This Revolutionary System Can Help Stop Global Warming

/by

“Unsustainable land use and greenhouse gas emissions are delivering a one-two punch to natural ecosystems that are key to the fight against global climate change.

And without sweeping emissions cuts and transformations to food production and land management, the world stands no chance of staving off catastrophic planetary warming,” HuffPost reported, citing the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report.1

Agave plants (the best known of which are blue agave, used to produce tequila), along with nitrogen-fixing, companion trees such as mesquite, huizache, desert ironwood, wattle and varieties of acacia that readily grow alongside agave, are among the most common and prolific, yet routinely denigrated or ignored plants in the world. As India climate scientist Promode Kant points out:

“Agave is to the drier parts of the world what bamboo is to its wetter zones. Capturing atmospheric CO2 in vegetation is severely limited by the availability of land and water. The best choice would be species that can utilize lands unfit for food production and yet make the dynamics of carbon sequestration faster.

As much as 40% of the land on earth is arid and semi-arid, largely in the tropics but also in the cool temperate zones up north. And on almost half of these lands, with a minimum annual rainfall of about 250 mm and soils that are slightly refractory, the very valuable species of agave grows reasonably well.”2

Agave plants and nitrogen-fixing trees densely intercropped and cultivated together have the capacity to draw down massive amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere and produce more above ground and below ground biomass (and animal fodder) on a continuous year-to-year basis than any other desert and semi-desert species.

Ideal for arid and hot climates, agaves and their companion trees, once established, require little or no irrigation to survive and thrive, and are basically impervious to rising global temperatures and drought. Agaves alone can draw down and store above ground the dry weight equivalent of 30 to 60 tons of CO2 per hectare (12 to 24 tons per acre) per year. One hectare equals 10,000 square meters or 2.47 acres.

Now, a new, agave-based agroforestry and livestock feeding model developed in Guanajuato, Mexico, promises to revitalize campesino/small farmer livestock production while storing massive amounts of atmospheric carbon above and below ground.

Scaled up on millions of currently degraded and overgrazed rangelands, these agave/agroforestry systems have the potential to not only improve soil and pasture health, but to help mitigate and potentially reverse global warming, aka climate change.

Climate Emergency 

As international scientists, activists and our own everyday experience tell us, we are facing a Climate Emergency. A “profit at any cost,” fossil fuel-supercharged economy, coupled with industrial agriculture and factory farms, destructive land use and mindless consumption have pumped a dangerous load of CO2 and greenhouse gas pollution into the sky, bringing on global warming and violent climate change.

Degenerative food, farming, livestock and land use practices have decarbonized and killed off much of the biological life and natural carbon-sequestering capacity of our soils, forests and ecosystems.

This degradation and desertification of global landscapes has oxidized and released billions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and eliminated much of the above ground carbon biomass once stored in our forests and landscapes.

This global degeneration has depleted so much of the carbon and biological life in our soils, trees and plants that these natural systems can no longer draw down and sequester (through natural photosynthesis) enough of the excess CO2 and greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to maintain the necessary balance between CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the carbon stored in our soils, trees and plants.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) estimates that arid and semi-arid lands make up 41.3% of the earth’s land surface, including 15% of Latin America (most of Mexico), 66% of Africa, 40% of Asia and 24% of Europe.

Farmers and herders in these areas face tremendous challenges because of increasing droughts, erratic rainfall, degraded soils, overgrazed pastures and water scarcity. Many areas are in danger of degenerating even further into desert, unable to sustain any crops or livestock whatsoever.

Most of the world’s drylands are located in the economically underdeveloped regions of the Global South, although there are millions of acres of drylands in the U.S., Australia and Southern Europe as well. Farming, ranching and ecosystem conservation are becoming increasingly problematic in these drylands, especially given the fact that the majority of the farms and ranches in these areas do not have irrigation wells or year-round access to surface water.

Crop and livestock production levels are deteriorating, trees and perennials have typically been removed or seasonally burned, and pastures and rangelands have been overgrazed. Poverty, unemployment and malnutrition in these degraded landscapes are rampant, giving rise to violence, organized crime and forced migration

The good news, however, coming out of Mexico, applicable to many other regions, is that if farmers and ranchers can stop overgrazing pastures and rangelands and eliminate slash and burn practices, and instead reforest, revegetate, rehydrate and recarbonize depleted soils, integrating traditional and indigenous water catchment, agroforestry, livestock and land management practices with agave-based agroforestry, we may well be able to green the drylands and store and sequester massive amounts of carbon.

Via Organica, the ‘Organic Way’

After decades as a food, farm, anti-GMO and climate campaigner for the Organic Consumers Association in the U.S., I now spend a good part of my time managing an organic and regenerative farm and training center, Via Organica, in the high-desert drylands of North Central Mexico.

Our semi-arid, temporal (seasonal rainfall) ecosystem and climate in the state of Guanajuato is similar to what you find in many parts of Mexico, and in fact in 40% of the world. In our valley, we typically get 20 inches or 500 millimeters of precipitation in the “rainy season” (July to October), greening the landscape, followed by eight months with little or no rain whatsoever.

