Tag Archive for: Agriculture

California Proposes to Hijack Regenerative Agriculture

“Regenerative agriculture provides answers to the soil crisis, the food crisis, the climate crisis, and the crisis of democracy.” Dr. Vandana Shiva

California has unilaterally decided to define Regenerative Agriculture. It is a subnational government with no formal role in the Regenerative Agriculture movement.

It has a state government with entrenched bureaucracies, such as The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), that regulate and condone some of the world’s worst excesses in industrial-scale Degenerative Agriculture on the planet.

California has the highest toxic pesticide use in the US, some of the worst excesses in industrial-scale monocultures such as the almond and other fruit and vegetable farms in the Central Valley that have destructively tilled bare soil, drenched with toxic herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, and chemical fertilizers. It has large scale cruel, confined animal feeding operations. California has an unsustainable use of water. These farms are causing severe health damage to people and the environment.

Photo credit: Unsplash

The CDFA is taking submissions from interest groups. This includes agribusiness poison cartels such as Bayer/Monsanto, Syngenta, and others trying to hijack and greenwash their degenerative systems as regenerative agriculture.

The CDFA has never been involved in the regenerative agriculture movement, and this move to make a Californian definition without consulting the major regenerative organizations and including non-regenerative groups, is hijacking. The last thing the world needs is a subnational government with such a terrible record in farming systems hijacking regenerative agriculture so it can greenwash its degenerative systems.

Regeneration International is the largest and most significant regenerative organization on the planet, with 500 partners in over 70 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, Australasia, the Pacific, North America, and Europe. We are the people who started the global regeneration movement.

Leaders of the organic, agroecology,  holistic management, environment, and natural health movements started Regeneration International as a genuinely inclusive and representative umbrella organization. We aimed to establish a global network of like-minded agricultural, environmental, health, and social organizations to regenerate agriculture, our health, environment, climate, and communities – which is what we have done. We continue to grow every week.

Due to the diversity of like-minded partners, regenerative agriculture is now being used as an umbrella term for the many farming systems that use techniques such as longer rotations, cover crops, green manures, legumes, compost, and organic fertilizers.  These include organic agriculture, agroforestry, agroecology, permaculture, holistic grazing, silvopasture, syntropic farming, and other agricultural systems that increase soil organic matter/carbon. Soil organic is an essential proxy for soil health – as soils with low levels are not healthy.

The regeneration movement is an innovative, dynamic space. Regeneration International has opposed simple definitions and attempts to make standards as these will inhibit this innovative movement.

Defining Regenerative Agriculture.

By definition: Regenerative systems improve the environment, soil, health, animal welfare, and communities.

The opposite of Regenerative is Degenerative

By definition: Agricultural systems that use Degenerative practices and inputs that damage the environment, soil, health, and communities and involve animal cruelty, such as synthetic toxic pesticides, synthetic water-soluble fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, confined animal feeding operations, and destructive tillage systems, are not Regenerative.

They must be called out as Degenerative Agriculture.

Regenerative and Organic based on Agroecology – the path forward.

RI’s perspective: All agricultural systems should be regenerative and organic using the science of agroecology.

Regeneration must be seen as a way to improve systems.  Practitioners must determine what practices are acceptable and what practices are degenerative and, therefore, unacceptable. The criteria to analyze this must be based on the Four Principles of Organic Agriculture. These principles are clear and effective ways to decide what practices are Regenerative and what are Degenerative.

Health

Organic agriculture should sustain and enhance the health of soil, plant, animal, human, and the planet as one and indivisible.

Ecology

Organic agriculture should be based on living ecological systems and cycles, work with them, emulate them and help sustain them.

Fairness

Organic agriculture should build on relationships that ensure fairness in the familiar environment and life opportunities.

Care

Organic agriculture should be managed in a precautionary and responsible manner to protect the health and well-being of current and future generations and the environment.

Ronnie Cummins, one of our founders, clearly stated: “Regenerative agriculture and animal husbandry is the next and higher stage of organic food and farming, not only free from toxic pesticides, GMOs, chemical fertilizers, and factory farm production, and therefore good for human health; but also regenerative in terms of the health of the soil.”

The last thing the Regenerative Agriculture movement needs is government interference by a committee of non-stakeholder bureaucrats making definitions. The French Government’s agroecology definition was a crude attempt to greenwash industrial agriculture and the use of synthetic toxic pesticides and fertilizers. It was done without input from the global agroecology movement and has weakened the integrity of agroecology.

