How to Start Regenerative Farming: A Practical Guide for Farmers Who Care

Patrick Brennan
Jun 17
3 min read

Welcome to Terra Sancta. If you’re here, it means you care deeply about your land, and you want to do right by it.

Maybe you’ve heard the term regenerative agriculture, but aren’t sure where to start. Maybe you're already practicing good stewardship, but want a clearer path to improving your soil, verifying your impact, and joining a movement that’s changing how food is grown. This article is for you.

What Is Regenerative Agriculture?

Regenerative agriculture is more than a buzzword, it’s a method of farming that restores rather than depletes.

It goes beyond organic, beyond sustainable. Regenerative farmers work to actively improve soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem function over time.

At its core, regenerative agriculture means:

Building soil carbon and organic matter
Supporting microbial life and underground ecosystems
Reducing or eliminating synthetic inputs
Growing diverse crops and integrating animals where possible
Tracking improvement with science, not marketing

Regeneration doesn’t happen through wishful thinking, it happens through care, observation, and action.

Why Regenerative Farming Matters

Our modern food system has achieved yield—but at the cost of:

Collapsing soil life
Toxic runoff
Loss of pollinators and biodiversity
Heavy reliance on fossil fuel inputs
Climate instability

Regenerative practices flip that script. When you build healthy soil, you create:

More resilient crops
Reduced input costs
Cleaner water
Healthier food
And the ability to draw carbon out of the atmosphere and back into the ground

You don’t need to be a scientist to be part of the solution. You just need to start.

Who Can Practice Regenerative Farming?

Anyone. Truly. You can be a backyard grower, a small-scale herb farmer, a rancher with 40 acres, or a former conventional grower ready to transition.

Regeneration isn’t about being perfect, it’s about being committed.

It’s a journey of continual learning and measurable growth. At Terra Sancta, we believe that if you're ready to begin, you're already part of the movement.

How to Start Regenerative Farming: Step-by-Step

Let’s walk through the core steps to get started. These are the same principles we use in the Terra Sancta Certification process, but they apply to anyone ready to farm in a better way.

Start with the Soil

Healthy soil is the foundation of everything. It’s not just dirt—it’s alive.

To begin:

Order a Haney Soil Test (or other regenerative-focused test)
Test your main production areas
Review indicators like soil respiration, microbial activity, and organic carbon

👉 Visit our Resource Page for recommended soil labs.

Starting with a test gives you a baseline, your starting point to measure improvement.

Keep the Soil Covered

Exposed soil dries out, erodes, and loses life.

Here’s how to protect it:

Use mulch, compost, or living ground covers
Minimize tillage or disturbance
Grow cover crops between harvests or during off-season

Covered soil is fed soil—and fed soil is living soil.

Feed the Whole System

Don’t just feed the crop, feed the community of organisms that support it.

Try this:

Use compost teas, worm castings, or KNF inputs (like Fermented Plant Juice or LAB)
Rotate animals or use manure to fertilize naturally
Diversify plantings to encourage balance and reduce pests

A farm is an ecosystem, not a factory.

Observe Constantly

Regenerative farming relies on intuition backed by attention.

Walk your land daily or weekly
Journal water flow, plant health, and insect life
Take photos regularly, see what changes over time

Nature is always offering feedback. Listen to it.

Measure, Reflect, Repeat

This is where regeneration becomes powerful: you can prove it.

Retest your soil each year
Document your practices and changes
Celebrate improvements and identify what still needs work

This isn’t just good farming—it’s real accountability.

How Terra Sancta Can Help

If you’re ready to take your farm’s care to the next level, Terra Sancta Certified™ was built for you.

We offer:

Tiered pricing (starting at just $250 for micro-farms)Terra Sancta Certificat…
Required annual soil testing, so certification is built on proof, not just promisesTerra Sancta Certificat…
A supportive onboarding process for farmers at every stage
Story-based reflections, not paperwork
Real reviewers who are also real farmersTerra Sancta Certificat…

You don’t have to “arrive” to apply. You just have to begin.

Final Thoughts: The Land Is Waiting

Regenerative agriculture isn’t reserved for experts.It’s not about certifications, inputs, or checklists.

It’s about showing up for the land with humility, with intention, and with the willingness to improve.

At Terra Sancta, we believe regeneration is a relationship—between you and the earth, between what you grow and how you grow it.

And that relationship starts now.