New Report Identifies “Toxic” Impact of No-Till Agriculture, Inaccurately Referred to as “Regenerative”

As a research-based and farmer-centered organization, Rodale Institute has always followed the science. Supporting producers with proven, evidence-based information is the Institute’s priority and we conduct agricultural research that empowers farmers and ranchers to farm in a way that safeguards their land against practices that deplete their soil and damage their long-term economic outlook.

Historically, the Institute’s scientists have been concerned about the rapid rise in chemical use on the majority of farmland across the United States and more recently its relationship to the rise in no-till farming. Many other farmers, scientists, and agricultural and environmental organizations have also shared this concern.

Rodale Institute has had the opportunity to review a recent report by Friends of the Earth titled Rethinking No-Till: The toxic impact of no-till agriculture on soil, biodiversity, and human health. The findings—which are a review of the scientific literature related to herbicide and insecticide use in no-till farming in the United States—are consistent with Rodale Institute’s decades-long research, including our long-term Farming Systems Trial.

Some of the report’s key findings are:

• One-third of the U.S.’s total annual pesticide use (a term that includes herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides) can be attributed to no- and minimum-till corn and soy production alone.
• 93% of acreage of the top two no- and minimum-till crops, corn, and soy, use toxic herbicides that can have devastating consequences for soil life and human health.
• These chemicals, being broadcast across nearly 100 million acres nationwide, predominantly in the Heartland and Great Plains, have been linked to cancer, birth defects, infertility, neurotoxicity, disruption of the gut microbiome, endocrine disruption, and more. 
• The most predominant of these chemicals are classified as highly hazardous.

Addressing “No-Till” Farming

No-till farming has been promoted as a sustainable method of farming that reduces soil erosion and the carbon footprint of crop production, sequesters carbon in the soil, and can reduce farm labor and therefore increase farm profits. It is accomplished by spraying herbicides to kill weeds and unwanted vegetation prior to planting crops instead of tilling the soil and manages weeds through repeated sprays, if necessary, instead of mechanical cultivation. The majority of the chemicals used are herbicides, but it is sometimes necessary to also increase fertilizer rates and include insecticidal seed coatings after conventional no-till farming is adopted.

The chemicals used to accomplish no-till farming, mostly glyphosate but other chemicals as well, have caused widespread contamination of our environment and our bodies. For example, glyphosate, the most commonly used herbicide, was found in over 70% of all water samples collected across the United States, including rain, and in the urine of over 80% of all Americans tested.

But Rodale Institute has proven there is a better way.

What the Long-Term Research Shows Us

The Institute’s long-term research demonstrates that we can improve soil health and water quality while maintaining crop production without the use of any harmful chemicals by using truly regenerative organic methods even while still tilling the soil. These methods largely include diversified crop rotations, cover crops and green manures as plant-based fertility sources, compost, and reduced tillage but not elimination of tillage.

The most compelling results come from the Farming Systems Trial which is the longest-running side-by-side comparison of organic and conventional crop production in North America. The trial started in 1981 but in 2008, no-till farming was added to the trial and continues today. This includes continuous no-till in the conventional system using herbicide-tolerant GMO corn and soybean varieties and intermittent no-till in the organic systems using cover crops as weed-suppressing barriers. The organic systems still till to plant cover crops. The conventional systems use an herbicide cocktail and include three annual sprays for corn and soybean and two sprays for wheat. Recently, due to herbicide resistance or weeds that are not killed by the herbicides, more herbicides have been added to the cocktail mix and rates increased.

In the past 16 years since the adoption of no-till in the Farming Systems Trial we have found the following:

Soil Health

• After 10 years of no-till there was no change in most soil health indicators between the conventional tilled and conventional no-till system but the no-till fields had significantly higher soil compaction which was nearly twice as severe as the organic fields.
• The greatest differentiator of soil carbon and soil health was between the conventional and organic systems and not between the tilled and no-till plots
• Organic systems had 18-92% higher soil organic carbon despite more tillage in the organic systems compared to the conventional no-till fields.
• Organic systems also had higher microbial biomass carbon, active carbon, and water extractable carbon than the conventional no-till fields.
• Organic had higher water aggregate stability, a measure of soil structure or how well soil holds together when submerged in water and agitated.

Economics

Over a 12-year period:

• Organic farms had equal corn and wheat yields as the conventional.
• No-till in the conventional system reduced total farm costs by 5% compared to the tilled conventional farm, but this was still 7% higher than the total costs for the organic farms. Put another way, diversified, regenerative organic farming had 12% lower costs than the conventional no-till.
• Organic prices were higher for organic crops which led to higher revenues for organic farms.
• Lower total costs and higher revenues in the organic farms led to 7x greater cumulative net returns over the 12 years analyzed.

Chemicals

• Atrazine and Metalochlor are routinely found in the water catchment devices below conventional fields.
• Organic sprayed zero herbicides, insecticides, or fungicides during the last 16 years since no-till farming was added to the trial. In fact, no synthetic pesticides have ever been applied to the organic crops over the entire 45 years of the trial.
• This is the list of herbicides and insecticides applied routinely in the conventional no-till plots – Glyphosate, 2,4-D, Atrazine, S-Metalochlor, Acetochlor, Metribuzin, Sulfentrazine, Bromoxynil, Imadacloprid.
• This is the list of cancers attributed to the use of these chemicals in a recently published comprehensive assessment of pesticide use patterns and cancer rates across the United States – Glyphosate (all cancers, colon, pancreatic), 2,4-D (Bladder), Atrazine (all cancers, colon), S-Metalochlor (All cancers, colon, pancreatic), Acetochlor (all cancers, colon), Metribuzin (all cancers), Sulfentrazine (colon), Bromoxynil (lung), Imadacloprid (bladder, leukemia). Imidacloprid, an insecticidal seed treatment, has also been associated with the risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
• The greatest exposure of these chemicals and therefore risk of disease is to the farming community which routinely handles these chemicals and is exposed to them after application. 

“Regenerative” Should Not Be a Designation for Agricultural Practices that Intentionally Pollute the Environment, Sicken People, and Misuse and Abuse Livestock, Farmers and Farm Workers

No-till agriculture is routinely termed “Regenerative.” Rodale Institute and organic advocates have never separated the health of the soil, environment, and humans. The Institute has used the term “Regenerative” as a guide to remind us that we must develop farming models that not only eliminate the use of chemicals through regulation but also continuously improve soil, water, air, biodiversity, human health, and community while respecting livestock and the people and places dedicated to producing our food and fiber. For this reason, we uphold the use of the word “Regenerative” as the highest form of farming, even differentiating it from standard organic production, and reject the use of the word “Regenerative” to describe any form of agriculture that intentionally pollutes the environment, makes people sick, and misuses and abuses livestock, farmers, and farm workers.

We are grateful to Friends of Earth for their thoughtful and thorough investigation of the impacts of no-till farming on the environment, biodiversity, and human health. There is another path—one where we can feel good about the way we farm and feel good because of the food we eat. That way is regenerative organic farming.