Agricultural landscapes have been reshaped globally to drive unsustainable increases in profit and production. This is contributing significantly to the degradation of planetary systems and the vulnerability of food systems. The discourse coalition that has formed around the storyline of regenerative agriculture (RA) promises to address these issues by transforming food production and repairing ecosystems. The coalition has diverse contributors that interpret RA differently. This diversity will be difficult to retain as RA moves toward discursive structuration and institutionalization. There is a risk that discursive institutionalization might be achieved by shedding the more transformative RA discourses. This paper examines a volunteer-led co-operative, the Institute of Ecological Agriculture (IEA), as a case study on how accreditation systems might be designed to expand RA’s discourse coalition and increase the capacity of those discourses advocating transformation to institutionalize.

This thesis uses action-oriented practice-research to explore regenerative agricultural discourse and its transformative potential. The analysis identifies nine discourses contributing to the over-arching discourse of regenerative agriculture (a discourse coalition). The thesis describes these component discourses and discusses tensions that may make regenerative agriculture vulnerable to co-optation and greenwashing, diluting its transformative potential. Processes of discursive structuration and institutionalisation may result in regenerative agriculture shedding its more transformative elements. Instead, agricultural transformation requires discourses that divest the logic of coloniality and encourage place-sourced, relational interpretations of regenerative agriculture. These need to tell a story that can be globally shared, but locally adapted.

This paper proposes that regenerative agricultural discourse is supported by a shared storyline binding diverse actors and discourses together—a discourse coalition. Consequently, multiple discourses contribute to the over-arching discourse of regenerative agriculture. These discourses are: Restoration for Profit; Big Picture Holism; Regenerative Organic; Regrarian Permaculture; Regenerative Cultures; Deep Holism; First Nations; Agroecology and Food Sovereignty; and Subtle Energies. This paper describes and examines these component discourses and discusses tensions that may make regenerative agriculture vulnerable to co-optation and greenwashing, diluting its transformative potential.

This paper sheds new light on the transformative potential of regenerative agriculture. It illustrates six key characteristics of regenerative agriculture and discusses how it might be able to transform food systems. The paper suggests that regenerative agriculture represents a shared narrative that has the capacity to unite diverse agricultural approaches. Whilst these approaches may differ, by organising and learning together farmers might be powerful enough to shift the status quo and respond to converging crisis such as climate change and biodiversity loss.