Regenerative farming could store carbon equivalent to 1.5 years of U.S. emissions

Ecologist Jonathan Lundgren and his team launched the 1,000 Farms Initiative in South Dakota to compare regenerative and conventional farming practices across the United States.

The project uses groups of scientists to collect 500 different types of data from approximately 2,000 farms. Lundgren aims to quantify how shifting to regenerative methods affects carbon storage, biodiversity, water, and farmer economics.

A flagship study published by the initiative shows that advanced regenerative farms stored nearly 40 percent more carbon in their soils than conventional farms during 2022 and 2023. Lundgren notes that if all field crop farms in the U.S. converted to these systems, the cropland soils could hold carbon equal to 1.5 years of the country’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.

The researchers found that carbon levels changed at depths of 60 centimeters, suggesting that life in the soil, such as fungal biomass and invertebrates, drives these results rather than just the parent bedrock. The study also found that while regenerative farms produced slightly lower yields than conventional ones, the net profitability remained equivalent because regenerative systems cost less to operate.

Lundgren argues that regenerative agriculture represents a superior climate solution compared to technology-based carbon capture because it builds soil and biodiversity simultaneously. He believes the primary barrier to widespread adoption is sociological, as it requires farmers to change their personal identities and metrics of success beyond simple economic output.