Rethinking No-Till

With billions of dollars being invested, and the future of our food system at stake, we must ensure that regenerative agriculture is guarded against false marketing claims and pesticide industry greenwashing.

No-till — a farming practice that dramatically reduces tillage and plowing — is widely lifted up as a leading form of regenerative agriculture. But Rethinking No-Till finds that most conventional no-till falls far short of the goals of regenerative agriculture, which include building soil health, protecting biodiversity, and supporting human wellbeing.

The fact that so many farmers have adopted no-till practices is evidence that they are interested in protecting their soil. We must restructure the public policies and market signals that lock in chemical-intensive agriculture in the U.S. to support these and other farmers to achieve truly regenerative agriculture.