entirely urbanized, and some municipalities such as Toronto, Canada, and Tokyo, Japan, are already built on prime agricultural land and wetlands. How can people build food resilience without using potash and with little available agricultural land?

Regenerative agricultural education is a practical skill that should be taught to younger generations

One strategy is public education. Public education can potentially meet Julian Cribb’s three pillars of food sustainability, Steven Salmony’s biomimicry solution, and Russell Hopfenberg’s DTM modifications. Most schools, especially urban schools, currently do not teach regenerative agriculture as a mandatory course. For example, the Province of Ontario, Canada, does not mandate its regional school boards to teach agriculture as a mandatory course. Currently, for Ontarian students to graduate secondary school, they must earn a total of 30 credits: 18 compulsory credits, and 12 optional credits[4]. Each credit can be completed in 1 semester (in Ontario, such a semester lasts about 4 to 5 months). The 18 compulsory credits are as follows [5]:

• 4 credits in English (1 credit per grade);
• 3 credits in mathematics (at least 1 credit in Grade 11 or 12);
• 3 credits for groups 1, 2, and 3 courses (1 credit in each group);
• 2 credits in science;
• 1 credit in Canadian history (Grade 10);
• 1 credit in Canadian geography (Grade 9);
• 1 credit in the arts;
• 1 credit in health and physical education;
• 1 credit in French as a second language;
• 0.5 credit in career studies; and
• 0.5 credit in civics and citizenship.

Students also have the option of pursuing a Specialist High Skills Major (SHSM). However, there is no guaranteed point in any part of Ontario’s secondary school requirements that necessarily mandates students to learn agriculture. The only point where students can learn agriculture is through an SHSM in agriculture [6], but the SHSM is optional, and most students graduate without an SHSM. Additionally, the SHSM in Agriculture primarily teaches agriculture as a professional skill that is used in the agricultural sector (likely industrial agriculture), not necessarily as a practical, daily life skill. Thus, currently, most Ontario students do not have an opportunity to learn practical regenerative agriculture.

One solution is to teach regenerative agriculture as a mandatory course. This would immerse students in the importance of food conservation and cultivation. Regenerative agriculture is not easy. Modern societies across the world, including Canadian society, have taken the abundance of food for granted. Thus, teaching regenerative agriculture to youths would instill in them an important lesson of cherishing every grain, crop, and morsel of food. This would also encourage youths to connect with their peers. Regenerative agriculture is also a communal bonding experience; for regenerative agriculture to succeed, there must be communication and teamwork between those involved in such cultivation. Youths would develop meaningful communication and teamwork skills through such an educational program, and these are skills that they would take into adulthood.

Education and advocacy for regenerative agriculture can have a positive impact on municipal zoning and school board policies

In a long-term sense, youths who have gained such early regenerative agricultural knowledge can positively affect municipal planning and zoning. Instead of municipal governments focusing on urbanization and “concrete jungles”, municipal governments would focus more on agriculturally friendly, communally friendly, and sustainable zoning. Such municipalities can support individual-level agriculture, boost food resilience, and even promote cultural development. This would improve human communal health, cultural health, and individual health.

From a policy perspective, we can make recommendations to each school board about regenerative agriculture as a course. However, we face a major obstacle: relevance. Most schools focus primarily on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) as means toward professional success in urban environments. 

Regenerative agriculture is commonly associated with rural spaces, so for many urban school boards such as those in the Greater Toronto Area, regenerative agriculture is not necessarily relevant to their vision for student success because it does not necessarily translate into a STEM career in a cutting-edge technological field or Silicon Valley.

One strategy is to look at each school board’s by-laws and advocate accordingly for regenerative agriculture’s curricular inclusion. For example, the Peel District School Board in Ontario has a by-law that contains its own board and committee procedure [7]. It is crucial for us to understand the advantages and disadvantages of open sessions and closed sessions with school boards, so we must effectively fine-tune our recommendations to board members. We must focus on how regenerative agriculture can educate our children about the importance of conserving food, being considerate of the agricultural workers (industrial or regenerative) that create our food supply, and of even contributing to the health of their respective communities through the production of locally cultivated, inexpensive, and healthy food.

Moreover, with such regenerative agricultural knowledge, youths living in urbanized environments can create small agricultural plots within urban spaces to further supplement their localized food supply and further boost the community’s food resilience. This has already been done in Berlin, Germany, through the Edible Cities Network’s urban community gardens [8], but youths can accomplish an individualized version of this solution. However, this solution would require changes to a municipality’s zoning by-laws and land usage policies. This would require lobbying and advocacy at a municipal council [9]. If successfully advocated, then a municipal council would likely zone or rezone new/existing areas of land to accommodate regenerative agriculture while simultaneously maintaining a balance between residential and agricultural space.

