Regenerative Ag and Produce Safety, An Intersection

Nick Panicola is the newest member of the Produce Safety Technician team working at the Grand Traverse Conservation District. He spent +5 years working in viticulture and dabbling in diverse vegetable farming and livestock rearing. Along with his experience in the field, he brings a passion for community and connection-making in the pursuit of developing more resilient rural food systems.

My introduction to the concepts of regenerative agriculture slowly trickled into my life during the early, formative years of my career working in the vineyards of Leelanau County. Discussions of doing away with herbicide sprays and trading them for cover-cropped underrows were top of mind for the early adopters, as were daydreamery conversations of sheep grazing in the rows to avoid the burning of more fossil fuels, paired with the added benefit of passive addition of organic matter to improve soil health. I was always intrigued by these conversations; maybe it was because the discussions fulfilled my need for intellectual stimulation or my desire for self-examination in hopes of refining my actions for a better tomorrow. It wasn’t until my time serving with the Michigan Healthy Climate Corps, working alongside the team at Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology, that the wellspring of regenerative agriculture, its knowledge, wisdom, and place in our region, flowed into my life. There was suddenly terminology for these concepts I have been learning in a piecemeal fashion for a handful of years, and a group of people dedicated to a shared, but diverse, vision of what this place could be for the future generations brought forward through the discipline of healing agricultural practices. Stepping into the world of produce safety from this previous world, I see a lot of overlap that can be helpful in our pursuits of a healthier food system. I believe it is worth taking the time to say what some of those connections are and to attempt to grasp at his ethereal, loosely defined term that is so freely thrown around, which we call “regenerative agriculture.”

Well, our friends at MDARD define it as…

 “...an active approach to land management driven by the goal of improving soil health. Rather than a rigid set of rules, it embraces a blend of sustainable farming methods tailored to each farmer’s needs.” (1)

while the organization Kiss the Ground says…

“[It] takes a systems-based, holistic look at the land being stewarded and applies various principles with the goal of making the land more productive and biodiverse over time. In most situations, improving soil health and function is the key to improving productivity and biodiversity.” (2)

There is certainly some overlap between definitions, and we can see an emphasis on soil health, biodiversity, and an acknowledgement of flexibility to address the unique needs of individual farms, but it doesn’t really give us a clear answer, which is difficult, especially when many of our growers are transitioning out of the rigid structure of twentieth-century agricultural practices. Regenerative agriculture outsources these answers to the land, relying heavily on the observation skills and knowledge of individual farmers to make the right decisions for the land and with the land. In a way, it resembles more of a philosophy than a management plan. Regenerative agriculture, to me, is an orientation of being.

That being said, there is tangible evidence and continually expanding research that shows the principles of regenerative agriculture not only have immense benefits for the health of our bioregion but also play a role in the health and safety of the food that we grow.

Biodiversity… is a cornerstone of regenerative agriculture thinking and prioritizes diversification and increasing the complexity of organisms that live within a system, increasing the overall resilience of the ecosystem to external stressors like flooding, drought, disease, and pests. As biodiversity has decreased throughout the globe, along with additional factors like habitat degradation and climate change, we have started to see an increased level of pathogenesis in human and nonhuman populations. (4) Through competition and cooperation between organisms, this diversity can act as an active challenge to any harmful human pathogens from developing an unnaturally high population due to a biological imbalance and posing a risk to the health of the consumer. This stands in stark contrast to the normative monocropping systems we have heavily relied on for generations, which can leave niches and gaps in the biosphere for opportunistic colonization by harmful organisms. Biodiversity can be accomplished in many ways, whether through crop diversification, establishing pollinator habitat, or staggering tree varieties or species in an orchard row. However it may be implemented, taking into account the needs of each growing operation, the core principle stands that when we make room for others, the health of the whole benefits. (Though we must do this in the safest and most conscientious manner we can.)

Soil health… is deeply interwoven with biodiversity and in many ways is the outcome of a properly managed and diverse ecosystem. In recent years, there has been a continual focus in academia and agricultural communities on the impact that soil health has on the health of our crops. Healthier soils stabilise water availability in the face of inconsistent weather patterns, provide greater access to nutrients and support nutrient cycling, aid in the defence against pests and diseases, and conveniently support a positive feedback loop to even greater biodiversity. (5) This soil health moves up the foodshed, nurturing healthier plants, healthier food, and healthier people. While research is still in development on the direct links soil health has to the mitigation of human pathogens in the soil, it follows current scientific thought that a more abundant and balanced soil environment would provide a biological checks and balances system that moderates soil and soil adjacent microbial populations. Similar to the biodiversity example, we are making space for non-pathogenic microbes (a.k.a. “Good microbes) and supporting their abundant presence on the farm. A pre-colonized environment, whether in the soil or on the surface of produce, makes it harder and acts as a barrier to establishment from pathogenic microorganisms. This is worth keeping in mind when planning out your farm's food safety management plan, as an investment in the soil biology can have positive benefits to the biology of your soil, your crops, and your farm's natural microflora.

While biodiversity and soil health in themselves cannot eliminate food safety risks, and this is the point where I further emphasise the importance of proper produce safety practices, they certainly can act as an additional method of protection. Overall, regenerative agriculture is a wonderful tool to employ in conjunction with good produce safety practices. While we continue to navigate what it means to farm in our rapidly changing world, it is important to remember that an investment in the land is an investment in the future of our ability to continue providing healthy and safe food for our families and communities. Regenerative agriculture is no way a fix-all solution, but a tool which we can use to nurture the health of our plants, our soils, our regions, and, of course, the safety of our produce.

References:

1. “Regenerative Agriculture.” Michigan.gov, 2024, www.michigan.gov/mdard/environment/regenerative-agriculture.

2. “Guide to Regenerative Agriculture.” Kiss the Ground, 2 July 2024, kisstheground.com/education/resources/regenerative-agriculture/#whatisregen. Accessed 12 Nov. 2024.

3. Schmeller, Dirk S., et al. “Biodiversity Loss, Emerging Pathogens and Human Health Risks.” Biodiversity and Conservation, vol. 29, 13 Aug. 2020, pp. 3095–3102,

4. Kabato, Wogene, et al. “Managing Soil Health for Climate Resilience and Crop Productivity in a Changing Environment.” Science of the Total Environment, vol. 1000, 15 Sept. 2025, p. 180460,