Our approach
Regeneration is not a state we've reached.
We embrace both scientific and practical knowledge in our approach to improve our land and engage with our community. We're always learning new things as we read, listen, and implement relevant agricultural practices.
Land condition
Starting with what the soil tells us
Ali-Härri covers 88 hectares in Kuusjoki, Southwest Finland: 56 hectares of arable land, 24 hectares of productive forest, and 8 hectares of field margins and buffer zones. The soils are predominantly silty clay, fine-textured and slow to drain. After nearly four decades of conventional grain production, the land shows the marks of that history: compaction from heavy machinery, limited organic matter, and reduced water infiltration. These are common patterns across Finnish farmland, not unique to our farm.
The farm sits in the Halikonjoki watershed, where the Kuusjoki River runs through our land, flows into the Halikko River and out to the Finnish Archipelago Sea. This coastline is Finland's last remaining HELCOM pollution hotspot, designated due to agricultural nutrient runoff. Across the Baltic, agriculture is the single largest source of the nitrogen and phosphorus loading that drives eutrophication. What we do on these fields affects water quality downstream. That connection shapes every decision we make about inputs, soil cover, and nutrient management.
When we took over in January 2025, the fields had been free of conventional inputs for five years. A neighbouring organic cattle farmer had grown grain and hay for silage.
Following the permaculture principles, we observed our land throughout the seasons. We made notes of frost, wind direction, pooling water. We captured aerial views of the fields and walked the land with a notebook. We wanted to understand what this land needs before deciding what to do with it. That process of listening led us to the frameworks we now work with: regenerative agriculture, agroecology, and holistic management. Each does different work. Together, they guide how we farm.
Regenerative agriculture
Practices that leave the land better each year
Regenerative agriculture means choosing context-specific farming practices that leave the land measurably better each year. It is defined by outcomes, not by a fixed set of rules. Compared to a degenerative system, a regenerative system actively builds soil organic matter, supports a functioning soil microbiome, increases biodiversity, and improves water cycling.
The term has gained traction globally, but it is not new. Its roots lie in the work of soil scientists, farmers, and thinkers who observed that industrial agriculture was undermining the systems it depends on. In the scientific literature, regenerative agriculture is increasingly recognised as a systems-based response to soil degradation, biodiversity loss, and climate instability. Farmers and agricultural advisors like Gabe Brown, whose ranch in North Dakota demonstrated that degraded land can be profitably restored without chemicals, and Nicole Masters, whose work on soil microbiology connects ecological science to farm-level practice, have shaped how a growing number of farmers understand their relationship with the land.
We participated in Richard Perkins' Regenerative Masterclass (2025), which provided both the theoretical and practical review of regenerative agriculture practices. It was here we were first introduced to the concept of holistic management and understood the potential of diverse enterprises and stacked functions that support both the ecology and profitability of the farm.
The five soil health principles provide the ecological foundation for how we farm. They emerged from decades of soil science research and have been adopted across regenerative agriculture worldwide. In the United States, the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) played a central role in codifying these principles and promoting them as practical guidance for farmers. They are not prescriptive, but rather design principles that adapt to local conditions.
The five soil health principles
1. Minimise disturbance
No-till and minimal mechanical disturbance. Protect the soil structure and microbial networks that make soil function.
2. Keep the soil covered
Residue, living plants, or mulch. Never bare soil.
3. Maintain living roots
Feed soil biology year-round through active root systems.
4. Increase diversity
Diverse plants and animals build resilient, productive systems.
5. Integrate livestock
Grazing animals cycle nutrients, build soil biology, and maintain the grassland ecosystems that sustain them.
On our silty clay soils in Southwest Finland, adaptation is essential. Heavy soils compact easily. The growing season is roughly 180 days. Maintaining living roots year-round means working with the seasons. Winters bring frost, snow, and waterlogged fields. Cover cropping is challenging when the ground freezes in November. Each principle must be interpreted for this latitude, this soil type, and this climate.
We will never use glyphosate or synthetic herbicides on this land. We do not use synthetic fertilisers. These are not temporary restrictions tied to a certification timeline. They are permanent commitments rooted in the soil health principles. Chemical inputs disrupt the microbial communities that make soil function. They solve short-term problems while creating long-term dependency. We manage weeds, fertility, and pest pressure through biological means: diverse rotations, ground cover, grazing, and compost.
This commitment has costs. Weed management takes more labour. Building fertility takes more time. We accept those trade-offs because the alternative, a soil system dependent on external inputs, is not regeneration.
Agroecology
Science, practice, and social movement
Agroecology is often described as simply the application of ecology to agriculture. But it is more than that. In a widely cited 2009 review, Alexander Wezel and colleagues at ISARA Lyon traced the evolution of the term across eight decades and identified three co-existing meanings: agroecology as a scientific discipline, as an agricultural practice, and as a social and political movement. These dimensions developed together, influenced one another, and continue to shape how farming systems are understood and transformed around the world.
