Regenerative agriculture’ captures a diverse range of land management and agricultural techniques and practices, which have in common a principled and ethical commitment to caring for the land to support its health and vitality. Regenerative agriculture (more commonly known as agroecology outside Australia) is not new. There are scholars around the world looking at indigenous ways of managing land, showing that developing a reciprocal relationship with the land is an ancient practice. It is a practice that has been neglected with the recent development of industrialised agriculture, which derives from what Australian farmer-scholar Charles Massy, and others before him, call a ‘mechanistic worldview’, using the ideas and value commitments of rationalism, capitalism and imperialism. Regenerative agriculture is making a comeback now as farmers and those who care for the land are realising that exploitative land management and agricultural practices degrade their social, economic and agricultural capital. This paper argues that there is an urgent need to transition from the destructive practices of industrial agriculture, based in a mechanistic worldview, to the holistic practices of regenerative agriculture and agroecology, which are grounded in a more ecological worldview. This paper does not present primary experimental outcomes but references over 52 interviews carried out by the lead author, together with several case studies published by Charles Massy.The purpose is to illustrate the potential of regenerative agriculture and critique the current practice of regenerative agriculture as missing a central aspect of shifting to working in the ecological worldview. This paper argues for a shift from the concept of farming, back to the concept of tending the land, or custodianship, with the outcome being to produce nourishment and contribution to a thriving socio-ecological system.