Similarly, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization promotes a version of agroecology that allows synthetic toxic pesticides and fertilizers, which has divided the agroecology movement.

We have seen the same with the government regulation of certified organic agriculture favoring large-scale industrial organic systems over small-family farmers. The USDA regulations have been hijacked to allow hydroponics, industrial-scale cruel animal factories, synthetic feed supplements, cancer-causing nitrate preservatives, highly processed junk foods, and various derogations that have fractured the organic movement and consumers.

As the founders of the international regenerative agriculture movement, Regeneration International will continue to lead, and we will call out attempts to hijack and greenwash.

Persecuciones, autoincendios y agua contaminada, la realidad de las megagranjas de los Loret de Mola en Yucatán

YUCATÁN. – El amedrentamiento continuo mediante camionetas que siguen a baja velocidad a las y los vecinos que denuncian la contaminación. Sobre todo, cuando el sol yucateco se apaga y los vidrios polarizados de los vehículos corporativos auspician el anonimato. La distribución de guardias en caminos aledaños a la mega factoría contaminante, en vías públicas y de (en teoría) libre tránsito, pero que en las últimas semanas se han vuelto espacios donde se controla quién pasa por esas sendas.

Hombres colocados aquí y allá, al borde de caminos de terracería, ocultos entre los árboles de la selva, con celulares para filmar a toda persona del pueblo que ose caminar junto a los límites de la granja industrial. La amenaza de aplicar una denuncia judicial a quien intente hablar con directivos o personal de la empresa para exigir que cesen las quemas ilegales de excretas, la depredación del monte, el envenenamiento del agua.

SEGUIR LEYENDO EN PIE DE PÁGINA

Un México sin maíces transgénicos: hacia una propuesta trinacional

La lucha en contra del maíz transgénico en México sigue, el 24 de mayo pasado la Campaña Nacional sin Maíz no hay País convocó a una conferencia de prensa con participantes de Estados Unidos y Canadá, con miras a construir estrategias conjuntas trinacionales para para alcanzar la meta de un México sin transgénicos.

Participaron: Mercedes López Martínez (CNSMNHP y Asociación de Consumidores Orgánicos), Monserratt Téllez dando lectura al mensaje de Dale Wiehoff (productor de EEUU), Rick Arnold (Consejo de Canadienses), Lynn Clarkson (Clarkson Grain, EEUU), Ben Dobson (Hudson Carbon, EEUU) y Timothy Wise (Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, EEUU), con la moderación de Malin Jönsson (CNSMNHP) y el apoyo solidario de El Poder del Consumidor.

Si dan clic aquí pueden ver la conferencia de prensa completa.

A continuación presentamos un video de una entrevista realizada a Mercedes López para el programa de Julio Astillero, con relación a la conferencia.

 

 

 

Why We must Reclaim Our Movement’s Language from Corporate Takeover

Watch this presentation by Regeneration International’s Steering Committee Dr. Vandana Shiva, and international director Dr. André Leu to hear their message on the importance of reclaiming our movement’s language from corporate takeover.

May 11th and 12th, 2023, RI’s friends and affiliates, Compassion in World Farming and IPES-Food, hosted the Extinction or Regeneration conference in the heart of London at the Queen Elizabeth II Center in Westminster, which provided a platform for experts across the globe to share solutions for how we can transform our food and farming systems for better human, animal, and planetary health via a whole food systems approach to providing sufficient nutritious food for an expanding world population while remaining within the safe operating space of all nine planetary boundaries while protecting wild and domestic animals and restoring soils, oceans, forests, and biodiversity.

Regenerative Research: Tillage & No-Till Systems

Issue Summary: Can we regenerate the land if we also voluntarily disturb it? The question is at the core of the conversations around tactics in regenerative agriculture, which is challenging the paradigms related to field preparation.

No-till systems are often introduced to accomplish goals around increasing soil biology and fungal networks, rotating cover crops with cash crops, and running less machinery across the land (lower diesel fuel costs). Some lightly tilled systems and strip-till systems also report the ability to grow biology, balance chemistry and build biodiverse ecosystems.

What is tillage?

Tillage is a centuries-old agriculture practice that farmers use to remove plant life from their fields, break up hardpan and crusty layers, and help incorporate fertilizers.

What is no-till, exactly?

It is exactly what it sounds like: a conservation-based farming system that leaves the soil undisturbed. Instead, successful no-till managers use living, biodiverse crops.

KEEP READING ON THINK REGENERATION

Regenerative Research: Glyphosate

What is glyphosate?

