Mercola Fights for Regenerative Agriculture by Supporting Biodynamic Farmers

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CAPE CORAL, Fla. (June 24, 2021) – Leaders in natural health with a legacy rooted in sustainability, Dr. Mercola and his team promote the future of regenerative agriculture by working with biodynamic farmers to offer Demeter Certified Biodynamic® products in more categories than any other U.S. brand.
 
Demeter Certified Biodynamic®, the world’s oldest ecological certification, is the conscious, holistic way of farming that elevates the organic standards on regenerative agriculture by using a soil-first approach.
 
“Restoring our soil improves the overall quality of our food, which naturally drives progress toward biodiversity and a more regenerative future,” says Steve Rye, Mercola CEO. “Our team is dedicated to building relationships with family farmers from across the world to restore agricultural communities and environmental resilience.”
 
Mercola supports the success of biodynamic farms – across five continents, in eight countries – by paying farmers a premium price for their harvests.
 
“Through regenerative agriculture, we are able to bring excess carbon from the air and put it back into the ground where it can be utilized to grow better crops and preserve more water,” says Ryan Boland, Mercola Chief Business Officer. “The biodynamic standard of farming reduces carbon emissions, improves water quality and promotes climate health all while producing nutrient-rich foods. We can heal the planet through agriculture – it all starts with soil.” 
 
The rich, nutritious foods harvested from these farmers make up Solspring®, Mercola’s authentic food brand that offers unique Demeter Certified Biodynamic® and organic foods – like olive oil from 100-year-old trees found in the Kalamata region of Greece, vinegars and tomato sauces sourced from 40-year-old farms in the Modena region of Italy, and more – all in a variety of fresh, full-bodied flavors. The Dr. Mercola brand also initiated the first-ever standards for Demeter Certified Biodynamic® supplements and currently has six available.
 
Dr. Mercola is amongst the original supporters of regenerative agriculture with his passionate dedication starting nearly a decade ago when he helped pioneer the Non-GMO movement. He assisted in funding the addition of Proposition 37 to the ballot during the 2012 California statewide election, which required the labeling of genetically engineered food. Most recently, he has funded the Billion Agave Project by Regeneration International, which is a game-changing ecosystem-regeneration strategy that combines the growing of agave plants and nitrogen-fixing companion tree species, such as mesquite, with holistic rotational grazing of livestock for a high-biomass, high forage-yielding system that works well even on degraded, semi-arid lands.
 
Mercola.com is a natural health website dedicated to helping nearly ten million monthly readers improve their health with research-proven nutritional, lifestyle and exercise principles. Using a holistic approach for optimal health and wellness, Dr. Mercola has been a trusted source of natural health information for more than 20 years. Together with his team, they deliver the highest quality supplements, biodynamic and organic foods, and personal care products for your health, home and pet through the online store – Mercola Market. Visit mercolamarket.com to browse more than 1,000 premium products that help Take Control of Your Health®. For the most up-to-date health news and information, visit mercola.com and subscribe to the daily newsletter.
 

This Forest Has Remained Wild for 5,000 Years-thanks to the Soil

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We sometimes think that the Amazon rainforest has not been modified by humans and can peep into the Earth’s past. In the last few years, scientists have learned that many parts of the Amazon are completely untouched. The Amazon has been cultivated by indigenous peoples for thousands of years, and only centuries ago there were cities and farmlands. But that’s not the case everywhere.In a new study at PNASResearchers have found that the rainforests of the Putumayo region of Peru have been home to relatively unaltered forests for 5,000 years, and that the people who lived there have found a long-term way to coexist with nature. .. Silica and charcoal in the soil.

“Even experienced ecologists find it very difficult to tell the difference between a 2,000-year-old forest and a 200-year-old forest,” said Nigel, an ecologist and co-author of the paper at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.・ Pitman says. PNAS paper. “There are more and more studies showing that many of the Amazon forests we consider to be wilderness are actually only 500 years old, because the people who lived there were also by Europeans. He died in a pandemic and the forest grew again. “

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Changes in Farming Practices Could Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions by 70% by 2036

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Team used Argonne’s GREET model to simulate changes, predict outcomes.

Scientists from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory participated in a study that shows innovation in technologies and agricultural practices could reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from grain production by up to 70% within the next 15 years.

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, the study identifies a combination of readily adoptable technological innovations that can significantly reduce emissions and fit within current production systems and established grain markets.