Educating young people about regenerative agriculture can have a positive impact on a community’s ability to mimic nature in its environment 

Regenerative agriculture requires land. This limits the available living space in a municipality and subsequently limits population numbers in such a space. This is good, because most areas, especially metropolitan areas such as Toronto, Tokyo, New York City, and Seoul, are grossly overpopulated. Once industrialized agriculture and food distribution fail, these cities, among most others, are at the highest risk of collapse. With knowledge of regenerative agriculture, youths may choose to move away from major metropolitan areas and build sustainable local communities in non-metropolitan areas. Or, they could transform existing surrounding suburban areas into sustainable areas that support their own food supply and distribution systems. However, these scenarios are again limited by existing municipal by-laws, potentially run into federal/provincial jurisdictional issues, and would require advocacy. Additionally, for such migration to be beneficial for the environment and humanity [10], the populations must simultaneously decrease.

Regardless, regenerative agriculture knowledge would encourage a potential exodus from urban areas back into rural areas. This would be a migration phenomenon that is the exact opposite of the phenomenon seen in the 1800s. Regardless of where you stand on Dunbar’s Number (where a person can have an approximate maximum of 150 deep, meaningful human connections), communities having a couple hundred to a few thousand residents that have decent regenerative agricultural knowledge would likely have excellent food resilience, stellar local amenities, and great community morale and connection. Humanity’s future and survival would not rest in megacities such as Tokyo or Seoul, but rather in smaller communities.

Conclusion

Regenerative agricultural education can meet the food solutions posed by our fellow MAHB authors. A more educated, self-aware, socially aware, and agriculturally considerate youthful generation would positively affect food resilience from a grassroots level. Ultimately, this strategy could help to slowly steer our species away from a civilizational collapse.

DISCLAIMER: The above is NOT legal advice. It is only intended for educational and general information purposes. Any legal advice should be sought from lawyers practicing in the respective areas and jurisdictions.

Further reading

[1] Cribb, Julian. (2019, September 6). Of food, war and ecology: How we can end the 6th extinction. Surviving C21. https://juliancribb.blog/2019/09/04/of-food-war-and-ecology-how-we-can-end-the-6th-extinction/

[2] Salmony, Steven. (2023, October 5). A Case for Limiting Total Food Production for Human Consumption. Stanford University Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere. https://mahb.stanford.edu/blog/a-case-for-limiting-total-food-production-for-human-consumption/.

[3] Hopfenberg, Russell. (2014, August 4). An Expansion of the Demographic Transition Model: The Dynamic Link Between Agricultural Productivity and Population. https://mahb.stanford.edu/library-item/expansion-demographic-transition-model-dynamic-link-agricultural-productivity-population/

[4] High School Graduation Requirements. Government of Ontario. https://www.ontario.ca/page/high-school-graduation-requirements#section-1

[5] Ibid.

[6] Agriculture: Specialist high skills major policy and implementation guide. Government of Ontario. https://www.ontario.ca/document/specialist-high-skills-major-policy-and-implementation-guide/agriculture

[7] Section 5: Board and Committee Meeting Rules and Parliamentary Procedure, in the Peel District School Board Procedure By-Law.

[8] Urban Community Gardens in Berlin, Germany. European Environment Agency. (2022, February 1). https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/who-benefits-from-nature-in/urban-community-gardens-in-berlin-germany

[9] Vang, Amos. (2023, April 22). Foresight is 20/20: Achieving trickle-up community change. Stanford University Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere. https://mahb.stanford.edu/blog/foresight-is-20-20-achieving-trickle-up-community-change/.

[10] Urban Legends: Cities are fundamentally at odds with environmental quality and safety, right? Not so fast. https://news.colgate.edu/scene/2014/11/urban-legends.html

Amos Vang 王思源 is a lawyer practicing in Ontario, Canada. He received his Juris Doctor from the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law and was called to the Bar of Ontario. Amos currently practices employment law, medical malpractice law, insurance litigation, and plaintiff-side civil litigation. Amos is also passionate about helping communities succeed in different ways, as evidenced by his diverse training in other legal areas such as family law, constitutional law, business law, administrative law, real estate law, estate planning, commercial law, and municipal law. Amos runs his own podcast, This is the Legend Of…, and previously hosted and produced a Canadian Law Blog Award-winning podcast, The Law School Show. In his podcasting career, Amos interviewed guests such as Canada’s 21st Prime Minister Paul Martin, Canada’s 28th Governor General David Johnston, current Canadian Supreme Court Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, former Canadian Supreme Court Justice Marshall Rothstein, Toronto Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Jonathan Crow, world-renowned virtuoso violinist Kerson Leong, and iconic award-winning Canadian sportscasters James Duthie and Scott Russell. Amos is also a member of the Canadian Chopin Society. In his spare time, Amos is a sportscaster, emcee, fitness enthusiast, and classical pianist.

Podcast: https://www.thisisthelegendof.com/

The MAHB Blog is a venture of the Millennium Alliance for Humanity and the Biosphere. Questions should be directed to joan@mahbonline.org