Glyphosate is a popular herbicide used by farmers and ranchers to kill broadleaf plants and grasses, as well as to rapidly ripen certain crops. A recent study about glyphosate use showed it can be found in more than 750 different products, and is used in more than 130 countries on more than 100 different types of crops. Glyphosate is also the subject of hundreds of lawsuits around the globe based on research that exposure to glyphosate could cause chronic disease and cancers.

Also known as N-(phosphonomethyl) glycine, glyphosate can be absorbed by the stems, leaves, or roots. It is an enzyme inhibitor, which prevents key stages of development in the plant, so the plant either dies, or rapidly matures until death. It is non-selective, so it will kill everything, unless the product is specifically genetically modified to resist it.

KEEP READING ON THINK REGENERATION

We Want to be Able to Choose! Ensure GMO-Free Food Production

German youth associations demand that the EU genetic engineering legislation continues to provide a clear framework that makes GMO-free agriculture and food production possible and protects it.

We want to be able to continue to produce, breed, grow, process, market and consume high-quality food, whether organic or conventional, that is free of genetic engineering. In our view, this requires resilient agro-ecological agricultural systems that focus on environmental and climate protection, and food security.

As young people, we depend on the existing diversity and access to it, to face the coming challenges such as the climate crisis or species extinction.

For us and for all citizens, we want the freedom to decide and choose for ourselves what we grow, breed and eat, through labelling of genetically modified organisms.

Nature with its biodiversity is the most valuable thing we have.

KEEP READING ON IFOAM ORGANICS EUROPE

Eventos agrícolas en LATAM 2023 para agendarlos en tu calendario

Así como en Estados Unidos y en Canadá, en Latinoamérica también se realizan ferias agrícolas donde el objetivo principal es dar a conocer a través de ferias, exposiciones y conferencias, las nuevas tendencias y avances tecnológicos que se estarán aplicando en el área de la agricultura durante este año.

En esta oportunidad mencionamos los eventos agrícolas en LATAM para este 2023 que tanto productores agrícolas, comerciantes, fabricantes y aficionados del mundo del agro no pueden dejar de agregar en sus calendarios.

Como en otros años, en este artículo podrás encontrar los eventos agrícolas más destacados de algunos de los principales países de Latinoamérica:

  • Colombia
  • Brasil
  • Chile
  • Argentina
  • Ecuador
  • México
  • Perú
SEGUIR LEYENDO EN AGRI PLASTICS COMMUNITY

The Science-based Evidence to Ban Glyphosate and GMOs

The U.S. Bullies Mexico over its Sovereign Right to Ban Glyphosate and GMO Corn

Mexico announced that it was phasing out the use of glyphosate herbicides, the cultivation of GMO corn, and the import of GMO corn for human consumption and livestock feed by the end of 2024. The reasons for the decree given by Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador are to protect the health of Mexico’s consumers and small-scale farmers, the environment, and the purity of Mexico’s native corn varieties.

The decree states, “With the objective of achieving self-sufficiency and food sovereignty, our country must be oriented towards establishing sustainable and culturally adequate agricultural production, through the use of agroecological practices and inputs that are safe for human health, the country’s biocultural diversity and the environment, as well as congruent with the agricultural traditions of Mexico.”

Bayer-Monsanto and Dow have since launched 43 lawsuits in Mexico attempting to overturn the presidential decree.

The GMO/pesticide cartels fearing that Mexico will set a precedent for other countries to enact similar restrictions, are puppeteering agencies and officials within the U.S. government to pressure Mexico to abandon its plans. This is not the first time the German-based Bayer-Monsanto has used its captured U.S. government officials and agencies to act on its behalf. In 2019, the corporation succeeded in using U.S. officials to pressure Thailand into reversing its ban on glyphosate.

According to Reuters, the new U.S. agriculture trade chief, Doug McKalip, has given Mexico until February 14 to respond to the U.S. demand to justify the science behind the ban on CMO corn and glyphosate.

“We want to make sure that they do the science, show their work, and make decisions based upon risk assessments,” McKalip said.

This paper shows that it is the U.S. Government that has ignored an extensive body of science showing why GMOs and glyphosate should be banned.

The Scientific Evidence Justifying Mexico Ban on GMOs and Glyphosate

There are an enormous number of published scientific studies showing that GMOs and their associated pesticides a responsible for multiple serious health problems for people, animals, and the wider environment.

The widespread adoption of GMO crops in the U.S. has resulted in a massive increase in the application of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup, as the primary method of weed control.

The above graph shows that the use of glyphosate, the active ingredient of Roundup, rocketed upwards in the late 1990s when Roundup-ready GMO crops were introduced.

