One Size Fits None: A Farm Girl’s Search for the Promise of Regenerative Agriculture

In Part 4, Anderson introduces Gabe Brown, a mid-size farmer who grows cash grain crops and livestock using regenerative agriculture on Brown’s Ranch in central North Dakota. His model, a diversified farm, is one that she hopes her family’s farm might consider adopting, especially considering her family also manages crops and livestock in a similar environment to Gabe’s farm. Gabe loves soil and strongly believes in the link between soil, human health, and the environment. To him, industrial farming makes the link weak. US food is currently not as nutritious as it should be because of the loss and degradation of soil resources. Gabe’s mission is return the nutrients of soil to what it once was. He advocates for regenerative over sustainable agriculture practices and spends half of the year traveling around the US “preaching the gospel of regenerative farming to other farmers” (188). Gabe did not always practice regenerative agriculture. He and his wife, Shelly, originally farmed conventionally. However, a series of crop losses resulted in Gabe learning how to farm naturally, in part because he could not afford fertilizer, pesticides, or herbicides. Without these inputs, Gabe noticed that his crops started to look better.