At Rancho Via Organica, we’ve been trying to regenerate our high-desert (6,300 feet elevation) environment, developing farming, livestock and landscape management practices that produce healthy organic food and seeds, sequester carbon in the soil, preserve our monte or natural densely-vegetated areas, slow down and infiltrate rainwater (including runoff coming down the mountains and hillsides) to recharge our water table, and reforest and revegetate our still somewhat degraded corn fields and pasturelands.

Looking across our mountain valley, the most prominent flora are cactus and agave plants (some of which are quite large) along with hundreds of thorny, typically undersized, mesquite, huizache and acacia shrubs/trees.

In order to grow our vegetables and cover crops, maintain our olive, mulberry, citrus and pomegranate trees, and provide water and forage for our animals, we — like most small farmers and ranchers in Mexico — irrigate with only the rainfall that we can collect and store in cisterns, ponds and soils.

Eighty-six percent of Mexican farmers and herders have no source of water other than seasonal rainfall, and therefore have to struggle to maintain their milpas (corn, beans and squash) and raise their animals under increasingly adverse climate conditions.

Greening the Drylands: A New Agroforestry Model

Recently Juan Frias, a retired college professor and scientist, came up to me after attending a workshop at our farm. As we discussed regenerative agriculture practices and climate change, Juan told me about a new system of drylands agroforestry and livestock management (sheep and goats), based upon agave plants and mesquite trees in the nearby community of San Luis de la Paz. They call their agroforestry system Modelo Zamarripa.3

By densely planting, pruning and intercropping high-biomass, high-forage producing, fast-growing species of agaves (1,600 to 2,000 per hectare) amongst preexisting deep-rooted, nitrogen-fixing tree species such as mesquite, or among planted tree seedlings, these farmers are transforming their landscape and their livelihoods.

When the agaves are 3 years old, and for the following five to seven years, farmers can begin pruning the leaves or pencas, chopping them up finely with a machine, and then fermenting the agave in closed containers for 30 days, ideally combining the agave leaves with 20% or more of mesquite pods by volume to give them a higher protein level. In our region mesquite trees start to produce pods that can be harvested in five years.

By Year Seven the mesquite and agaves have grown into a fairly dense forest. In years eight to 10, the root stem or pina (weighing 100 to 200 pounds) of the agave is ready for harvesting to produce a distilled liquor called mescal. Meanwhile the hijuelos or pups put out by the mother agave plants are being continuously transplanted back into the agroforestry system, guaranteeing continuous biomass growth (and carbon storage).

In their agroforestry system, the Zamarripa farmers integrate rotational grazing of sheep and goats across their ranch, supplementing the pasture forage their animals consume with the fermented agave silage. Modelo Zamarippa has proven in practice to be ideal for sheep and goats, and we are now experimenting at Via Organica with feeding agave silage to our pastured pigs and poultry.

The revolutionary innovation of these Guanajuato farmers has been to turn a heretofore indigestible, but massive and accessible source of biomass — the agave leaves — into a valuable animal feed, using the natural process of fermentation to transform the plants’ indigestible saponin and lectin compounds into digestible carbohydrates and fiber.

To do this they have developed a relatively simple machine, hooked up to a tractor, that can finely chop up the tough leaves of the agave. After chopping the agave, the next step is to anaerobically ferment the biomass in a closed container (we use 5-gallon buckets with lids).

The fermented end-product, after 30 days, provides a nutritious but very inexpensive silage or animal fodder (in comparison to alfalfa, hay or cornstalks) that costs less than 1 Mexican peso (or approximately 5 cents USD) per kilo (2.2 pounds) to produce.

According to Frias, lambs readily convert 10 kilos of this silage into 1 kilo of body weight. At less than 5 cents per kilo (2 cents per pound) agave silage could potentially make the difference between survival and bankruptcy for millions of the world’s small farmers and herders.

Agaves and Carbon Storage and Sequestration

The Zamarripa system of drylands afforestation and silvopasture draws down and stores in the plants large quantities of CO2 from the atmosphere. Agronomists have observed that certain varieties of agave can produce up to 43 tons per hectare of dry weight biomass per year, on a continuous basis.4

These high biomass varieties of agave will likely thrive in many of the world’s arid ecosystems, wherever any type of agave and nitrogen-fixing trees are already growing.

Nitrogen-fixing trees such as mesquite can be found in most arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Mesquite grows readily not only in Texas and the Southwestern U.S., Mexico, Central America, Argentina, Chile and other Latin American nations, but also “thrives in arid and semi-arid regions of North America, Africa, the Middle East, Tunisia, Algeria, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Myanmar (Burma), Russia, Hawaii, West Indies, Puerto Rico and Australia.”5

At Via Organica, outside San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato,6 we are utilizing moveable, solar-fenced paddocks for our grazing sheep and goats in order to protect our mesquite tree seedlings, to prevent overgrazing or undergrazing, to eliminate dead grasses and invasive species, and to concentrate animal feces and urine across the landscape in a controlled manner.

