The ReAgro conference has come to an end.
But there is a feeling in the air that the big conversation about the future of our land is only just beginning.
What ReAgro was really about
A lot happened over these two days: presentations, figures, soil, money, technology. We talked about systems, approaches, and solutions. But the most valuable thing is what doesn’t always make it into presentations and can’t be measured by slides.
It was a round table discussion about “expensive mistakes,” where people talked about lost money and failed schemes as openly as they usually talk about successes. A panel discussion about thinking.
These were conversations in the corridors, where people did not measure themselves by their achievements, but sincerely tried to understand each other’s experiences.
The environment, not just the idea
Throughout the conference, I caught myself thinking: regenerative agriculture in Ukraine is no longer a “trendy trend” or an experiment by a few individuals. It is an environment. It is alive, diverse, sometimes inconvenient, but real.
The hall was filled with farmers who had been through hell:
those who lost their farms because of the war;
those who started from scratch on deoccupied lands;
those who defended these lands with weapons and are now restoring them biologically.
When you see such a concentration of resilience, you realize that this environment can no longer be stopped.
The future of work
Perhaps most importantly, ReAgro had a tangible future. Not a grandiose or declarative one, but a real, “working” one. One that is being built gradually – through daily decisions, acknowledged mistakes, responsibility, and, most importantly, through time.
The symbolic conclusion to this conversation was the participation of Gabe Brown, a farmer from North Dakota who has been working with regenerative systems for over 30 years.
His experience only reinforced the feeling that we are not talking about a trend or a theory, but about a path that works in different countries and in very different conditions.
I am grateful to all the speakers, participants, and everyone who was part of this conversation over the past two days.
For me, ReAgro is not a past event.
It is a direction in which we are now moving together.
There is a lot of work ahead of us. But now we know exactly what we are working towards.
