Regenerative agriculture: pinnacle of agroecology or greenwashing?

Faced with the many societal challenges to be taken up (environment, food security and health), various avenues have emerged to overhaul the food system in Western countries and the forms of agriculture to be promoted. Agroecology and now regenerative agriculture are two narratives of different origins, but the differences of which are poorly identified. We first provide an analysis of agricultural systems in terms of impacts and ecosystem services, and on this basis, we identify the principles underlying agroecological agriculture. This analysis is used to clarify the specificities of regenerative agriculture. Then, we identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of this last form of agriculture for scaling up. We show that a major asset of regenerative agriculture is to be based on a story highlighting a principle, "regeneration", which can attract the support of a variety of actors. However, agroecology could help to clarify the still unclear content of regenerative agriculture so that its promises can be translated into real progress and may be not exclusively carbon-centered.