At the same time that we are rotating and moving our livestock on a daily basis, we are transplanting, pruning, finely chopping and fermenting the heavy biomass leaves or pencas of agave salmiana plants. Some individual agave pencas or leaves can weigh (wet) as much as 20 kilos or 44 pounds.

The bountiful harvest of this regenerative, high-biomass, high carbon-sequestering system will eventually include not only extremely low-cost, nutritious animal silage, but also high-quality organic lamb, mutton, cheese, milk, aquamiel (agave sap), pulque (a mildly alcoholic beverage) and distilled agave liquor (mescal), all produced organically and biodynamically with no synthetic chemicals or pesticides whatsoever, at affordable prices, with excess agave biomass and fiber available for textiles, compost, biochar and construction materials.

Massive Potential Carbon Drawdown

From a climate crisis perspective, the Modelo Zamarripa is a potential game-changer. Forty-three tons of above-ground dry weight biomass production on a continuing basis per hectare per year ranks among the highest rates of drawing down and storing atmospheric carbon in plants in the world, apart from healthy forests.

Imagine the carbon sequestration potential if rural farmers and pastoralists can establish agave-based agroforestry systems over the next decade on just 10% of the worlds 5 billion degraded acres (500 million acres), areas unsuited for crop production, but areas where agave plants and suitable native nitrogen-fixing companion tress (such as acacia varieties in Africa) are already growing.

Conservatively estimating an above-ground biomass carbon storage rate of 10 tons of carbon per acre per year on these 500 million acres, (counting both agave and companion trees, aboveground and below ground biomass) we would then be able to cumulatively sequester 5 billion tons of carbon (18 billion gigatons of CO2e) from the atmosphere every year.

Five billion tons of additional carbon sequestered in the Earth’s soils and biota equals nearly 50% of all human greenhouse gas emissions in 2018.

More Background on Agaves

To better understand the potential of this agroforestry/holistic grazing system, a little more background information on agave plants, and nitrogen-fixing or trees such as mesquite, huizache or other fodder and food producing trees such as inga or moringa may be useful.

Various varieties of agave plants (along with their cactus relatives and companion nitrogen-fixing trees) are found growing on approximately 20% of the earth’s lands, essentially on the half of the world’s drylands where there is a minimum annual rainfall of approximately 10 inches or 250 mm, where the temperature never drops below 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

Kant has described the tremendous biomass production and carbon-storage potential of agaves in dry areas:

“Agave can … be used for carbon sequestration projects under CDM [the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Climate Protocol] even though by itself it does not constitute a tree crop and cannot provide the minimum required tree crown cover to create a forest as required under CDM rules.

But if the minimum required crown cover is created by planting an adequate number of suitable tree species in agave plantations then the carbon sequestered in the agave plants will also be eligible for measurement as above ground dry biomass and provide handsome carbon credits …

It causes no threat to food security and places no demand for the scarce water and since it can be harvested annually after a short initial gestation period of establishment, and yields many products that have existing markets, it is also well suited for eradication of poverty …”7

Agaves, of which there are 200 or more varieties growing across the world, can thrive even in dry, degraded lands unsuitable for crop production because of their Crassulacean acid metabolism (CAM) photosynthetic pathway (cacti and other related desert plants also have a CAM pathway) that essentially enables these plants to draw down moisture from the air and store it in their thick tough leaves during the nighttime, while the opening in their leaves (the stomata) close up during daylight hours, drastically reducing evaporation.

Meanwhile, its relatively shallow mycorrhizal fungi-powered roots below the soil surface spread out horizontally, taking in available moisture and nutrients from the topsoil, especially during the rainy season.

In addition, its propagation of baby plants or pups, (up to 50 among some varieties) that grow out of its horizontal roots makes the plant a self-reproducing perennial, able to sustain high biomass growth, and carbon-storage and sequestration on a long-term basis.

Even as a maturing agave plant is pruned beginning in Year Three (to produce fermented silage) and the entire mature agave plant (the pina) is harvested at the end of its life span, in order to make mescal, in our case after eight to 10 years, it leaves behind a family of pups that are carrying out photosynthesis and producing biomass (leaves and stem) at an equal or greater rate than the parent plant.

In other words, a very high level of above-ground carbon storage and below-ground sequestration can be maintained year after year — all with no irrigation and no synthetic fertilizers or chemicals required, if intercropped in conjunction with nitrogen-fixing tree such as mesquite, huizache, inga, moringa or other dryland species such as the acacias that grow in arid or semi-arid areas.

Agaves and a number of their tree companions have been used as sources of food, beverage and fiber by indigenous societies for hundreds, in fact thousands of years. However, until recently farmers had not been able to figure out how to utilize the massive biomass of the agave plant leaves which, unless they are fermented, are basically indigestible and even harmful to livestock.

