141 Fertilisation, for example, can be done by crop rotation with alternating plant varieties capable, due to their specific characteristics, of replenishing the soil with the nutrients consumed by the previous crop. Supplementing or alternating cultivation with certain herbaceous species also promotes soil fertility, a practice that supports biodiversity and can keep out weeds and grasses that would otherwise have to be eradicated or chemically inhibited. Crop rotation, crop waste maintenance, cover-crops, intercropping, green manure; between jargon of the past and neologisms, these are some of the terms of regenerative fertilisation. Even ploughing is a process completely reconsidered by regenerative agriculture. Let’s start with the logic: soil has a precise sequence of levels, called horizons, each with its own properties, from humus to mother rock. Sectioning the soil at depth and turning it over can no longer represent a solution, both because of the impoverishment that follows and because of this technique’s capability to release the CO2 retained by the soil into the air. Beyond this kind of intervention, it is now necessary to think about soil structures and how to reduce soil erosion; here too, the culture of non-doing must take over. A further chapter of regenerative intervention is dedicated to water, which is rare and must be well managed to limit erosion with a topographical design of the cultivation area, that shall be able to evenly conserve it and distribute it. Fertility and biodiversity can be cultivated by looking beyond the field – or rather, around the field, with its surrounding area which, by reasoning appropriately, can provide fertility and protection ensuring biodiversity, a defended environment and saving on chemicals or other questionable human interventions. The paradigms of regenerative agriculture do ponder beyond the individual farmland, with an overall view of the environmental ecosystem. For example, on pastures, whose spread is key to the quality of an ecological fabric capable of regulating and improving itself, from an autonomy standpoint. The principles of regenerative agriculture involve promoting the sowing of winter cereals directly on active perennial meadows over the summer, in order to increase the annual production of pastures. This is where the practice of agroforestry comes in, a system that combines trees with crops or livestock in the same place to increase the synergies between animals, which feed on fresh pasture, and plants, which benefit from animal dung. An action that makes one think of a lot of effort, and instead it perfectly accomplishes itself, is precisely that of forestation: giving back the necessary space to woodlands means securing the best army against erosion, loss of biodiversity and hydrogeological instability. Polyface Farms are born under this sign by integrating agriculture, forestry and grazing. Therefore, what is needed is not the effort, but rather the courage to regain a certain mindset that has been lost and that, today, tastes like regeneration.
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