Towards regenerative agriculture: the case of dairy and arable farming in the Netherlands

Summary

The global food system causes severe pressures on the environment. In response, farming approaches that thus far were considered as a niche, are now heralded by industries and governments as mainstream solutions to keep the global food system within planetary boundaries. Regenerative agriculture is one of these farming approaches receiving a lot of attention from actors in the food system. The absence of a clear scientific definition and the low level of consensus on science-based approaches to the monitoring and verification of regenerative agriculture, however, has left many initiatives vulnerable to evidence-based allegations of greenwashing. This thesis, therefore, aims to understand what is meant with regenerative agriculture, to explore how farmers can contribute to regenerative dairy and arable farming, and to determine how success of farming systems towards regenerative agriculture can be monitored.