In fact, this is why, besides the thorns and thick skins of the leaves, animals typically will not, unless starving, eat them. But once their massive leaves (which contain significant amounts of sugar) are chopped up and fermented in closed containers, livestock, after a short period of adjustment, will gobble up this sweet, nutritious forage like candy.

Developing a native species/agroforestry/livestock system on 5 million to 10 million acres of land unsuitable for food crops in a large country like Mexico (which has 357 million acres of cropland and pastureland, much of which is degraded) could literally sequester 37% to 74% of the country’s net current fossil fuel emissions (current net emissions are 492m tons of CO2e).

And, of course, wherever these agave/agroforestry/holistic grazing systems are deployed, farmers and ranchers will also be restoring the fertility and moisture holding capacity of millions of acres of pasturelands and rangelands, thereby promoting rural food self-sufficiency and prosperity.

Scaling up best regenerative practices on the world’s billions of acres of croplands, pasturelands and forest lands — especially those degraded lands no longer suitable for crops or grazing — can play a major role, along with moving away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, in stopping and reversing climate change.

For more information on the global Regeneration Movement go to Regeneration International. Please sign up for our free newsletter and, if you can afford it, make a tax-deductible donation to help us spread the message of Regenerative Agriculture and Agave Power across the world. “Our house is on fire,” as teenage Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg reminds us, but there is still time to turn things around.

 

Reposted with permission from Mercola.com

How to Save the World: Turning a Big Negative into a Big Positive

/by

Whenever speaking at a conference, I would often get the same anguished question from an audience member: what’s the one thing I can do to save the world?

My answer for many years was a recommendation to vote with your pocketbook for local farms and ranches that provided grassfed food, improved their soil health, reduced their carbon footprints, employed predator-friendly practices, were holistically-managed, or did environmental restoration work on their land.

Starting in 2009, however, my answer became much simpler. That’s because I had become aware of the links between land use and climate change via a report from the Worldwatch Institute (see) that changed my life. If you have a chance, take a look at this publication – it’s still totally relevant.

Normally, healthy soils have a healthy fraction of carbon in them (6-8% typically). When land is disturbed or degraded, however, much of that carbon leaves the soil and enters the atmosphere, contributing to global warming.

KEEP READING ON RESILIENCE

Organizaciones regenerativas continuarán con los eventos agendados en torno a la COP25 en Chile, y también enviarán delegaciones a Madrid

/by

Regeneration International, Savory Institute, Organic Consumers Association y muchas otras organizaciones comprometidas a apoyar el movimiento regenerativo en América Latina

Contacto:

América Latina: Ercilia Sahores, ercilia@regenerationinternational.org, +52 (55) 6257 7901

Estados Unidos: Katherine Paul, katherine@regenerationinternational.org; 207-653-3090

SANTIAGO, Chile – 7 de noviembre de 2019 – En una demostración clara de solidaridad con el creciente movimiento regenerativo en Chile y en América Latina, Regeneration International anunció que llevará a cabo la asamblea anual de la red y participará de otras instancias claves y estratégicas sobre el clima y la agricultura en Chile y regiones, a pesar de la decisión del gobierno de Chile de no ser anfitrión de la Conferencia climática COP25.

Regeneration International y aliados claves también enviarán delegaciones a la COP25 oficial, que ahora tendrá lugar en Madrid. 

“Este es un momento histórico de profundo simbolismo para Chile,” afirmó Ercilia Sahores, Directora para América Latina de Regeneration International. “Nuestra decisión de continuar con las reuniones que hemos organizado durante meses junto con otras organizaciones de la sociedad civil, refleja nuestro compromiso de asegurar que las voces ciudadanas, no solo las institucionales, puedan unir fuerzas y tener una plataforma en la COP25. Creemos que el Movimiento Regenerativo ofrece una esperanza que se traduce en soluciones políticas, ambientales y socio-económicas prácticas ante la crisis sistémica que se está viviendo en este momento en Chile y otras partes del mundo.”

“Regeneration International está inspirado y con nuevas fuerzas por el surgimiento de resistencia de base y por la regeneración que se está contagiando en todo el planeta, declaró Ronnie Cummins, co-fundador y miembro de la junta de Regeneration International.” Los levantamientos que hemos visto en Chile, Hong Kong, Moscú, el Líbano y otras naciones y el rápido crecimiento de Extinction Rebellion en Europa y el movimiento Sunrise en Estados Unidos, son claros llamados para que el sistema cambie como condición clave para enfrentar la crisis climática y la crisis social, política y económica que están claramente relacionadas. Desde Regeneration International y en conjunto con organizaciones aliadas estamos esperando con ansias ir a Santiago en diciembre para, junto con nuestros colegas en América Latina y Chile, construir un movimiento fuerte a través de América y lograr un Nuevo Acuerdo Verde transcontinental con un fuerte foco en la reforestación, la agricultura y la alimentación regenerativa, así como la restauración de ecosistemas..” 

