Ranking the Four Food Chains

In order from left to right: Industrial Agriculture, Big Organic, Regenerative Farming & Home Grown

In order to make conscious choices about what you eat, it's critical that you know where your food comes from. There are four main food chains, from massive-scale industrial productions to your backyard garden. The more you can prioritize sourcing your food from small, regenerative farms or by growing it at home, the better food you’ll eat, and the more sustainable and ethical practices you’ll support.

1. Industrial Agriculture :(

Industrial agriculture is the large-scale production of crops and animal products that prioritizes efficiency and lower costs. Practices often involve chemical fertilizers on crops and the routine, harmful use of antibiotics in animals. This way of farming often involves crops that are genetically modified and treated with a heavy use of pesticides, depleting and polluting the land, air, and water.

This type of agriculture also leverages industrialized facilities for raising animals for food, called factory farms. These facilities keep a very large number of live animals confined for more than 45 days per year and brings food into their enclosures rather than allowing them to graze. A large factory farm typically has at least 1,000 beef cattle, 700 dairy cows, 2,500 large pigs, or 82,000 egg-laying hens.

The environmental impacts of industrial crop farming and factory farms are significant. There is soil depletion and soil infertility, soil erosion, water pollution, loss of biodiversity, increased greenhouse gas emissions, and pesticide overuse, and studies show that employees and local communities surrounding industrial and factory farms are exposed to hazardous toxins that can cause severe harm to health.

2. Big Organic :/

Big Organic is a scaled up version of the traditional organic farm, used to supply organic food at massive scale to companies like Whole Foods and supermarket chains. Like traditional organic, Big Organic operations avoid pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. But they’ve also adopted some practices of the industrial agriculture system, including mass production, processing, and long-distance distribution, which use energy, especially fossil fuels.

Big Industrial Organic farms look a lot like industrial farms, with vast acreage devoted to a single crop (a monoculture) such as broccoli, lettuce, or corn. In California, some of the biggest organic operations are actually owned and run by conventional mega-farms.

3. Regenerative Farming :)

Regenerative farming is based on ancient principles to restore and support natural systems. It goes beyond organic farming by laying out principles for improving the land using technologies that regenerate and revitalize the soil and the environment. Regenerative agriculture leads to healthy soil, capable of producing high quality, nutrient dense food, and ultimately leading to productive farms and healthy communities and economies.

Regenerative Agriculture Principles include:

Nurturing relationships within and across ecosystems, including between people, lands, waterbodies, livestock, wildlife, and even microbial life in soil.

Prioritizing soil health by limiting mechanical soil disturbance. Instead, farmers feed and preserve the biological structures that bacteria, fungi, and other soil microbes build underground—which provide above-ground benefits in return.

Reducing reliance on synthetic inputs such as herbicides, pesticides, and chemical fertilizers. Instead, as beneficial insects and wildlife return and diverse crop and livestock rotations disrupt weed cycles, the ecosystem becomes more resilient.

Nurturing communities and reimagining economies by treating farmworkers, apprentices, and other laborers with respect, and to provide on-farm staff with fair wages and a seat at the decision-making table.

4. Homegrown :) :)

According to the EPA, approximately 25 percent of global carbon emissions are caused by the worldwide industrial production of food. We need to get back to supporting a direct connection between how we produce and consume our food. It’s important that people understand how and where their food is grown, what choices impact the nutritional value of their food, and how to obtain it efficiently and cost-effectively.

To that end, here are 6 major benefits of growing your own food:

Reduces carbon emissions: Commercial farming is a highly mechanized practice requiring heavy equipment which uses enormous amounts of fuel for cultivation and transportation, producing significant carbon emissions. If you grow your own food, there are essentially no carbon emissions, and you’re even sequestering carbon in the soil on your property.

Reduces pesticide and fertilizer use: According to the EPA, sales of pesticides in the US total well over $15 billion annually, and over $19 billion for fertilizer. You are actively not supporting the practices of monocultures treated with chemicals when you stop buying industrially produces foods.

Fosters a connection with nature: The act of growing a garden enables you to physically connect with nature by interacting with plants and soil, and directly experiencing all of the elements involved in the growing process. The payoff in being able to harvest and consume what you’ve grown provides a profound sense of satisfaction and a deeper understanding of nature and the cycles of growth.

Provides learning opportunities: When you grow your own garden, you have a learning lab in your own yard, providing you and your family with hours of educational access and the opportunity to learn about nature and our ability to grow our own food.

Provides better nutrition:  When you grow your own garden, you have the ability to manage your soil with the addition of organic compost, minerals, nutrients and biochar, all of which build up the biological life in your soil, giving you the most nutrition possible.

Tastes better: When you take the time to choose the right plant for the right place and rotate your crops so you are growing different things at different times, you’re able to grow happier, healthier plants with more natural sugars for better-tasting food.