The study, “Novel technologies for emission reduction complement conservation agriculture to achieve negative emissions from row crop production,” maintains that reductions in GHG emissions could be attained through digital agriculture, crop and microbial genetics and electrification. The new technologies, when implemented, promise to drive the decarbonization of agriculture while supporting farm resilience and maintaining profitability and productivity.

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RI’s Response to The Ecologist’s “The Regenerative Ranching Racket”

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Brendan Montague,

Editor of The Ecologist, at brendan@theecologist.org

Re: The regenerative ranching racket by Spencer Roberts, June 14, 2021

 

Dear Brendan,

 

The credibility of the Ecologist is being seriously questioned when it engages in deliberate fraud and makes false claims in order to try to discredit the fastest growing agricultural movement in the world.

Your journalist conducted outright fraud and lied when registering a false farm on our Farm Map and openly admits this. He further deliberately misrepresented the purpose of our Farm Map.

The Farm Map is a free service that connects thousands of farmers around the world to hundreds of thousands of potential customers. It is a self-regulating service not a certification system. Customers can let us know if farms are making false claims and we can remove them from the map. This service is particularly important in the developing world where farmers are the lowest socioeconomic group, in part, due to not being paid fairly for what they produce.

The same journalist that openly lies and commits fraud, then goes on to try and discredit various leaders of the global regeneration movement. We have the verified published data to show that these farmers and their various systems sequester more CO2 out of the atmosphere  than they emit. Unlike industrial farming which, depending on the methodologies used, accounts for up to 50% of global emissions, regenerative agriculture has solid published science to show that it sequesters more CO2 than it emits. We can change agriculture from being a major problem to becoming a major solution for the climate crisis.

32 countries, many regions, UNFAO, IFAD, GEF, CGIAR and hundreds of NGOs support changing farming from being a major CO2 emitter to becoming a major mitigator of CO2 by storing it in soil as soil organic matter. They have signed on to the 4 for 1000 initiative that was launched by the French Government at the Paris Climate Change meeting Dec. 2015. The UNFCCC recognizes this initiative as part of the Lima – Paris accord in the Paris agreement.

Industrial agriculture in its various forms has the most significant effect on land use on the planet. It is responsible for most of the environmental degradation, biodiversity loss, forest destruction, toxic chemicals in our food and environment and a significant contributor, up to 50%, to the climate crisis. The degenerative forms of agriculture are an existential threat to us and most other species on our planet. We have to regenerate agriculture for social, environmental, economic and cultural reasons and that is exactly what we in the global regenerative movement are doing.

 

Yours Faithfully,

 

André Leu, International Director,  June 19, 2021

Al compostar estamos devolviéndole suelo a la Tierra

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“Otoño es la época que más me dedico al jardín”, es lo primero que comenta al ingresar al zoom. Vive en Bariloche, es ingeniera agrónoma, docente e investigadora del Conicet. Tiene más de 70 artículos científicos publicados, es parte fundadora de la flamante Asociación Argentina de Compostaje (Asacomp). Sabe mucho de suelos, contaminación y tiene mucha vocación de compartirlo. Además, fue directora de la Planta de Compostaje Cloacal de su ciudad, en la que se procesan los efluentes del 70 por ciento de la población y se produce alrededor de 5000 metros cúbicos de enmienda orgánica por año. Material de comprobada eficacia en la regeneración de suelos áridos y degradados.

María Julia Mazzarino proviene de una cuna de agrónomos. Un tío materno fue una de sus mayores inspiraciones, Antonio Prego, que investigaba suelos en el INTA de Castelar. Y desde su infancia en Añatuya (Santiago del Estero) y la colonia piamontesa San Francisco (Córdoba), recibió el legado de su familia por la tierra. Por ese mismo motivo también vivió en Alemania, donde realizó su doctorado sobre suelos acidificados, contaminados con azufre y distintos nitratos. “Quería aprender metodologías para medir»; recuerda.

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Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente: Si te importa tu salud, te importan los ecosistemas

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Este año, el Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente tiene como protagonistas a los ecosistemas y su restauración.

La disponibilidad de agua y alimentos suficientes, la regulación de los vectores de enfermedades, las plagas y los agentes patógenos, la salud y el bienestar humano está supeditados a los servicios y condiciones del medio ambiente natural.

Tanto la OMS como Naciones Unidas explican que disponer de ecosistemas más saludables, con una biodiversidad más rica, aporta mayores beneficios como suelos más fértiles, mayor disponibilidad de recursos como la madera o el pescado.

Y de manera indirecta los cambios en los servicios de los ecosistemas afectan a los medios de ganarse el sustento, los ingresos y la migración local; en ocasiones, pueden incluso ocasionar conflictos políticos.