“La hora esperada ha llegado, luego de años de practicar y capacitarnos activamente en la regeneración eco-social en nuestras manos, mentes y corazones,” compartió Javiera Carrión, co-fundadora de El Manzano Permacultura, organización afiliada a Regeneration International. “El contexto ha cambiado de una manera rápida y violenta en Chile, y lo mismo está ocurriendo en otras partes del mundo“. Estos son tiempos interesantes y de gran incertidumbre. Es también el momento adecuado para que el Movimiento Regenerativo se reúna y vuelva a pensar su estrategia. Tenemos mucho trabajo por hacer y estamos muy agradecidos del apoyo de Regeneration International en este momento crítico.”

” En Savory nos llena de entusiasmo unir fuerzas con Regeneration International para esta COP25,  tanto en Chile como en España” señaló Daniela Howell, CEO del Savory Institute,” Los líderes de nuestros Hubs en Sudamérica y en Europa se unirán para expresar el apoyo y el compromiso hacia el movimiento regenerativo en esta región y de manera global. Queremos participar como un frente unido en sesiones claves para apoyar la promoción de la agricultura orgánica y la iniciativa global  4×1000, compartiendo también tiempo para inspirarnos, conectarnos y generar amistades.”

Regeneration International llevará a cabo su Asamblea General en Santiago el 9 y 10 de diciembre.

Regeneration International es una organización sin fines de lucro 501 (c) (3) dedicada a promover, facilitar y acelerar la transición global a la alimentación, la agricultura y la gestión de la tierra regenerativas con el propósito de restaurar la estabilidad climática, poner fin al hambre en el mundo y reconstruir los sistemas sociales, ecológicos y económicos deteriorados. Visite https://regenerationinternational.org/.

Regeneration Movement Will Hold Scheduled COP25 Events in Chile, Also Send Delegations to Madrid

/by

Regeneration International, Savory Institute, Organic Consumers Assoc. among other regenerative organizations committed to supporting the Regeneration Movement in Latin America

Contact:

Latin America: Ercilia Sahores, ercilia@regenerationinternational.org, +52 (55) 6257 7901

US: Katherine Paul, katherine@regenerationinternational.org; 207-653-3090

SANTIAGO, Chile – November 11, 2019 – In a show of solidarity with the growing Regeneration Movement in Chile and throughout Latin America, Regeneration International today announced it will hold the regeneration network’s annual general assembly and related global climate events in Santiago and regions, as planned, despite the recent announcement that Chile has pulled out of hosting the COP25 Global Climate Summit.

Regeneration International and key partners will also send delegations to the official COP25, which has been relocated to Madrid. 

“This is a historical and deeply symbolic moment for Chile,” said Ercilia Sahores, Regeneration International Latin America director. “Our decision to proceed with the meetings we’ve spent months organizing on the ground with Latin American civil society organizations reflects our commitment to ensuring that citizen voices, not just institutional voices can join forces and have a platform at COP25. We believe that the Regeneration Movement offers hope, in the way of practical, environmental, socioeconomic and political solutions to the systemic crisis occurring now in Chile and other parts of the world.”

“Regeneration International is inspired and energized by the unprecedented upsurge of grassroots resistance and regeneration spreading across the globe, said Ronnie Cummins, Regeneration International co-founder and steering committee member. “The recent uprisings in Chile, Hong Kong, Moscow, Lebanon and other nations, and the rapid growth of the Sunrise and Extinction Rebellion movements in the U.S. and Europe, are calling for system change as the only way to address the Climate Emergency and the related political, social and economic crises bearing down upon us. Regeneration International and our allied NGOs look forward to traveling to Santiago in December to participate with our Chilean and Latin American partners in building up a strong network throughout the Americas for a transcontinental Green New Deal with a strong focus on regenerative food, farming, reforestation and ecosystem restoration.” 

“The time we expected has arrived, years of training and active experimentation for eco-social regeneration in our hands, hearts and minds,” said Javiera Carrión, co-founder of El Manzano Permaculture, a Regeneration International affiliate. “The context has changed rapidly and violently here in Chile, as is happening in other parts of the world“. These are interesting and uncertain times. It is also time for the Regeneration Movement to gather and re-strategize. We have much work to do, and are grateful to have the support of Regeneration International at this critical moment.”

“Savory is excited to join forces with Regeneration International,” said Daniela Howell, CEO of the Savory Institute,” in both Chile and Spain during COP25, with our Hub leaders in South America and Europe joining in an expression of our committed support to the regenerative movement in these regions and globally. We look forward to participating as a united front in key sessions to advance the support for regenerative agriculture and the global 4×1000 initiative, as well as shared time of inspiration and friendship.”

Regeneration International will hold its General Assembly in Santiago December 9-10.

Regeneration International is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to promoting, facilitating and accelerating the global transition to regenerative food, farming and land management for the purpose of restoring climate stability, ending world hunger and rebuilding deteriorated social, ecological and economic systems.

Chile ya no será anfitrión de la COP. ¿Y ahora?