The Credible Peer-reviewed Lifetime of Study of GMOs and Roundup

 The image above is of a rat with large mammary tumors due to consuming glyphosate at the usual levels found in food. The tumors on the right-hand side, starting from the top, result from just eating GMO corn,  GMO corn with Roundup, and just Roundup. Source: Séralini et al.

 Séralini et al. is the only credible, independent, non-industry funded, peer-reviewed lifetime feeding study of GMOs and Roundup. It found mammary and other tumors, liver and kidney damage resulting from regular exposure to minute amounts of  Roundup or a diet containing GMO corn or both – similar to the typical exposures people get from food.

All the female rats in the study that were fed GMOs or Roundup or both (Treated Group) developed mammary tumors and died earlier than those fed non-GMO food without Roundup (Control Group), except for one rat who died early of an ovarian tumor.

 Treated males had four times the number of tumors that were large enough to be felt by hand than the controls, and these occurred up to six hundred days earlier.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer

The International Agency for Research on Cancer reviewed numerous scientific studies.  It gave glyphosate the second-highest rating for Cancer – Group 2A

This means it causes animal cancer and has some evidence of cancer in humans, most notably non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

A study conducted by Flower et al. examined the levels of cancer in the children of people who sprayed glyphosate for weed control. They found that their children had increased levels of all childhood cancers, including all lymphomas such as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

A case-controlled study by Swedish scientists Lennart Hardell and Mikael Eriksson also linked non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma to exposure to various pesticides and herbicides, including glyphosate. The link between glyphosate and non-Hodgkin lymphoma has resulted in major court cases, most of which Bayer-Monsanto has lost. Millions of dollars were awarded to the victims.

Genetically Engineered Crops, Glyphosate, and the Deterioration of Health in the United States of America

Dr. Nancy Swanson, myself, and co-authors Jon Abrahamson and Bradley Wallet published a peer-reviewed paper, “Genetically engineered crops, glyphosate and the deterioration of health in the United States of America,” showing how glyphosate and GMOs are linked to over 20 chronic diseases in the U.S. In the study, U.S. government databases were searched for genetically engineered crop data, glyphosate application data, and disease epidemiological data. This was correlated and showed numerous diseases linked to the increased use of glyphosate and GMOs. A standard accepted statistical analysis showed that the odds of glyphosate and GMOs not being the cause of these diseases was 10,000 to 1. On top of these, numerous studies are confirming the link between GMOs and glyphosate with these diseases.

We compiled this data into graphs showing the increase in diseases, glyphosate, and GMOs. We also added trend lines in green to show that these diseases are increasing since the increased use of genetically engineered (GE) corn and soy, and glyphosate.

The graphs below show an increase in cancers.

Autism and Dementia

Autism and dementia have reached epidemic proportions in the U.S. The graphs below clearly show the link between the massive increase in the use of glyphosate and GMOs since the 1990s and the rapid increase in these diseases.

Nerve Cell Damage

Researchers have proven that exposure to minute amounts of glyphosate damages developing nerve cells.

The image above, from Coullery et al., illustrates how glyphosate damages nerve development. The glyphosate-exposed cells had shorter and unbranched axons, (the long extended ‘arms’ of the nerve) and less complex dendritic arbors (the smaller ‘fingers’ coming out of the body of the cell). It is clear from the image that the cells exposed to glyphosate do not develop properly and, therefore, cannot work effectively.

The scientists identified the cause by which glyphosate affects nerve development and stated that it cannot be reversed. The major concern is that the brain is the largest collection of nerves in the human body and is still developing in unborn, newborn, and growing children. Exposure to small amounts of glyphosate in food can adversely affect the brain’s normal development, leading to the suite of major issues that we see in children, such as autism spectrum, bipolar spectrum, ADHD, and other developmental and behavioral issues.

Adult brains are constantly renewing brain cells. These nerve cells are also adversely affected by glyphosate. The graph above shows a strong link between the increase in glyphosate and deaths from dementia.

Endocrine Disruption – Disruption to Hormones

Gasnier et al. reported endocrine-disrupting actions of glyphosate at 0.5 ppm. According to the authors, this is “800 times lower than the level authorized in some food or feed (400 ppm, USEPA, 1998).”

Professor Séralini’s study published in Environmental Sciences Europe found that both GM maize and Roundup act as endocrine disrupters, and their consumption resulted in female rats dying at a rate two to three times higher than the control animals. The pituitary gland was the second most disabled organ and the sex hormonal balance was modified in females fed with the GMO and Roundup treatments.