También repercuten sobre la seguridad económica y física, la libertad, el derecho a elegir y las relaciones sociales, y tienen efectos muy amplios en el bienestar y la salud, así como en la disponibilidad y el acceso a los servicios de salud y los medicamentos.

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Turberas, sumideros de carbono vitales para la Tierra

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Dependemos de la buena salud de los ecosistemas para nuestra supervivencia. Su desaparición privaría al planeta de inmensos sumideros de carbono, como son los bosques o las turberas, en un momento en que las emisiones globales de gases de efecto invernadero han aumentado durante tres años consecutivos y el planeta está a un paso de un cambio climático potencialmente catastrófico.

Ante este grave problema, el Día Mundial del Medio Ambiente, con el lema Reimagina, recrea, restaura, se centra este año en la conservación de los ecosistemas. Además, hoy arranca el Decenio de la ONU sobre la Restauración de Ecosistemas (2021-2030), una llamada de atención global para revivir miles de millones de hectáreas que ocupan bosques, tierras de cultivo o cimas de montañas, porque nunca ha habido tanta necesidad de revertir su degradación como ahora, señala la ONU.

Las turberas conforman uno de esos ecosistemas vitales y sumamente poderosos; y es que, si bien cubren el 3% de la superficie terrestre del planeta, contienen casi un 30% del CO2 del suelo.

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Are Corporate Claims of Regenerative Agriculture Real?

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Regenerative agriculture could save the world. Or at least it belongs in the toolbox to help reduce and reverse climate change. EarthDay.org chose it as a major theme for their 2021 campaigns because so few people are familiar with this important strategy.

But like so many good ideas, corporate marketing teams are already coopting regenerative agriculture into a meaningless buzzword. What is regenerative agriculture really? And how can you as a consumer separate the green from the greenwashed?

Regenerative Agriculture

Like other sustainable agriculture movements, regenerative agriculture focuses on the health of the soil. Conventional, agrochemical-based farming methods’ impacts on soil health are well documented: erosion, diminished tilth, and destruction of microbiotic communities.

Globally, more than 90% of conventionally farmed soils are thinning and a third of Earth’s soils are already degraded. Sustaining soil is not enough – it’s necessary to regenerate it.

Soil Schism

While everyone can agree that soil restoration is at the heart of regenerative agriculture, it is a fairly new movement that lacks the widely recognized standards of organic farming. The new system, Regenerative Organic Certified, is still fine-tuning its standards and has only issued a handful of certifications. There are two competing approaches to regenerative agriculture.

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Regenerative Farming Is Vital to Ensure Food Security

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The past year has shown us the importance of health as the world battles the Covid-19 pandemic. But, it is crucial to also not forget the health of our planet which is in crisis caused by climate change and the collapse of biodiversity as a result of exploitation of our natural resources.

One of the major culprits regardinging biodiversity loss is the agricultural industry. The production of food erodes soil, damages the natural environment and is responsible for 24% of greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Regenerative Agriculture Association of South Africa.

Globally, more than a quarter of the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change come from growing and processing food. Considering that the United Nations predicts the population to increase to 9.7-billion in 2050 from 7.9-billion currently, it is vital that farming practices change, otherwise feeding the world in 30 years will require an 87%  increase in carbon emissions.

Climate change is already wreaking havoc, which also affects the agricultural industry.

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How Pesticides Are Harming Soil Ecosystems

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The first year after Jason Ward began transitioning his newly purchased conventional farm to organic production, he started seeing more earthworms in the soil beneath his corn, soybeans, and wheat fields. By the third year, he had spotted numerous nightcrawlers—big worms reaching up to eight inches long—on his 700-acre farm in Green County, Ohio.

With conventionally farmed land, “anything synthetic is hurting the natural ecosystem of the soil,” said Ward, whose acreage is now largely certified organic. “As you transition away from that, the life comes back.”

By life, Ward means the rich diversity of insects and other soil invertebrates—earthworms, roundworms, beetles, ants, springtails, and ground-nesting bees—as well as soil bacteria and fungi. Rarely do conversations about the negative impacts of pesticide use in agriculture include these soil invertebrates, yet they play a vital role in soil and plant health and sequestering carbon. Worms eat fallen plant matter, excrete carbon-rich casts and feces, cycle nutrients to plants, and create tunnels that help the soil retain water. Beetles and other soil insects feed on the seeds of weeds, or prey on crop pests such as aphids.

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