/by

La semana pasada, debido a las protestas y al malestar social reinante en el país, Chile decidió no ser anfitrión de la Conferencia sobre el Clima de Naciones Unidas COP25 que se iba a celebrar en la ciudad capital, Santiago, del 2 al 13 de diciembre.

En su lugar, la Conferencia global del clima se hará en Madrid en las mismas fechas.

Regeneration International tuvo su lanzamiento oficial en junio de 2015. En diciembre de 2015, lideramos nuestro primera delegación- de aproximadamente 60 personas- a la COP21 en París.

Desde entonces, hemos participado cada año en esta conferencia internacional, con la misión de llevar el mensaje de la agricultura regenerativa como una solución al calentamiento global y muchos otros temas, incluidos el hambre y la pobreza.

Es nuestro compromiso continuar con esta misión, es por ello que este año enviaremos una pequeña delegación a Madrid.

Pero estamos igualmente comprometidos a apoyar a los productores, campesinos y grupos de la sociedad civil (de Chile, Argentina, Brasil y Uruguay) con quienes hemos trabajado durante muchos meses, preparándonos para los eventos de Santiago.

Tememos que el cambio de último minuto a Madrid implique que las voces de la sociedad civil no tendrán una plataforma en la COP este año. Para apoyar a que esa voz sea escuchada, Regeneration International servirá como un “puente” entre la COP25 oficial en Madrid y la COP25 extra oficial que va a tener lugar en Chile.

Nuestro objetivo es asegurarnos que tanto las instituciones como la sociedad civil tengan peso en las negociaciones finales de la COP25.

Crisis y Oportunidad

Las protestas en Santiago fueron desencadenadas por un aumento en el precio del pasaje del metro. Pero las protestas son un síntoma de problemas de fondo mucho más profundos. De problemas sociales, económicos, políticos y ambientales que han dejado a la mayoría de los chilenos con opciones limitadas y poca esperanza.

El pueblo de Chile se está alzando para pedir un cambio sistémico, un cambio de una escala apropiada para enfrentar las muchas crisis que los acucian, incluida la crisis climática.

Es el tipo de cambio que el movimiento regenerativo está proponiendo a nivel global. Es por ello que creemos que ahora más que nunca es crucial mostrar solidaridad con el pueblo de Chile en este momento crítico y continuar con los encuentros, conversatorios y reuniones estratégicas que hemos organizado junto con nuestros aliados de Chile.

Después de todo, la agricultura juega un papel muy importante en la economía chilena y los agricultores sufren las injusticias del sistema. La privatización del agua, por dar un ejemplo, no ayuda mucho en tiempos de sequía.

Junto con nuestros amigos latinoamericanos hemos organizado eventos oficiales y extra oficiales en Santiago, de manera de brindar eco a las voces locales y regionales.

Hemos organizado una delegación de aproximadamente 60 personas para que participen en instancias como la Sociedad Civil por la Acción Climática, el Festival Internacional de Innovación Social, la Cumbre de los Pueblos y la Asamblea General de Regeneration International (9 y 10 de diciembre)

¿Quién más estará en Chile?

Continuaremos trabajando con un número de organizaciones de nuestra red que han invertido su tiempo y recursos en el planeamiento de la COP25 en Chile. Esta lista muestra el interés que existe en regenerar Chile:

Organizaciones en Chile: Regenerativa Chile, El Manzano, Efecto Manada, Carnes Manada, Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Chile, Pio Pio, Costa Sur, Ecobioteca, Un alto en el Desierto, Sociedad Civil por la Acción Climática, Cumbre de los Pueblos.

Organizaciones Internacionales y Aliados Internacionales: Savory Hubs (Chile, Argentina, Brasil, Uruguay), I Give Trees, Asociación Biodinámica Argentina, Constelación Argentina, Mutirão Agroflorestal Brasil, Arte na Terra, Brasil,Direccioón de Ecología y Medio Ambiente, San Miguel de Allende, México, Kiss the Ground, Durga’s Den, Pretaterra, Movimiento Argentino de Producción Orgánica, Red Biointensivista Mexicana, Huertos Comunitarios de Sao Paulo.

Es realmente una lástima que la situación en Santiago haya hecho que la COP25 se trasladara a Madrid. Pero queremos ver en esta crisis una oportunidad. Les trendremos al tanto de nuestros planes y esperamos escuchar de ustedes.

Ercilia Sahores es Directora para América Latina de Regeneration International. Para suscribirte a nuestro boletín, haz click aquí.

Madrid Will Now Host COP25. Here’s Why We’re Still Going to Chile.

/by

Last week, Chile pulled out of hosting the United Nations COP25 climate conference, citing recent protests and civil unrest in Santiago where the summit was to be held December 2 – December 13.

The global climate conference will take place instead in Madrid, on the same dates.

Regeneration International launched in June 2015. In December 2015, we led our first delegation—nearly 60 people—to the COP21 conference in Paris.

Every year since, we’ve participated in this international conference, bringing with us the message of regenerative agriculture as a solution to global warming, and also to so many other issues, including poverty and hunger.

