Regenerative Trials

Braga Fresh, home of Josie’s Organics made a commitment to harvest and take to market regeneratively grown trial crops; a major step in trialing low soil tillage concept to improve the carbon content in soil.

BRAGA REGENERATIVE CROP TRIALS

2023, Braga Fresh is entering the third year of trialing regenerative practices to better understand the implications and identify the pieces of the concept that may be applied to current commercial farming practices with the goal/focus in mind on reducing soil tillage currently utilized by the industry in vegetable production.

2023 Q1 Regenerative Trials Update Braga Fresh

SUMMARY OF YEAR TWO LEARNINGS

2022 was a year of learning for #TeamBraga, while building awareness with our farming peers and retail partners. This short video summarizes our 2022 research.

LOCATION

The trial program is located on the Braga Home Ranch in Soledad, CA (Salinas Valley) and with success, learnings will be incorporated into our other growing regions.

TRIAL APPROACH

Cover crops, data management, companion plantings, crop rotation, intercropping, water management technology, and soil testing are all the tools and metrics utilized for our trials. All regenerative trails will be grown under the same GMP and LGMA standards.

POTENTIAL IMPACT

Tillage operations currently employed by our industry weakens soil aggregate stability that leads to reductions of soil microorganisms that populate the soil microbiome. We also believe that most common tillage practices utilized by the industry inadvertently increases crop water consumption and creates a need for excess fertilizer. Our overall intent with these regenerative crop trials is to confirm our hypothesis and feasibly shift/change these farming challenges. The objective of our regenerative farming trials is to increase soil carbon and a decrease consumption of diesel fuel that powers the tractors conducting the tillage operation. Those changes would reduce our overall CO2 emissions.

BACKGROUND ON CARBON

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is a greenhouse gas that in part originates from the combustion of fossil fuels. Fossil fuels provide fuel for farm vehicles including tractors. CO2 is utilized by plants as part of the process of photosynthesis. The plant keeps the Carbon component of CO2 and releases oxygen (O2). In agriculture where tillage is employed in, soil aggregate stability is destroyed eventually releasing the Carbon sequestered in plant matter as CO2 back to the atmosphere.

WHAT IS REGENERATIVE FARMING AND ITS IMPACT?

Regenerative agriculture is a variety of sustainable farming principles and practices that seek to reverse climate change by rehabilitating soil organic matter and biodiversity. The focus of regenerative farming on soil health promotes the natural cycle of building carbon content and nutrients in the soil to strengthen photosynthesis in plants for a stronger quality of food.