A Comprehensive List Of Peer Reviewed Articles and Case Studies Supporting Regenerative Agriculture

Hi again Permies,

I have created a very thorough resource containing all of the best mainstream scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of Regenerative Agriculture. Many of the articles are supporting Permaculture practices, but do not specifically mention the word Permaculture. There are hundreds of peer reviewed articles. A bunch of them are specifically about Holistic Management, too.

Anyways, check it out. And the next time someone demands that you "provide references" simply direct them to this page! That should shut them up.

http://sheldonfrith.com/2015/12/02/evidence-for-regenerative-agriculture/

I have also organized some of the evidence to support these three statements:

"Regenerative Agriculture is more profitable." (this is more of a reference to Holistic Management, not Permaculture, haha.)
"Regenerative Agriculture is more productive."
"Regenerative Agriculture really does regenerate land."

So if you ever want to provide evidence to support those statements you can find it here.

Enjoy. Don't be timid as you spread the word about Permaculture... it works and we can prove it a thousand times in a hundred different ways!!!

Awesome, Sheldon! Thanks for doing this work!

This is terrific, and I encourage everyone to check out the rest of Sheldon's website , as it is similarly awesome.

Wow... very good work, Sheldon :) Can't wait to get into those reports (I hope Gabe Brown is in there somewhere :) Thanks!

And ditto to Julia's mention of Sheldon's website -- lots more fascinating info.... great bedtime reading :)

Be careful: a lot of this is not peer reviewed, and where it has you can't necessarily state that it supports what any one of us is doing or might be doing. A lot is difficult to generalise.

This list is useful, but I don't think it should be overstated.

Neil is right, some of the links are not peer reviewed. But almost everything under the heading "Peer Reviewed" is, and there is lots.
I have included non-peer reviewed links when they provide sufficient evidence to be almost undisputable.
If you search through the "compendiums of evidence for regenerative agriculture" you will literally find hundreds of peer reviewed articles.

Sure, not all of them will apply to your farm/operation.

The trouble is a lot of it is actually about stuff vaguely to do with regenerative agriculture, not studies necessarily it: some of it is, and some of it isn't. A list like this has as much potential to damage the principles of regenerative agriculture as it does to support it.

You may be right Neil. I definitely agree that some of the information could be curated better, to support various conclusions about regenerative agriculture, instead of just lumping all sorts of different types of articles together. But I strongly disagree that "a list like this has as much potential to damage the principles of regenerative agriculture as it does to support it."

I guess time will tell who is right.

Excellent resource. Anyone know of peer reviewed papers dealing with humanure and urine reuse in agriculture?

Sheldon, I would like to hug you and give oodles of thanks for compiling this list. I can't count how many times Facebook friends have called bullshit on the things I say and state that there are no peer reviewed articles and case studies supporting regenerative agriculture. I see a whole bunch of malarkey coming from some of them soon in a sad attempt to stand their ground against this compendium you have shared with us.