Land Restoration With Holistic Management

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Karoo Region, South Africa: (On left) Holistic Planned Grazing (HPG). Photo credits: Kroon Family


Karoo Region, South Africa

This is a picture (above) taken in Eastern Cape in South Africa – Karoo country – showing desertification with low stocking rates and conventional grazing on the right, and high stocking rates using holistic planned grazing on the left.  The land on the right continues to deteriorate supporting fewer animals, while the land on the right improves, supporting more. The property on the left has been under holistic management since the 1970s. Average rain fall is approximately 230 mm (9-in) / yr.

Las Pilas Ranch, Chihuahuan Desert Region, Mexico

[Photos taken from the same spot. The arrow marks the same point on the horizon. Photo credits, Guillermo Osuna.]

The Las Pilas Ranch in Coahuila, Mexico, is a model of ecological restoration using Holistic Planned Grazing. Over a twenty five year period from 1978 to 2003, the barren landscape was completely revived. The images below show the transformation. Although the first picture is from 1963, the restoration with Holistic Management didn’t actually start until 1978. During the restoration period, the livestock population was doubled and grazing was done according to a plan that paid close attention to grass health. The top landscape from 2003 actually has six-times the water as the the lower landscape from 1963. The water is held in the soil and in the plants and trees. Previously a 1-inch rain would fill the trough from runoff. Now a 6-inch rain does not cause standing water in the low point. It is all absorbed. The trough is no longer needed because the streams flow year round. See a tale of restoration case study.

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Convening of Peoples #COP21

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The Embassy of the Earth Foundation follows the simple line of thought: ‘Instead of constantly trying to adapt to change, why not change to be adaptive’? ‘While keeping focused on the issues at hand, the greatest impact comes through unleashing the power and spirit of the social community’.  ‘About creating an environment in which responsible people are prepared to go beyond self-interest to serve the common purpose. A community of people that can dream possible futures, create new realities and actively adapt to new challenges’.

www.embassyoftheearth.org

Carbon Finance Possibilities for Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use Projects in a Smallholder Context

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Abstract

This booklet is intended to guide extension service advisors and institutions who work with small-scale farmers and foresters with an interest in Carbon Finance and Carbon Projects. Its aim is to support setting-up carbon projects which involve small-scale farmers. Their participation allows them to be involved in the development and implementation of the project, influence the design of the project to generate positive impacts for the farmers and increase their knowledge about carbon finance. The definition of a small-scale farmer differs between and within countries. In most cases it is a farmer who cultivates less than one hectare of land and has diverse sources of livelihood. The guide is structured into five sections: first, the background of climate change is explained (1); second, an introduction is given to how the carbon market works (2); this is followed by an explanation of carbon project development and the timeline and project size to take into account for planning (3); four, costs to be expected during the development of carbon projects are summarised, as well as benefits (4); finally, different funds and grants are presented (5). This booklet will need constant updating, as the political framework is changing very fast, causing changes in legislation, as well as actors, funds and regulations. In addition, the available data, research and knowledge for the development of carbon projects is constantly improving which will facilitate their future upgrowth.

Download the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Report

Grupos Ambientales, de Justicia, Agricultura y Paz Someterán a Monsanto a Juicio en una Corte Internacional por Crímenes Contra la Salud Humana y el Medio Ambiente en Corte Internacional del Pueblo en La Haya

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PARA PUBLICACIÓN INMEDIATA

3 de diciembre de 2015

CONTACTO: Via Orgánica/Regeneration International: Ercilia Sahores, ercilia@viaorganica.org, (55) 6257 7901

PARIS – Organic Consumers Association (OCA), IFOAM International Organics, Navdanya, Regeneration International (RI), y Millions Against Monsanto, grupos pacifistas, de justicia ambiental y alimentación global, anunciaron que someterán a juicio a Monsanto MON (NYSE), una corporación trasnacional con sede central en Estados Unidos por “Crímenes contra la Humanidad y el Medio Ambiente”, en La Haya, Holanda, el año venidero, en el día mundial de la alimentación el 16 de octubre de 2016.

En conferencia de prensa, Ronnie Cummins, Director Internacional de OCA (EE.UU), afirmó: “Estamos en París este mes para abordar la mayor amenaza que los seres humanos han enfrentado en 100-200.000 años de evolución-calentamiento global y trastornos climáticos. ¿Por qué hay tanto dióxido de carbono, metano y óxido nitroso en la atmósfera y no hay suficiente materia orgánica y carbono en el suelo?.”

Según Vandana Shiva, fundadora de Navdanya (India): “Monsanto promueve un modelo agroindustrial que contribuye con al menos un tercio de las emisiones de gas de efecto invernadero antropogénicas y es responsable de la merma de los recursos del suelo y el agua, especies y la declinación de biodiversidad y el desplazamiento de millones de pequeños campesinos en todo el mundo.”