We’re committed to this mission, so we will send a delegation this year to Madrid.

But we’re equally committed to supporting the farmers and civil society groups—from Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay—that we’ve been working with for many months, in preparation for the events in Santiago.

We fear that the last-minute venue change to Madrid will mean that the voices of civil society won’t have a platform at this year’s COP. To ensure that they do, Regeneration International will serve as a “bridge” between the official COP25 in Madrid, and the unofficial COP25 events that will take place in Chile.

Our goal is to ensure that both institutions and civil society have a say in the final outcome of COP25.

Crisis as an opportunity

The recent protests in Santiago were triggered by a rise in subway ticket prices. But the protests are symptomatic of the much deeper issues of social, economic, political and environmental injustices that have left the majority of Chileans with few options and little hope.

The people of Chile are rising up to demand systemic change, change on a scale commensurate with the many crises facing them, including the climate crisis.

It’s the kind of change that the Regeneration Movement is advocating for around the globe. That’s why we believe it’s important to show solidarity with Chileans in this critical moment, and to carry on as planned with as many of the roundtables, activities and other events we’ve been organizing with our allies there.

After all, agriculture plays a significant role in Chile’s economy. But farmers are suffering under an unjust system. Privatization of the country’s water, for example, doesn’t help in times of drought.

Together with our Latin American friends, we’ve organized official and unofficial events in Santiago, so that local and regional voices can be heard.

We organized a delegation of nearly 60 people to participate in these events, including the Civil Society for Climate Action, the International Innovation Social Festival, the People’s Summit and the Regeneration International General Assembly (December 9-10).

Who else will be in Chile?

We will continue to work with the many organizations in our network that have invested time and resources in planning for COP25 in Chile. This list of partner organizations shows just how much interest there is in regenerating Chile:

Organizations in Chile: Regenerativa Chile, El Manzano, Efecto Manada, Carnes Manada, Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad de Chile, Pio Pio, Costa Sur, Ecobioteca, Un alto en el Desierto, Civil Society for Climate Action, People’s Summit.

International Organizations and international allies: Savory Hubs (Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay), I Give Trees, Seed Council of the Argentine Biodynamic Association, Constelación Argentina, Mutirão Agroflorestal Brazil, Arte na Terra, Brazil, Environment and Sustainability Director, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Kiss the Ground, Durga’s Den, Pretaterra, Argentinean Movement of Organic Production, Mexican Biointensive Network, Sao Paulo Community Gardens.

It’s a shame that the recent events in Santiago forced Chile to pull out of COP25. But we look forward to creating opportunity out of crisis. We’ll keep you updated as our revised plans unfold!

Ercilia Sahores is Latin America director for Regeneration International. Sign up here for our newsletter.

Old New Deal shows path to Green New Deal

/by

One hundred years ago, English-born Catherine and Thomas Naylor, bought the farm we farm today in Greene County, Iowa. They built our house we live in that year, too, when prosperity from World War I markets gave them the courage to go in debt for the farm and house. This destination came after a Greene County coal mine shaft caved in on my grandfather’s tools, and hopscotching from farm to farm cast my family’s status as family farmers, which gave George, their only grandchild, the opportunity of becoming a family farmer. The Jochimsens, George’s mother’s parents, were always tenant farmers.

Long before that, Patti’s ancestors settled in Guthrie and Audubon Counties in Iowa, as farmers from Denmark. This was shortly after the U.S. government had ruthlessly driven the Native American Indian tribes from this land, a fertile prairie Garden of Eden between two rivers, the Mississippi and Missouri. Some of Patti’s family participated in the Underground Railroad helping freed African Americans escape the brutal slave system of the South. There’s no doubt our families’ inclination to being our brother’s keeper and valuing freedom cast their lot with the Republican Party—the Party of Lincoln.

Our families have seen good times and bad times over the years. Stories of the Great Depression and the oppressive heat and failing crops of the Dust Bowl years were recounted many times. Our families’ farms recovered because of the Roosevelt New Deal parity farm programs, yet emotional stories of neighbors that weren’t so lucky stamped a sense of empathy and appreciation on our hearts to this very day.

There is no doubt we have lived privileged lives, and there is no question we, as white Americans, can never forget the sacrifices of generations of Native and African American human beings before us. Nor can anybody living today, ignore the fact that the system of family farms whose future had been guaranteed with New Deal parity farm programs has been under attack from exploitive and extractive agribusiness since the those programs were dismantled beginning in the early 1950’s. When discussing the plight of family farmers with a member of a Nebraska tribe during the 1980’s farm crisis, he said, “Well, you’re next!” meaning that this extractive economic system will eventually swallow us all.

Our one glimmer of hope and that which has crystalized the thinking and focused the energy of many food and farm activists like ourselves is the initiative called the New Green Deal, which borrows inspiration from policies that addressed the sick economic development and final catastrophes of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl—the old New Deal of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt administration. Progressive activists with an international perspective have underlined the necessity of addressing the undemocratic nature of global markets with the principles of food sovereignty and agroecology. “Supply and demand”, wealth accumulation, cheap labor, mountains of debt, and cheap commodities can no longer rule our economic lives and future.

