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During most of its 160 years of existence, White Oak Pastures in Bluffton operated as a conventionally run animal farm. “We employed all of the industrial tools that science has developed to take the costs out of farming, including pesticides, chemical fertilizers, hormones, and antibiotics,” says owner Will Harris. “But we were unwittingly steering our family heritage in a direction that was not environmentally sustainable.” By the mid-1990s, Harris had become disenchanted with the practices of conventional farming. He made the bold decision to go back to the farming practices of his great-grandfather by implementing regenerative land management. “We proactively support nature’s food chain by using only sun, soil, and rain to grow sweet grasses for our cattle, sheep, poultry, and other animals to eat,” says Harris.

RESTARTING NATURE’S CYCLES
Harris describes regenerative farming as “restarting the cycles of nature that were broken by industrial farming.” These include the energy, carbon, mineral, microbe, and water cycles that have coevolved with plants and animals since the earth was formed. “Our passion is to create an environment that allows these cycles to flow freely and bring abundance back to the land,” he says. “We don’t use chemical fertilizer, pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics.”

Regenerative farming isn’t one specific practice; rather, it combines different sustainable agricultural techniques designed to enhance soil health, optimize resource management, improve water quality and availability, and alleviate the effects of climate change. Common techniques include mixed crop rotation, rotational grazing, composting, cover cropping (planting crops for soil protection), reduced tillage, and recycling farm waste. According to the Georgia Department of Agriculture, these practices were used on more than 662,000 acres of the state’s crop-land in 2022, or an average of 186 acres per farm.

For example, complimentary animal species are rotated side-by-side through pastures at White Oak Pastures. This means that cows graze the grass; sheep and goats eat weeds and shrubs; and chickens eat grubs and insects. “All species naturally fertilize the land,” says Harris. “As a result, our soil is again a living organic medium that teems with life.”
Animals at White Oak Pastures are processed in USDA-inspected abattoirs, and all remains are composted and used as organic fertilizers. There’s also a small-scale organic vegetable farm with more than 40 varieties of heritage fruits, nuts, and vegetables. About 20 percent of the vegetable farm’s energy needs are met with solar panels.
White Oak Pastures is a zero-waste farm. Cattle hides are dried for pet chew rawhides or crafted into leather goods while fats are rendered down to create some of the purest tallow products available. The inedible viscera from cattle is composted and used as rich organic fertilizer.

As Harris puts it, the farm de-commoditized, de-industrialized, and de-centralized. “Our products aren’t commodities – they’re our artisan creations,” he says. “We operate as a living ecosystem where humanely treated animals live in symbiotic relationships with each other.”

With a vertically integrated production system, the farm maintains full control over product quality and employs 160 people, making it the largest privately owned employer in Clay County. “My payroll is over $100,000 a week in one of the poorest counties in America,” says Harris.

And although there’s a cost to regenerative farming, he believes it’s worth it. “It’s not the cheapest way to raise animals,” says Harris. “But it’s the right way for the sake of our animals, the environment, and the people who eat our products. Stewardship of our farm isn’t a passing fancy – it’s a lifestyle decision and a core value of our family.”

REAPING THE BENEFITS
Regenerative farming offers numerous benefits to the environment and consumers. For the environment, carbon sequestration helps lower atmospheric carbon dioxide, decreasing the impact on the climate. Practices such as reduced tillage and cover cropping decrease erosion and water pollution, which improves water holding capacity and soil health while also preventing soil degradation. In addition, by enhancing organic content, regenerative farming increases soil moisture and helps prevent drought.

Paul Greive is the founder of Pasturebird, a family farm headquartered in Temecula, California, but with its main farm in Butler, Georgia, that raises chickens on fresh pasture instead of in chicken coops. Chickens are moved daily to increase the amount of green forage and proteins they consume and put into coops at night to protect them from predators. “Daily movement improves soil health, regenerates the pasture, and gives back to the land,” says Greive.

Animal manure is another natural asset highly valued on farms. “Think about how wild bison on the Great Plains would eat grass, then poop, and move on to a new spot,” says Greive. “Over long periods of time, this builds the health of the soil, which becomes more fertile and nutritious every year as the organic matter increases. We’re taking a page out of this book by copying this natural cycle, which lets the land rest.”

Pasture-raised chickens consume a varied diet of bugs, grass, legumes, and grains, which makes them healthier, tastier, and more nutritious. Greive notes that Pasturebird chickens have a higher vitamin, mineral, and fatty acid content than traditional chickens and are non-GMO and antibiotic-free. “With a daily regimen of fresh air, sun-shine, movement, and humane living space, our birds are naturally happy with a strengthened health and immune system,” he says.

