Amidst accelerating climate change and deteriorating soil health, the agricultural sector faces unprecedented challenges. Regenerative agriculture, an approach centered on soil health, biodiversity, and ecosystem resiliency, offers critical tools for building climate resilience, improving long-term soil productivity, and enhancing local food system stability. This report, based on a survey of New Jersey’s regenerative farmers and case studies from other states, identifies key characteristics of these farms and outlines a multi-step policy framework to foster their growth.
New Jersey’s regenerative farmers are notably younger, more diverse in terms of gender and race, and operate on a smaller scale with a strong reliance on direct-to-consumer sales and diversified product mixes, primarily vegetables and value-added goods.
Despite often having lower profit margins and a significant reliance on off-farm income for financial stability, these farmers are proactive in adopting climate-adaptive strategies such as crop diversification and cover cropping. The survey findings highlight critical needs in infrastructure (cold storage, processing equipment, greenhouses), education, and technical assistance, underscoring that financial incentives alone are insufficient to support the sector’s unique challenges and growth potential.
To effectively support this vital sector, New Jersey can implement an integrated policy framework that focuses on a formal definition of regenerative agriculture, targeted financial incentives, robust infrastructure development, comprehensive educational and technical assistance, and improved land access and tenure security.