Andre Leu, presidente de IFOAM afirmó: “La historia de Monsanto puede ser leída como un manual de estilo sobre impunidad, beneficiando a las corporaciones trasnacionales y sus ejecutivos, cuyas actividades contribuyen a las crisis del clima y la biosfera y amenazan la seguridad del planeta.”

Marie-Monique Robin, directora de “El mundo según Monsanto,” declaró:

“Solamente a través de un resurgimiento colectivo de todas las fuerzas vivas podremos acabar con esta máquina de destrucción. Por ello hago un llamado a todos los ciudadanos del mundo a participar en este ejemplar tribunal.”

Desde comienzos del siglo veinte, Monsanto ha desarrollado un sinnúmero de productos altamente tóxicos que han dañado de manera permanente el ambiente y causado enfermedades y muertes de miles de personas.

Basándose en los “Principios rectores sobre las Empresas y los Derechos Humanos” adoptados por la ONU en 2011, una Corte Internacional de abogados y jueces evaluará la responsabilidad criminal potencial de Monsanto por los daños infringidos a la salud humana y el ambiente.

Lista completa de organizaciones fundadoras: https://regenerationinternational.org/monsanto-tribunal-supporting-organizations/

Lista completa de integrantes de la Fundación Tribunal contra Monsanto: https://regenerationinternational.org/members-of-the-organizing-committee/

Mayor información disponible en https://www.monsanto-tribunal.org/, luego de las 2:30 p.m. hora de E.E.U.U el 3 de diciembre de 2015.

Organic Consumers Association (OCA, por sus siglas en inglés), https://www.organicconsumers.org/ es una Organización de interés público sin fines de lucro 501 (c)(3), que hace campañas en línea y de base, por la salud, la justicia y la sostenibilidad. El Fondo de Consumidores Orgánicos es una organización 501 (c)(4), organización aliada de la Asociación de Consumidores Orgánicos, que se centra en el cabildeo de base y la acción legislativa.

Regeneración Internacional https://regenerationinternational.org/ es una organización sin fines de lucro 501 (c)(3) dedicada a la construcción de una red global de agricultores, científicos, negocios, activistas, educadores, periodistas, gobiernos y consumidores quienes promoverán y pondrán en práctica a la agricultura regenerativa y prácticas de uso de suelo que: dan alimentos abundantes y nutritivos; reviven a las economías locales; reconstruyen la fertilidad del suelo y biodiversidad; y restauran la estabilidad climática al regresar al carbono al suelo, a través del proceso natural de la fotosíntesis.

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Global Food, Farming and Environmental Justice Groups to Put Monsanto on Trial for Crimes Against Human Health and the Environment in the International People’s Court in The Hague

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE December 3, 2015 CONTACT: US: Organic Consumers Association/Regeneration International: Katherine Paul, 207-653-3090, katherine@organicconsumers.org (US); Via Organica/Regeneration International: Ercilia Sahores, ercilia@viaorganica.org; Stichting Monsanto Tribunal: Arnaud Apoteker, arnaudapoteker@yahoo.fr, +33 (0)6 07 57 31 60 (France) Global Food, Farming and Environmental Justice Groups to Put Monsanto on Trial for Crimes Against Human Health and the Environment in the International People’s Court in The Hague  Organic Consumers Association, IFOAM, Navdanya, Regeneration International and others form Monsanto Tribunal Foundation in advance of World Food Day 2016 PARIS – The Organic Consumers Association (OCA), IFOAM International Organics, Navdanya, Regeneration International (RI), and Millions Against Monsanto, joined by dozens of global food, farming and environmental justice groups announced today that they will put Monsanto MON (NYSE), a US-based transnational corporation, on trial for crimes against nature and humanity, and ecocide, in The Hague, Netherlands, next year on World Food Day, October 16, 2016. The announcement was made at a press conference held in conjunction with the COP21 United Nations Conference on Climate Change, November 30 – December 11, in Paris. Speaking at the press conference, Ronnie Cummins, international director of the OCA (US) and Via Organica (Mexico), and member of the RI Steering Committee, said: “The time is long overdue for a global citizens’ tribunal to put Monsanto on trial for crimes against humanity and the environment. We are in Paris this month to address the most serious threat that humans have ever faced in our 100-200,000 year evolution—global warming and climate disruption. Why is there so much carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the atmosphere and not enough carbon organic matter in the soil? Corporate agribusiness, industrial forestry, the garbage and sewage industry and agricultural biotechnology have literally killed the climate-stabilizing, carbon-sink capacity of the Earth’s living soil.” Vandana Shiva, physicist, author, activist and founder of Navdanya, and member of the RI Steering Committee said: “Monsanto has pushed GMOs in order to collect royalties from poor farmers, trapping them in unpayable debt, and pushing them to suicide. Monsanto promotes an agro-industrial model that contributes at least 50 percent of global anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions. Monsanto is also largely responsible for the depletion of soil and water resources, species extinction and declining biodiversity, and the displacement of millions of small farmers worldwide.” Andre Leu, president of IFOAM and a member of the RI Steering Committee, said: “Monsanto is able to ignore the human and environmental damage caused by its products, and maintain its devastating activities through a strategy of systemic concealment: by lobbying regulatory agencies and governments, by resorting to lying and corruption, by financing fraudulent scientific studies, by pressuring independent scientists, and by manipulating the press and media. Monsanto’s history reads like a text-book case of impunity, benefiting transnational corporations and their executives, whose activities contribute to climate and biosphere crises and threaten the safety of the planet.” Marie-Monique Robin, journalist and author of the best-selling documentary (and book by the same name), “The World According Monsanto,” said: “This International Citizens’ Tribunal is necessary because the defense of the safety of the planet and the conditions of life on Earth is everyone’s concern. Only through a collective resurgence of all living forces will we stop the engine of destruction. That’s why today I am calling on all citizens of the world to participate in this exemplary tribunal.” Also speaking at the conference were Valerie Cabanes, lawyer and spokesperson for End Ecocide on Earth; Hans Rudolf Herren, president and CEO of the Millennium Institute, president and founder of Biovision, and member of the RI Steering Committee; Arnaud Apoteker, creator of the anti-GMO campaign in France, which became one of the priority campaigns of Greenpeace France, and author of “Fish in Our Strawberries: Our Manipulated Food;” and Olivier De Schutter, co-chair of the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPESFood) and former UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Monsanto has developed a steady stream of highly toxic products which have permanently damaged the environment and caused illness or death for thousands of people. These products include:

  • PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl), one of the 12 Persistent Organic Pollutants (POP) that affect human and animal fertility;
  • 2,4,5 T (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid), a dioxin-containing component of the defoliant, Agent Orange, which was used by the US Army during the Vietnam War and continues to cause birth defects and cancer;
  • Lasso, an herbicide that is now banned in Europe;
  • and RoundUp, the most widely used herbicide in the world, and the source of the greatest health and environmental scandal in modern history. This toxic herbicide, designated a probable human carcinogen by the World Health Organization, is used in combination with genetically modified (GM) RoundUp Ready seeds in large-scale monocultures, primarily to produce soybeans, maize and rapeseed for animal feed and biofuels.

Relying on the “Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights” adopted by the UN in 2011, an international court of lawyers and judges will assess the potential criminal liability of Monsanto for damages inflicted on human health and the environment. The court will also rely on the Rome Statute that created the International Criminal Court in The Hague in 2002, and it will consider whether to reform international criminal law to include crimes against the environment, or ecocide, as a prosecutable criminal offense. The International Criminal Court, established in 2002 in The Hague, has determined that prosecuting ecocide as a criminal offense is the only way to guarantee the rights of humans to a healthy environment and the right of nature to be protected. Full list of founding organizations (so far) here. https://regenerationinternational.org/monsanto-tribunal-supporting-organizations/ Full list of Monsanto Tribunal Foundation organizing members here. https://regenerationinternational.org/members-of-the-organizing-committee/ More information will be available at https://www.monsanto-tribunal.org/, after 2:30 p.m. EU time on December 3, 2015. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) https://www.organicconsumers.org/ is an online and grassroots non-profit 501(c)(3) public interest organization campaigning for health, justice, and sustainability. The Organic Consumers Fund is a 501(c)4 allied organization of the Organic Consumers Association, focused on grassroots lobbying and legislative action. Regeneration International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to building a global network of farmers, scientists, businesses, activists, educators, journalists, governments and consumers who will promote and put into practice regenerative agriculture and land-use practices that: provide abundant, nutritious food; revive local economies; rebuild soil fertility and biodiversity; and restore climate stability by returning carbon to the soil, through the natural process of photosynthesis.

An Awesome, Under-Recognized Opportunity to Act on Climate

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Author: Diana Donlon

As a plant-lover I’ve always appreciated healthy soil, but it wasn’t until I heard a rancher named Richard King explain how rebuilding the organic matter in soils has the potential to store tons of atmospheric carbon that I got true religion. “You should do a TED Talk,” I gushed after his workshop at the California Climate & Agriculture (CalCAN) summit a few years ago. Since first meeting King, I’ve been preaching the multiple benefits of increasing soil’s capacity to store much of our excess carbon to anyone who will listen. And I’m not alone.

