Cultivating the Future:Renewable Energy & Agriculture

How Regenerative Agriculture and Renewable Energy Are Shaping a Sustainable World

The global population is ballooning. This is putting an unprecedented strain on our natural resources, including soil and water. We are at-risk of depleting our natural resources faster than they can recuperate. We stand at the intersection of multiple comprehensive problems simultaneously. There is a need to feed the growing population and provide materials for medicine, construction, clothing, and more. At the same time, we need to conserve our natural resources to ensure the longevity of our planet and its natural systems. What’s more, we need energy for electricity, transportation, heating and cooling our homes, and many additional aspects of modern society.

How can we create enough clean energy infrastructure to meet the needs of billions of people, while feeding this population nutritious food, while conserving the planet and its natural resources? Another layer to that question is, how can we address these emerging challenges without burdening producers OR consumers with additional costs?

The answer to sustaining food and energy security for this growing population without seriously degrading the environment lies on agricultural land. Renewable energy and regenerative agriculture go hand-in-hand in managing changing climate conditions and providing food and fuel for the populace in a way that does not further degrade soil. Together, they represent a powerful synergy that could transform our future, addressing both ecological degradation and the need for clean energy systems.

Regenerative Agriculture: Nurturing the Land

Regenerative agriculture is a comprehensive approach to agricultural production that goes beyond sustainability. It aims to restore and enhance the health of the soil, increase biodiversity, improve water quality and availability, and improve ecosystem resilience. Unlike conventional agricultural techniques, which often deplete soil nutrients and rely heavily on chemical inputs, regenerative agriculture focuses on soil health, biodiversity, and carbon sequestration. By restoring the land’s natural processes, regenerative agriculture not only improves food security but also enhances environmental resilience.

The Top 5 Principles of Regenerative Agriculture are:

Minimize the physical, biological, and chemical disturbance of the soil
Keep the soil covered with vegetation or natural material
Increase plant diversity
Keep living roots in the soil as much as possible
Integrate animals into the farm as much as possible

There are ample economic benefits of regenerative agriculture as well. Improved soil health can lead to higher crop yields, better forage quality for animals, and increased resiliency to pests, drought, or floods. Additionally, cost savings from reduced use of synthetic fertilizers, herbicides, insecticides, and antibiotics can also have a positive impact on farm profitability. Regenerative agriculture is a comprehensive approach to sustaining the environment and the economic viability of farming.

Renewable Energy: Powering a Green Future

Renewable energy sources, including solar and wind, provide a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels. They offer several key benefits, including reduction of GHGs, energy independence, economic growth, and climate resilience. Technological advancements and decreasing costs have made renewable energy more accessible than ever. Solar panels, wind turbines, and other technologies are becoming commonplace, driving a transition to a low-carbon economy. There is ample opportunity to install renewable energy on agricultural land which can directly benefit the farm or ranch and its surrounding community.

Traditional energy sources like coal, oil and natural gas are nonrenewable, therefore finite. Furthermore, the existing means of producing these raw materials pose serious health and environmental risks in their extraction and distribution. Not only can renewable energy provide benefits to the environment, but transitioning away from fossil fuels can be beneficial for human health and can increase energy security. Installing renewable energy at the commercial scale to support individual farm operations as well as regional farm suppliers and buyers can benefit producer income by saving costs for their operation or selling excess energy to the local power grid. While industrial scale renewable projects are often demonized as taking land away from farmers, there are paths forward to ensure that these projects also benefit local farmers.

The Intersection: Regenerative Agriculture and Renewable Energy

The convergence of regenerative agriculture and renewable energy holds remarkable potential. Each is proven to be ecologically- and economically-sound. They complement each other in a few different ways:

Energy Efficiency in Farming: Regenerative practices can reduce the energy needs of farms. For instance, healthier soils can lead to better crop yields and reduced reliance on other farm inputs which are often energy-intensive to produce.
On-Farm Renewable Energy: Farms can integrate renewable energy systems, such as solar panels or wind turbines, to power operations. This reduces reliance on fossil fuels and lowers energy costs, making farming more sustainable and resilient. Furthermore, surplus energy can be sold back to the grid in some areas, creating additional revenue.
Carbon Market Opportunities: Regenerative farms can generate carbon credits through both offsets and insets, creating additional revenue for the operation.
Synergistic Land Use: Combining renewable energy installations with regenerative farming practices can maximize land use. For example, solar panels can be installed on the roofs of farm buildings, or wind turbines can be placed in areas that are not used for crops, allowing both systems to coexist and benefit each other.

