Reflections: from Africa

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It feels like year 2023 should be over already. It’s been an incredibly wonderful year with many wonderful outcomes and collaborations, but also a year that hit us hard as RI family after we lost one of our greatest minds, Ronnie Cummins. I am however incredibly proud of our small team, the great loss, and great spirit of resiliency that we are all experiencing says so much about how important this work is for us who are alive and those that departed. We will forever be grateful for the great shoulders of the fallen, we stand solid because of their blood and sweat.  Here’s a brief outlook of how things have been unfolding in the world of regeneration, in my world.

This year we have continued to engage at country, sub region and regional level through networks. When we collaborate efforts and create platforms for learning, we have an incredible potential to reverse land degradation, enable security and sovereignty in the food systems and bring about abundance thinking and thriving for all.  We are part of different working groups at the Seed and Knowledge Initiative, including work on Landscape level regeneration, Engaging youths for Agroecology, and creating Agroecology courses for all to have hands on experience.  There is a pool of knowledge and excitement about what’s possible as we combine efforts.  These network efforts are enablers of whole systems approach in our actions towards regenerative communities and influencing policy makers.

There is a lot of activity and intensified communication in the region that is challenging the status quo. Here is a film produced by our friends at AFSA called The Seed Struggle in Africa .

“…We hope that this film will inspire change in advocating for food sovereignty and brings to light the urgent, pivotal issues facing African farmers today. Through the lens of this film, we delve into a reality often overlooked – the struggle for control over the bedrock and source of agriculture, the seed. The freedom to feed oneself, the power to decide what grows on our farms and gardens, what we eat on our plate and the assurance of having food to feed our family are more than just basic rights – they are the epitome of true freedom. Yet, this is the freedom that is being threatened today. The ‘Seed Struggle in Africa’ shatters this industry narrative, shedding light on the realities of the farming sector in Africa and the silent war being waged over its seeds. It is a call to action, a plea for awareness, and a testament to the power of truth.” An excerpt from AFSA

We recently read from RI international Director Andre Leu who was calling out hijackers of regenerative agriculture. This messaging is important in these times where greenwashing is rampant.  Working together, we have to take ownership of regeneration, by understanding and creating connectedness, emergence, non-linearity, and adaptation in all projects.  Our network is growing and 102 of our partners are in the African continent, this growth is exciting. The more voices we have, including a representation of youth, women and different groups, the better are our chances of showing a broad impact that will vibrate across the world.

 

Case study: Community work in Hwange, Zimbabwe

It’s important to understand that local actions done by different communities build up the global story of a regenerative world that we all dream of. Here are a few pictures and lessons on the journey so far with communities we work with here in Zimbabwe.

Identifying community interests and what brings them together for collaborations. We have used regenerative fairs, to celebrate seeds and harvest from ecological farming practices and landscape level regeneration.

We recently used sport to bring together youths and the elderly in farming regeneration to celebrate efforts of work while sharing information to a new group of people. This gathering brought together just over 600 people to have fun and learn together.

Hosting exchange visits with other communities, Learning from successes and the challenges of others alike.  The regenerative design work looks different in each community, but we have an opportunity to harvest principles that have kept others going. We are also using these meetings as opportunity to dive into our traditional foods harvested from the farmers’ fields.

Supporting some key drivers for communities like soil health management and livestock health management programs. These are done in partnership with government departments like the agric extension and vet.

Looking forward:

The landscape is uneasy, the COP meetings are proving to be a mockery of small holder groups efforts, but we are all standing in solidarity, looking ahead for a regenerative world. Nothing is more powerful than hope and a united voice. We are looking forward to a wonderful rest of the year. Our global team is getting into the rhythm of dancing with broken bones as we keep honoring the great work and dreams of Ronnie. For Regeneration.

¿Qué sembrar en Julio 2023?

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¿Por qué somos más felices si tenemos una huerta?

Sabías que si le dedicamos 1 horita por día a la huerta nuestra cabeza cambia porque el aroma de una albahaca o de una ruda, la textura de un Kale o la flor de una caléndula activa la corteza prefrontal de nuestro cerebro, sede del pensamiento elevado y fomenta la liberación de neurotransmisores como la dopamina, serotonina y la oxitocina como así también los opiáceos cerebrales

Cada uno de estos químicos naturales del cerebro se relaciona con distintos aspectos de la felicidad. La dopamina es un antidepresivo, la serotonina aumenta la autoestima y la oxitocina es conocida como la hormona del placer y por ultimo los opiáceos actúan como analgésicos y son los responsables de la euforia que sigue al ejercicio físico por ejemplo.

Ningún medicamento puede coordinar por si solo la liberación de todas estas sustancias.

SEGUIR LEYENDO EN DATE CUENTA

California Proposes to Hijack Regenerative Agriculture

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“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.