An emerging community of soil-carbon enthusiasts is working diligently to bring thought-leaders, policy-makers, and concerned citizens into our fold by offering a practical, empowering, and ultimately hopeful — albeit under-recognized — tool to address the climate crisis: rebuilding soil carbon.

We’re an eclectic, enthusiastic, and occasionally eccentric, bunch that includes global luminaries like Ohio State University’s Dr. Rattan Lal, Australia’s Dr. Christine Jones, and Zimbabwe’s Allan Savory; cutting-edge carbon ranchers like John Wick, Ridge Shinn, and Joe and Julie Morris; insightful (and delightful) authors Judith Schwartz, Cows Save the Planet, and Kristin Ohlson, The Soil will Save Us, as well as forward-thinking organizations including the Quivira Coalition, Biodiversity for a Livable Climate, the Carbon Underground, Kiss the Ground and of course, Center for Food Safety, the amazing organization where I work.

Our soils are in trouble. Ray Archuleta, an agronomist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, tells us they are “naked, hungry, thirsty and running a fever.” There are many reasons for the sickly state of this life-supporting ecosystem, but essentially, humans have been undermining soil function by tilling it for thousands of years. In recent decades, we’ve also been actively poisoning the life in our soils with pesticides and other chemicals.

Keep Reading in the Huffington Post

Pasture Cropping: A Regenerative Solution From Down Under

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Author: Courtney White

Since the late 1990s, Australian farmer Colin Seis has been successfully planting a cereal crop into perennial pasture on his sheep farm during the dormant period using no-till drilling, a method that uses a drill to sow seeds instead of the traditional plow. He calls it pasture cropping and he gains two crops this way from one parcel of land – a cereal crop for food or forage and wool or lamb meat from his pastures – which means its potential for feeding the world in a sustainable manner is significant.

As Seis tells the story, the idea for pasture cropping came to him and a friend from the bottom of a beer bottle. Ten of them, in fact.

It was 1993. Seis, a sheep farmer in western New South Wales, and his friend Daryl Cluff, also a farmer, were drinking beer one night, contemplating paradigms. Why, they asked, were crops and pastures farmed separately? Their answer: tradition. They had been taught that pasture and crop systems operated by different ecological processes and were thus incompatible. Crops needed tilling and pastures needed animals. The systems could be alternated over the years, but never integrated. Right? Or wrong? They decided to have more beer.

Seis raised the question because he had been watching the native grasses on his farm and began to wonder if nature didn’t intend for annuals and perennials to co-exist. Nature certainly wanted weeds in his pasture – so why not a different type of annual instead, such as oats? He knew why: weeds liked to run a 100-yard dash while perennial grasses like to a run a marathon. Two different races, two different types of athletes. Right? Or wrong? They needed another round of beer.

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Waste Not, Want Not, Eat Up?

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Author: Hannah Goldfield

The other night, as I ate a salad at Blue Hill, in the West Village, a server approached my table with an iPad. “Have you seen this?” she asked. “Chef wanted you to see this.” By “Chef,” she meant Dan Barber, the man behind Blue Hill and Blue Hill Stone Barns, a sister restaurant and farm upstate. By “this,” she meant a photograph of a dumpster, into which a chute was depositing an enormous quantity of multi-colored scraps of fruit and vegetables—the runoff from a commercial food processor. The experience felt something similar to being shown a picture of what would happen to a sad-eyed old horse if you didn’t save it from the glue factory. Sitting in a small, enamel casserole dish in front of me were fruit and vegetable scraps that Barber had rescued, just like the ones in the photo. Arranged in an artful tangle, bits of carrot, apple, and pear were dressed with a creamy green emulsion, studded with pistachios, and garnished with a foamy pouf that turned out to be the liquid from canned chickpeas, whipped into haute cuisine.

A parsnip head in a shallow dish of water, its tall greens splayed elegantly, served as a strangely beautiful centerpiece for the table. Beside it, a candle flickered in a small glass pitcher, labelled with a piece of masking tape on which someone had written “beef”: instead of wax, the melted liquid was beef tallow, or rendered fat, to be poured onto a plate just as several slices of a dark, musky bread, made with grain left over from beer-brewing, arrived to dip in it.

This was the opening night of Barber’s first-ever pop-up, which will close out its two-week run on Tuesday. Until then, Blue Hill’s understatedly elegant dining room will remain nearly unrecognizable, dressed up—or down, really—as a new restaurant called wastED. Formless Finder, an architecture firm that specializes in recycled materials, has covered the walls in an industrial-looking fabric known as “row cover,” which is used on farms to protect crops from cold, wind, and pests. The normal tabletops have been replaced by slabs of mycelium, the all-natural and biodegradable plastics substitute that Ian Frazier wrote about for this magazine in 2013. On that first evening, even the playlist was reused: over the course of the meal, I heard Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” three times.

Keep Reading in The New Yorker