The ‘Subtle Energies’ storyline in regenerative agriculture

There are nine different stories of regenerative agriculture that I identified in my PhD research. These stories impact the way people interpret, talk about and practice regenerative agriculture. They are consequently important for understanding debates about how regenerative agriculture should be defined and measured. Each story comes from a different agricultural lineage (e.g., organics, holistic management or permaculture) and subsequently emphasizes different things when defining regenerative agriculture. This blog post is an extract from my recent publication in Sustainability Science. You can read the paper here for more information: Regenerative agriculture: a potentially transformative storyline shared by nine discourses

Artwork by Hannah Cox of Nanny Potts Illustration. Subtle Energies works with the non-material dimensions of farming systems. In this artwork we see a farmer using their dowsing rods to tap into the vibrational energies of the landscape.

In the Subtle Energy storyline, regenerative agriculture is a practice that works with the invisible or non-material dimensions of farming systems to connect with the intelligence of nature and restore energy imbalances

The Subtle Energies storyline recognises an invisible or non-material dimension in farming systems (Wright 2021). Wright (2021, p. xxix) explains this as “involving vibrational energy, consciousness, ether, sentience/intelligence and/or electromagnetic or sound waves/frequencies.” There is a lineage of animism in this story/type, a belief that “the natural world is ‘inspirited’—that is, inhabited by nature spirits” (Massy 2021, p. 306). Participant 14 said, “I’ve had conversations with plants and animals in my journeys that lead me to believe that everything is conscious, even the rocks are conscious.” It was not until participant 14 started studying shamanism that they understood how nature was trying to communicate with them.

This type of regenerative agriculture can conflate Subtle Energies with quantum physics. Participant 5 said, “the subtle energy and the quantum physics side of agriculture is one of the large areas that will expand and is expanding now. In my experience regen ag doesn’t work well if it doesn’t have the subtle energy side of it.” Subtle Energies focus on the “frequencies which cannot be measured by conventional instrumentation but which can affect organisms at a cellular level” (RCS 2021, p. para 7). Adherents use intuition, dowsing and kinesiology to connect with the “intelligence of nature” (MacManaway 2020, p. 2) and correct energy imbalances. Participant 5 said, “quantum agriculture is the new one coming.”

Quantum agriculture draws on the biodynamic work of Lovel (2015). Biodynamics is based on Steiner (1993, 2005) and “works with the planets and the cosmic forces of the constellations as a scientific process” (participant 13). For participant 13, “biodynamics is part of the regen ag movement.” Quantum agriculture goes beyond biodynamics and practices an intuitive farming, where “a message is received from another organism, intuition arises within the human body, particularly the heart, arising as a ‘knowing’ without knowing how one knows” (Wright et al. 2017, p. 109). The quantum perspective is used to explain such phenomena because “there’s no separation; everything is joined, linked, the same. When you’re looking at regeneration, you’ve got to do it from that perspective” (participant 5).

Quantum Leap workshops hosted by Resource Consulting Services suggest that “sunlight and rainfall are natural and free assets in your production system to be managed and profited from. With the right knowledge and techniques quantum physics is another natural and free asset from which your business can benefit” (MacManaway 2020, p. 2). As such, quantum physics/subtle energy is an asset that can improve profitability, which plays into the rhetoric of the Restoration for Profit storyline. Some regenerative farmers avoid mentioning Subtle Energies for fear it will seem unscientific and undermine the regenerative agriculture movement (participant 3).