We draw on all three. The science informs how we understand our soils, our pastures, and the ecological relationships between them. The practice shapes what we do each day on the land. The movement connects our work to a broader commitment to food sovereignty, local food systems, and community-rooted agriculture. Agroecology sees the farm as part of a larger living system, ecological and social, that we work to strengthen.
The science
Agroecology studies how plants, animals, soils, water, and people interact within farming systems. It integrates ecological science with agronomy and social science to understand how farms function as ecosystems.
The practice
Agroecological practice favours diversified, low-input farming systems adapted to local conditions. It includes polycultures, integrated pest management, nutrient cycling through livestock, and farmer-led experimentation and adaptation.
The movement
Agroecology is also a social and political movement advocating for food sovereignty, farmer autonomy, and community-rooted food systems. It challenges the concentration of power in industrial food chains and supports local, decentralised alternatives.
At Wiberg's, agroecology shapes how we think about the farm's role in its community. We sell directly to households and restaurants because short supply chains keep value within the community and build trust between producer and consumer. We invite visitors because we want people to reconnect with where their food comes from and we're not afraid to show them. We collaborate with other producers because a resilient food system is not built by one farm alone.
We see our farm as an ecosystem, where the enterprises we're building in the future seek to reinforce one another biologically, operationally, and financially. Hens improve pasture. Pasture feeds cattle. Compost feeds the garden. The garden feeds the community. Our enterprises are not separate businesses, but rather parts of one system designed to cycle nutrients, spread risk, and create value at every stage.
Holistic management
A decision-making framework
Every farm runs on decisions. About land, livestock, money, time, and people. We use holistic management as our decision-making framework to ensure we don't make these decisions based on habit, short-term economics, or the advice of someone who doesn't understand our farm.
Holistic management is a systems-thinking approach developed by Allan Savory. It provides a decision-making process that tests each choice against the whole of what a farm is managing toward: not just profit or production, but the land, the people, and the long-term resource base together. It asks a simple question before every significant action: does this move us toward what we've defined as important, or away from it?
The approach is not prescriptive. It does not tell you what to plant, how many animals to graze, or when to harvest. It gives you a process for making those decisions yourself, in your own context, with your own values. That is what makes it useful on a farm like ours, where conditions change seasonally, annually, and across enterprises.
At the heart of holistic management is the holistic context: a written description of three things. First, the quality of life you want for yourself, your family, and your team. Second, the forms of production on the farm that support that quality of life. Third, the future resource base you need to sustain these things over time. We have defined ours. It begins with a statement of purpose:
We farm to provide sustenance and create opportunities for meaningful engagement with our community, in a way that fosters learning, adventure, creativity, and gratitude.
This purpose includes commitments to financial independence, animal welfare, self-care, and community contribution. Our holistic context describes the products, processes, and outcomes we need to achieve the life we want.
We use this as a governance tool. Every significant decision on the farm, from which enterprise to start first to whether to buy a piece of equipment, gets tested against it. Does this support our quality of life or undermine it? Does it strengthen the resource base or deplete it? If a decision passes these tests, we proceed. If it doesn't, we look for alternatives.
Holistic management is not a philosophy we admire from a distance. It is a practice we use and reference often.
Measuring what matters
Data, not claims
Regeneration without measurement is just a word. In agriculture, Measurement, Reporting, and Verification (MRV) is the process of measuring ecological outcomes, reporting them in a standardised way, and having them independently verified. It is how farms move from claims to demonstrable evidence.
We are enrolled in Climate Farmers' Regenerative Agriculture Outcome Measurement programme for a period of three years. Climate Farmers is a European network supporting farms in regenerative transition. We are one of twelve transition farms selected across Europe. The programme provides a structured framework for establishing baselines, monitoring changes in soil and ecosystem indicators, and documenting outcomes over time. We are working with an agronomist through the programme to translate regenerative principles into field-level practices suited to our soils and climate.
We're in the early stages of planning our approach to tracking soil organic matter, aggregate stability, water infiltration rates, and biological activity. We're eager to work with interested advisors and researchers to ensure we are monitoring what matters.
If it works, we'll show you. If it doesn't, we'll say that too.
We also intend to have our food independently tested for nutritional quality. Once our first flock is laying, we will commission laboratory analysis of our eggs and publish the results. We want to know whether pastured eggs from regenerative land differ measurably in nutrient composition from conventional eggs. If they do, we'll share the data. If they don't, we'll share that too.
We welcome engagement from researchers, students, and institutions interested in regenerative agriculture in the Nordic context. Ali-Härri is a working farm in active transition, with baseline data, documented management practices, and a willingness to collaborate. If your work intersects with ours, we would be glad to hear from you.
It's a process we've committed to.