It began in 2009, when Greive and his wife, Lynsey, started raising 50 chickens in their backyard after he returned home from active military duty in Iraq. He had contracted Lyme disease overseas and was eating more natural foods to alleviate some of the symptoms. “Most of these foods were easy to find except for chicken, so we decided to raise some ourselves,” he says. What started as a hobby soon became a business, and it really took off when two Los Angeles sports teams—the Lakers and the Dodgers—started buying chicken from the farm in an effort to improve players’ health.

A 95-percent paleo eater and father of four young children, Greive believes everyone should have access to great-tasting, nutritious, and ethically produced food. “My wife and I know how important it is to lead a healthy lifestyle that focuses on wholesome and nutritious foods, so we’re doing our best to make pasture-raised poultry more equitable, accessible, and affordable for more people,” he says. “Life can get complicated, but the food we eat doesn’t have to be.”

GROWING HEALTHIER FOOD
Scott Tyson and his wife, Nicole, started 180 Degree Farm in Sharpsburg after their three-year-old son Mason was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. They resisted chemo-therapy for Mason and instead started doing research, which led to pesticides as a main cancer contributor. “We watched a documentary called The Future of Food and were horrified by the current state of our food,” says Tyson. “Most of the fruits and vegetables we eat are sprayed with two or more chemicals, so we end up consuming a pesticide cocktail.”

The family made radical changes in their diet. “No more eating out four nights a week or cooking meat with a side of meat,” says Tyson. Instead, their diet became mostly vegetables with a small portion of meat. “Changing our diet didn’t cure Mason of cancer, but it gave his body the proper ammunition to heal.”

The Tysons soon asked themselves how they could help others in similar situations. They had started growing their own organic food on a small family farm using regenerative farming practices and decided to form a nonprofit to provide cancer patients with healthy food. The 180 Food Fight Program provides organic, nutrient-dense foods to cancer patients.

Growing healthy organic food starts with the soil. “We’ve invested heavily in our soil and strive to produce the most nutritionally dense fruits and vegetables possible by using regenerative soil methods that cycle nutrients to feed the plants,” says Tyson. “Keeping our soils covered with grasses and legumes feeds the microbes, holds in moisture, and sequesters atmospheric carbon.”

The Tysons also pasture-raise chickens and organic chicken eggs. “The chickens move frequently, which gives them fresh pasture to search for bugs and the most delicious blades of grass,” says Tyson. In addition, 180 Degree Farm has a citrus house where a variety of organic citrus fruits are grown such as Meyer lemons, ruby red grape-fruit, kaffir limes, and clementines.

Their goal is to increase biodiversity, enrich the soil, and enhance the ecosystem. “We do this for one reason: to make us all healthier,” says Tyson.

LISTENING TO THE LAND
For Amy Brown, cofounder of Doc Brown Farm and Dis-tillers in Senoia, regenerative farming means “listening to the land and giving it what it needs, rather than telling the land what to do. We all love caring for the earth,” she says, “and we all love a good dram of bourbon, so we combined these two passions with an eye for farming the way our forefathers did.”

Doc Brown Farm plants non-GMO Jimmy Red corn and Abruzzi rye, avoids harsh chemical pesticides and weed killers, and uses only natural fertilizers. “Our own swarm of bees pollinates the crops, and wild bats patrol the fields at night, keeping insects at bay,” says Brown. “Even the spent grains from our mash head straight to farmers to feed their herds. Nothing is wasted and everything is respected.”

Regenerative farming isn’t new. “Long before chemical fertilizers and big machinery, people farmed with an eye on the seasons, soil, and sustainability,” says Brown. “Indigenous communities rotated crops, used cover plants, and treated the soil like the living thing it is. But over time, we drifted toward industrial farming, which grew a lot of food fast but left the land exhausted. Regenerative farming is a return to the practices that keep the balance intact.”

Brown says consumers increasingly want to support farms that are doing the right thing from a sustainability perspective. “They want a story in their glass—one that respects the earth. When you sip our farm-fresh bourbon made from healthy grains, you’ll taste the difference.”

But, she continues, the practice isn’t a quick fix. The biggest challenges presented by regenerative farming are “patience, time, and money,” she says. “It takes time for the soil to heal and ecosystems to rebound. There’s also the financial challenge because regenerative farming costs more money. But for us, the challenges have been more than worth it.”

Brown sees regenerative farming moving from the niche to the normal. “Consumers are asking harder questions, like ‘Where did this food or beverage come from? How was it grown? What impact did it leave behind?’ I believe the future is a blending of tradition and innovation—heritage seeds in the ground but also data and science to measure soil health and water quality. Or in other words, farming that is profitable and principled.”

This article appears in the Winter 2026 issue of GaBiz.

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