As of 2021, agricultural land accounted for 44.4% of land area in the United States. Globally, that statistic is closer to 38%. Agricultural land refers to the share of land area that is arable, under permanent crops, and under permanent pastures. It can be used as cropland, as well as meadows and pastures for grazing livestock. Given the abundance of opportunities for renewable energy to benefit farms, and the high proportion of global land use dedicated to agriculture, the harmony between the two is apparent.

During our trip to Isbell Farms in August 2024, we got to see renewable energy on farmland in action. Isbell Farms, located in England, AR, is a multi-generational family farm with a focus on the sustainable production of quality rice. Solar panels installed on otherwise unproductive land are used to power their operation and homestead. There is great potential for small and large farms representing all commodity types to implement a renewable energy system that fits their needs. RIPE is committed to improving accessibility to regenerative agriculture and renewable energy for farmers and ranchers.

In recent years, great progress has been made in the installation of renewable energy systems on agricultural lands, though there is still ample room to grow. Check out some statistics about renewable energy and agriculture:

The number of farms using renewable energy grew 15% from 2017-2022.
76% of farms with renewable energy systems reported using solar panels, a 30% increase since 2017.
In total, energy use in the agriculture, fisheries and aquaculture sectors contributed around 0.93 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emissions in 2021. 95% of these emissions were CO2, which come from the use of electricity (45.8%), petroleum products (38.4%), coal (11.6%) and fossil gas (3.3%).
Farmers that adopted renewable cooling technologies experienced up to a 40% increase in income.

The RIPE Approach

The integration of regenerative agriculture and renewable energy represents a transformative opportunity for a sustainable future. By restoring the health of our soils through regenerative practices and transitioning to renewable energy systems, we can create a more resilient and equitable world. As we continue to explore and expand these practices, our hope is that they become mainstream solutions, driving us toward a healthier planet and a thriving future for generations to come.

RIPE wants to see these solutions become mainstream, and is dedicated to unifying and amplifying the voices of American producers to make it so. Scaling regenerative agriculture and renewable energy the RIPE Way means fairly compensating producers who voluntarily implement these practices. Making progress toward our goals wouldn’t be possible without input from producers, and we aim to be as far-reaching and impactful as possible. Learn more about getting involved with RIPE.

In the journey toward sustainability, every step counts. Whether you’re a farmer, an energy producer, or simply an advocate for change, there’s a role for everyone in cultivating a future where both our environment and energy systems are in alliance. Let’s embrace this vision and work together to make it a reality.

References

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (2020, May 7). Land use in agriculture by the numbers. Sustainable Food and Agriculture. https://www.fao.org/sustainability/news/detail/en/c/1274219/

McGee, B. (2020, March 27). Regenerative Agriculture. Ask an Expert: What’s Regenerative Agriculture? https://www.cbf.org/issues/agriculture/regenerative-agriculture.html

Odo, M. (2024, February 27). Census of agriculture: Use of renewable energy and no-till farming rises. https://thesustainabilityalliance.us/census-of-agriculture-number-of-farms-falls-renewable-energy-use-rises/

REN21: Renewables Now. (n.d.). Renewables in agriculture. Renewables in Energy Demand: Global Trends. https://www.ren21.net/gsr-2024/modules/energy_demand/04_renewables_in_agriculture/

United States – agricultural land (% of land area)2024 data 2025 forecast 1961-2021 historical. United States – Agricultural Land (% Of Land Area) – 2024 Data 2025 Forecast 1961-2021 Historical. (n.d.). https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/agricultural-land-percent-of-land-area-wb-data.html