Regenerative Grazing as a Climate Change Mitigation Strategy: A Systematic Review

Ruminant livestock production is a meaningful contributor to global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Regenerative grazing has been proposed as a climate change mitigation strategy for offsetting livestock GHG emissions by potentially causing additional soil organic carbon (SOC) sequestration. We review the current state of the literature and collect reported and inferred SOC sequestration from regenerative grazing experiments, ranking their study designs by ascending evidentiary strength: observational, cross-sectional and longitudinal. Across 28 studies that compare regenerative to conventional grazing, the reported and inferred SOC sequestration rates in regenerative grazing treatments varied widely, with the highest values reported in lower-strength observational studies. Among higher-strength cross-sectional studies and longitudinal studies, median additional SOC sequestration rates in regenerative grazing treatments were not significantly different than zero, indicating no significant enhancement of SOC across all regenerative grazing interventions. Currently, higher-strength evidence does not support widespread claims of SOC sequestration from regenerative grazing. To clarify its potential for climate mitigation, a greater number of longitudinal studies are needed.