One of the biggest things we can do to revolutionize regenerative farming is to focus on perennials!
A plant being perennial means it lives for multiple years and can be harvested each year. Compare this to a plant that seeds and dies every year, and needs to replanted and retilled each year. Perennials are able to grow much longer roots that can feed more of the soil biology, and as a result of their longer life create less soil disturbance and compaction.
This doesn’t mean we should only plant perennials though. The solution is polyculture! This means we need to plant different crops in the same space; both annuals and perennials! Annuals are not bad, but monocultured ecosystems destroy diversity, especially when they are all annual plants that disappear entirely every year. When we use polyculture we emulate nature, and that’s always a good thing. The more biodiversity the better!