Having been corn and soybean farmers living in a landscape that has become devoid of biodiversity, devoid of neighbors, devoid of thriving small towns, and devoid of clean air and water, we are most familiar with the U.S. problems we see firsthand. Frighteningly, the agronomic problems inherent in ignoring the science of ecology, raising genetically engineered corn and soybeans year after year, are being addressed by the chemical-genetic engineering companies who prescribe more patented chemical monocrop solutions that already created this disastrous course. We are inspired by Old New Deal policy—both domestically and internationally—of combining price floors for commodities that adjust with inflation, i.e. applying the parity principle, coordinated supply management to stop wasteful over-production, and creating food security reserves (basic storable commodities) to avoid famine when climate change or volcanic eruptions bring crop production crashing down. In the same international spirit, the International Coffee Agreement stabilized profitable prices with price floors and country quotas—like a parity progron—but those features were abandoned when the United States withdrew from the agreement in 1989. With parity policies in place, we can bring livestock production back to family farms and out of the grip of vertically integrated meat, milk and egg companies. Farmer can then incorporate hay, pasture and small grains into a sound crop rotation with responsible use of manure so that artificial nitrogen will be unnecessary and weed control will not be dependent on more chemical warfare. Small town economies will be restored and the new balanced economy will create purposeful jobs and tax revenues for new democratic priorities.

A major focus of the Green New Deal is combatting climate change. It’s been recognized that the current agricultural system promoted by agribusiness depends on fossil fuels to power giant machinery, processing, transportation, manufacturing of chemicals, and fertilizer. The production of two main crops, corn and soybeans year after year on millions of acres of North and South America, and soon Africa leads to soil erosion, water pollution, and feeding cheap corn to animals in corporate feedlots and confinements. We believe, as does the many farmers of La Via Campesina and as expressed in a civil society statement, Our Land is Worth More Than Carbon (at COP22), that family farm and peasant agriculture practicing agroecology can better address climate change with a holistic analysis of our global climate and environmental problems rather than many of the proposals that simply focus on carbon emissions. Agroecology emphasizes agriculture as a social activity connected to community, culture, and ancestral wisdom. It’s been a self-serving trick of agribusiness to claim that their system of agriculture creates a smaller “carbon footprint”, and a big benefit to farmers will be if governments and corporations pay farmers to sequester carbon. Of course, none of these solutions including chemical intensive no-till farming or the application of “regenerative practices” will get in the way of the global corn-soybean-processed food-confined animal bulldozer. Besides, such thinking invites land grabbing to gain payments for planting tree plantations, etc. International solidarity with family farmers and peasants using the concepts of food sovereignty and agroecology is the answer. As the civil society statement says, “Farming land cannot become an accounting tool for managing the climate crisis,” nor can we accept the “financialization of Nature.”

George Naylor is an Iowa farmer and a member of the U.S. Farmers & Ranchers for a Green New Deal.

Soil Power! The Dirty Way to a Green Planet

/by

The last great hope of avoiding catastrophic climate change may lie in a substance so commonplace that we typically ignore it or else walk all over it: the soil beneath our feet.

The earth possesses five major pools of carbon. Of those pools, the atmosphere is already overloaded with the stuff; the oceans are turning acidic as they become saturated with it; the forests are diminishing; and underground fossil fuel reserves are being emptied. That leaves soil as the most likely repository for immense quantities of carbon.

Now scientists are documenting how sequestering carbon in soil can produce a double dividend: It reduces climate change by extracting carbon from the atmosphere, and it restores the health of degraded soil and increases agricultural yields. Many scientists and farmers believe the emerging understanding of soil’s role in climate stability and agricultural productivity will prompt a paradigm shift in agriculture, triggering the abandonment of conventional practices like tillage, crop residue removal, mono-cropping, excessive grazing and blanket use of chemical fertilizer and pesticide.

 

KEEP READING ON THE NEW YORK TIMES

Can Farmers and Ranchers Pull One Trillion Tons of Carbon Dioxide out of the Atmosphere?

/by

The short answer is yes, they can.

First, a little background: atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have been rising significantly since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. In May, the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii reported an average monthly level of carbon dioxide above 415 ppm, the highest concentration of atmospheric carbon dioxide in millions of years (I,II). This accumulation represents an additional 135 ppm of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since the Industrial Revolution, which equates to one trillion tons* of carbon dioxide, or one teraton (III). **

To avoid the harshest effects of these additional greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, we must reduce current emissions – but even that will not be enough. Even if all countries meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement, and all companies meet their individual commitments, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels will continue to climb, reaching an estimated 580 ppm by the end of the century (IV). This uncertain future cannot be averted with a business-as-usual mindset, nor a middle of the road effort. Drawing down atmospheric carbon dioxide is necessary to begin undoing the damage.
KEEP READING ON INDIGO