Disruption of Metabolic Pathways

One of the most significant studies was published by Samsel and Seneff in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Entropy in 2013. This comprehensive review, titled “Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases,” showed how glyphosate disrupted numerous biochemical pathways within the human body, including gut microorganisms, and consequently could lead to numerous diseases.

Studies show that disruptions of the hormone and metabolic pathways are major causes of obesity, in that they disrupt the normal control mechanisms that regulate overeating, sugar levels, and body fat metabolism. Science clearly shows that glyphosate is one of the chemicals that cause these disruptions.

Diabetes

The rise in diabetes is directly linked to obesity. Most obese people end up with diabetes due to overloading the hormonal mechanisms that regulate blood sugar. Over time they begin to fail, resulting in dangerous increases in blood sugar.

Disruption of the Gut Microbiome

Samsel and Seneff’s paper identified how glyphosate disrupted the gut microbiome, causing the suppression of biosynthesis of cytochrome P450 enzymes and key amino acids. In a later paper, “Glyphosate, Pathways to Modern Diseases II: Celiac Sprue and Gluten Intolerance,” Samsel and Seneff showed that the current increase in celiac disease and gluten intolerance in people was linked to glyphosate’s adverse effects on the gut microbiome. They highlighted that glyphosate is patented as a biocide, and consequently, it kills the beneficial gut bacteria, leading to a rise in intestinal diseases.

Krüger et al. showed that glyphosate affects the microbiome of horses and cows. Shehata et al. found the same effects in poultry; the researchers state, “Highly pathogenic bacteria such as Salmonella Entritidis, Salmonella Gallinarum, Salmonella Typhimurium, Clostridium perfringens and Clostridium botulinum are highly resistant to glyphosate. However, most of the beneficial bacteria such as Enterococcus faecalis, Enterococcus faecium, Bacillus badius, Bifidobacterium adolescentis and Lactobacillus spp. were found to be moderate to highly susceptible.” Both groups of researchers postulated that glyphosate is associated with the increase in botulism-mediated diseases in these domestic farm animals.

Inflammatory bowel diseases are rising along with deaths from intestinal infections. Glyphosate’s disruption of the gut microbiome must be seen as a significant cause.

Kidney and Liver Disease

The growth in kidney and liver diseases is a major chronic illness epidemic. The graph below clearly shows the relationship between GMOs, glyphosate, and the rapid increase in deaths from kidney disease in the U.S. Deaths from kidney disease fell until the widespread increase of glyphosate and GMOs.

In the lifetime feeding study of rats conducted by Séralini et al. the treated males displayed liver congestions and necrosis at rates 2.5 to 5.5 times higher than the controls, as well as marked and severe kidney damage at rates generally 1.3 to 2.3 greater than the controls.

The image above shows kidneys and livers that have been damaged by Roundup (glyphosate), GMO corn, and both. In a later published study designed to understand why Roundup and glyphosate-based herbicides caused kidney and liver damage in rats, scientists discovered that ultra-low doses of these herbicides disrupted the functions of numerous genes, which resulted in changes consistent with multiple kidney and liver disease problems.

The researchers stated, “Our results suggest that chronic exposure to a GBH (glyphosate-based herbicides) in an established laboratory animal toxicity model system at an ultra-low, environmental dose can result in liver and kidney damage with potential significant health implications for animal and human populations.”

Conclusion

Science shows that GMOs and glyphosate cause multiple serious chronic diseases in the United States. Instead of bullying Mexico to accept these dangerous products, the U.S. regulatory authorities should do their jobs to protect the American people from the harm they cause by banning them.

The Cuban Paradox

Landing in Cuba is like approaching a vibrant emerald in the middle of the sea. Fields full of shades of green are scattered throughout the island’s territory in orderly plots; various grids of all sizes, some with small groups of cattle. Among these farms, several vacant lots stand out, demarcated despite not having much vegetation or signs of any intervention. The land available for farming seems to abound before my eyes.

What brings me to Cuba is the eighth International Encounter of Agroecology, Food Sovereignty, Nutritional Education and Cooperativism, organised by the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP). It’s an opportunity to exchange knowledge, immerse in the island’s agricultural dynamics, and foster solidarity among the peoples of the Americas. These gatherings bring awareness to the multiple impacts of the economic, commercial and financial embargo imposed on the Cuban people by the U.S. government for over 60 years.

KEEP READING ON A GROWING CULTURE

Tag Archive for: Agriculture

Nothing Found

Sorry, no posts matched your criteria