Regenerative Agriculture

What is regenerative Agriculture?

“Regenerative Agriculture is a system of farming principles and practices that increases biodiversity, enriches soils, improves watersheds, and enhances ecosystem services. Regenerative Agriculture aims to capture carbon in soil and aboveground biomass, reversing current global trends of atmospheric accumulation. At the same time, it offers increased yields, resilience to climate instability, and higher health and vitality for farming and ranching communities. The system draws from decades of scientific and applied research by the global communities of organic farming, agroecology, Holistic Management, and agroforestry.”

Here at Hunger Mt. Hemp, we believe strongly about protecting our planet.  One of the simple ways we can help do this is with the use of chickens on our farm. Chickens provide us with several benefits which makes them a perfect complement to our farm. They provide us with food, they make fertilizer for our soil, they help us reduce our waste and they are fun to watch.

Eggs are delicious! The best part about having chickens is of course the fact that we have an endless supply of eggs to eat. And these are not just any eggs, these eggs truly taste better than any other eggs we have ever had in our lives! We get a great circle of life here as the chickens eat our food waste and then in turn provide us with more food to eat!

Chickens love to eat food scraps. Most of the food we provide for our chickens comes from food scraps and excess from the veggie garden. This is great for two reasons. Number one, it reduces the amount of food waste that would otherwise be going to a landfill. We collect food scraps from several households to feed to our chickens. They prefer this over any other processed chicken food that we have found. Secondly it reduces the amount of store-bought food that we would need to keep our chickens happy. The eggs just seem to taste better when they are eating food scraps, so that is cool too.

Chickens poop…a lot. Not only do our chickens provide us with food and help reduce our waste, but they also provide us with some especially important fertilizer. Chicken manure is extremely high in nitrogen and contains a good amount of potassium and phosphorus. For this reason, chicken manure is an excellent fertilizer in our hemp fields. We spread tons of chicken manure over our fields each year to not only help provide our plants with the nutrients they need to grow, but it is also an excellent way to help build our soil for the future.

Although not a direct benefit to the Earth but chickens are hilarious. They have personalities and have become part of the farm; some have even gotten names. They like to chase our small children and peck your feet when you’re not looking which provides a nice lighthearted break from the hard work of operating a farm.