再生農業の経済学：米国農務省農業研究局
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このインタビュー記事が扱っているのは、再生農業という概念の定義とその経済的評価の難しさです。実体として確認できるのは、土壌科学者ミシェル・カヴィジェリ氏が米国農務省の長期圃場試験（FSP）で、不耕起や被覆作物などの具体的な農業慣行とその経済・環境パフォーマンスを比較するデータを蓄積している事実です。しかし、問題は「再生農業」という物語の定義が人によって異なり、統一された基準がない点にあります。有機農業と異なり、法的な定義がないため、「何をすれば再生農業と言えるのか」という物語のフレームが不安定です。この定義の曖昧さが、物語欠落の構造を生んでいます。つまり、実体としての科学的データは存在するものの、それを「再生農業」という一貫した物語で説明し、市場や政策に期待として伝えるための共通言語が不足しているのです。結果として、企業や投資家は「再生農業」というラベルに期待先行で飛びつく一方、その効果を検証するKPIが定まらず、実体と期待の間に乖離が生まれやすくなっています。
Reaping the Rewards of Healthy Soil Michel Cavigelli is a soil scientist at the Sustainable Agricultural Systems Laboratory in Beltsville, MD. His research focuses on nutrient cycling and agronomic, economic, and environmental performance of diverse cropping systems. Welcome Dr. Cavigelli to Under the Microscope. UM: What is regenerative agriculture? How is it different from other approaches, like conventional, organic, sustainable, permaculture, etc.? MC: It seems to be defined differently by different people. It is based on the goal of regenerating soil which, to me, implies minimizing tillage, maximizing the amount of time there are growing roots in the soil, and adding organic amendments to the soil (manures, crop and cover crop residues). Specific practices that would be considered regenerative include: no-tillage or conservation tillage, cover crops, perennial crops, and increased cropping systems diversity. These practices are in line with the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)’s soil health principles. A large part of my work is research on a long-term field experiment, the Farming Systems Project (FSP), which is part of the USDA-ARS LTAR Network. There, we have five cropping systems that allow us to test and compare various aspects of regenerative agriculture. Regenerative is different from organic, because organic is explicitly defined by the National Organic Program of USDA, and prohibits many specific products. However, the philosophical basis of organic agriculture is to optimize soil health, so in that sense, regenerative agriculture shares a common goal with it. UM: Why are we researching regenerative agriculture? What does it offer that isn’t available in other approaches? MC: Regenerative agriculture considers the ecosystem services that agricultural systems could provide, in addition to providing food (and fiber). Historically, we focused almost exclusively on food (and fiber) production in agricultural research. Now that there is a
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