Mapping Agricultural Lands: From Conventional to Regenerative

Luke Bergmann, Luis Fernando Chaves, Carolyn R. Betz, Serena Stein, Brian Wiedenfeld, Ann Wolf and Robert G. Wallace
Additional contact information
Luke Bergmann: Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, 1984 West Mall–Rm 217, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z2, Canada
Luis Fernando Chaves: Instituto Conmemorativo Gorgas de Estudios de la Salud, Ciudad de Panamá 0816-02593, Panama
Carolyn R. Betz: Midwest Healthy Ag, 6771 South Silver Hill Dr., Finland, MN 55603, USA
Serena Stein: Midwest Healthy Ag, 6771 South Silver Hill Dr., Finland, MN 55603, USA
Brian Wiedenfeld: Midwest Healthy Ag, 6771 South Silver Hill Dr., Finland, MN 55603, USA
Ann Wolf: Midwest Healthy Ag, 6771 South Silver Hill Dr., Finland, MN 55603, USA
Robert G. Wallace: Midwest Healthy Ag, 6771 South Silver Hill Dr., Finland, MN 55603, USA

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 3, 1-41

Abstract: In an era in which conventional agriculture has come under question for its environmental and social costs, regenerative agriculture suggests that land management practices can be organized around farming and grazing practices that regenerate interdependent ecological and community processes for generations to come. However, little is known about the geographies of ‘regenerative’ and ‘conventional’ agricultural lands—what defines them, where they are, and the extent to which actual agricultural lands interweave both or are characterizable by neither. In the context of the Midwest of the United States, we develop and map an index quantifying the degrees to which the agricultural lands of counties could be said to be regenerative, conventional, or both. We complement these results by using a clustering method to partition the land into distinct agricultural regions. Both approaches rely on a set of variables characterizing land we developed through an iterative dialogue across difference among our authors, who have a range of relevant backgrounds. We map, analyze, and synthesize our results by considering local contexts beyond our variables, comparing and contrasting the resulting perspectives on the geographies of midwestern agricultural lands. Our results portray agricultural lands of considerable diversity within and between states, as well as ecological and physiographic regions. Understanding the general patterns and detailed empirical geographies that emerge suggests spatial relationships that can inform peer-to-peer exchanges among farmers, agricultural extension, civil society, and policy formation.

Keywords: regenerative agriculture; sustainability; sustainability indices; composite indices; regional analysis; regional geography; spatial analysis; United States Midwest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/3/437/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-445X/11/3/437/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jlands:v:11:y:2022:i:3:p:437-:d:773758

Access Statistics for this article

Land is currently edited by Ms. Carol Ma

More articles in Land from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().