Celebrating 10 Years of Regeneration International: Cultivating Soil, Solidarity, and System Change

Roots of Regeneration: How a Movement Took Hold 10 Years Ago

Ten years ago on July 8, 2015, a visionary group of farmers, scientists, organizers, and activists gathered at a biodynamic farm called Finca Luna Nueva in Costa Rica with one unified purpose: to create a regenerative alternative to industrial agriculture. Driven by concerns about soil degradation, climate breakdown, and corporate control of food systems, the gathering planted the seed of a global movement rooted in a vision for a healthy global ecosystem. This seed was also the catalyst for the formation of Regeneration International, an organization with a mission to promote, facilitate and accelerate 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.

From Climate Papers to Global Assembly

In 2013, André Leu, a veteran organic farmer and then President of IFOAM, published a peer-reviewed paper titled ‘Mitigating climate change with soil organic matter in organic production systems’ for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT REVIEW. This paper demonstrated how scaling up organic agriculture could sequester excess CO2 in the soil and help mitigate climate change. The Rodale Institute and others cited this paper, and global figures like Tom Newmark, co-founder of Carbon Underground and the Soil Carbon Initiative, helped spread the message. This momentum led to the formation of an international steering committee through early Zoom calls, which included André, Tom, Ronnie, and Vandana Shiva. 

A Biodynamic Birth in Costa Rica

In 2015, André, Ronnie, and Rose Welch, co-founder and International Director of the Organic Consumers Association, helped gather over 60 leaders from across the globe. They provided financial support for travel and accommodation to bring important voices together. By day’s end, Regeneration International was officially born, aiming to restore soil, climate, and communities . 

The Power of Collective Leadership

Ten years after that first gathering, our movement has grown into a “forest” of global grassroots action, rooted in solidarity, science, and seed sovereignty. This interview brings together four important voices from these early days to discuss the genesis of this movement. 

Mercedes López Martínez is Director of Vía Orgánica in Mexico and a key leader in the ‘Sin Maíz No Hay País’ campaign. This year, she helped secure a national reform to ban GMO corn, protecting Mexico’s native varieties and advancing food sovereignty.

Dr. André Leu is RI’s co-founder and International Director, a longtime organic farmer and author, and former President of IFOAM. He’s been a driving force behind RI’s global policy work and helped lead the creation of the new Regeneration International Standard.

Ercilia Sahores is RI’s Latin America Director and Campaigns Director at Vía Orgánica. With roots in political science, she’s been a vital connector across movements, working with farmers, educators, and policymakers to defend traditional seed systems and build just, local food economies throughout Latin America and around the world. 

Precious Phiri is RI’s Africa Coordinator and founding trustee of iGugu Trust in Zimbabwe. Through her work in holistic grazing and community resilience, she has helped regenerate degraded landscapes and support rural livelihoods across Southern Africa and across the world. 

Turning Seeds into System Change

The last decade has seen these early efforts grow into global initiatives at Regeneration International:

• The People’s Food Summit, amplifying grassroots voices
• The Billion Agave Project, reforesting arid lands
• Regenerative education programs worldwide
• And most recently, the Regeneration International Standard, ensuring “regenerative” remains a meaningful label

This work has been a true community effort. We thank all of you for being a part of this movement for the last decade, and we want to give a special shout-out to the rest of our team members. Judy Linman is at our main office and is the warm and welcoming voice on the other end of the phone, answering questions and helping people feel connected to our movement. Liz Welch who has been working by Rose and Ronnie’s side from the beginning. And we’re deeply grateful to Scott Funkhouser, Kaare Melby, Heather Sve, Becca Kehoe, Paco Oviedo, Danielle Enblom, and Alexis Baden-Mayer, whose invaluable work in organizing, tech systems, and media have been essential in helping us share our message and expand our reach around the world.

Watch the full interview with our founding leaders and read the transcript below (automatic transcription of the video — may contain light errors)

Video transcript (automatic transcription of the video — may contain light errors)

00:10
Danielle
Welcome. I’m Danielle from Regeneration International and we are here today to celebrate an important benchmark in the history of regenerative agriculture with four people who have been central to the movement. So today this conversation is happening on July 8, 2025, while we’re celebrating the 10 year anniversary of Regeneration International. And a decade ago today, in the wake of growing concerns about soil degradation, climate instability and corporate control of food systems, farmers, scientists, organizers and activists from around the world came together with shared values that operated in separate spheres to come to one communal space to imagine a future where agriculture was not degenerative, but regenerative. This gathering sparked the birth of a global movement and the birth of ri. And today we’re joined by four individuals who were part of this founding moment.

01:06
Danielle
I’d first like to introduce Mercedes Lopez Martinez, who is the director of Via Organica, our sister organization in Mexico and a key leader in the fight against GMOs in Mexico. This includes the Sin Maes no E Paez campaign, where this year they helped secure national reform to ban GMO corn and protect Mexico’s native varieties and advance food sovereignty. And this has set an example for these types of initiatives around the world of a great success story which fight’s still on.

01:40
Danielle
We’re still at it. And I’d like to also welcome Andre Loy, who is RI’s co founder and International director. He’s a longtime organic farmer and author and you can find his publications and articles over on our website. And Andre has been a driving force behind RI’s global policy work and he’s also this year helped to lead the creation of a new certification called the Regeneration International Standard. I’d also like to welcome Ursilia Soares, who is our Latin America Director and the Campaigns Director at the Organica. Hersilia has roots in political science and she’s been a vital connector across movements. She’s worked with farmers, educators and policymakers to defend traditional seed systems and build just local food economies throughout Latin America and around the world. And finally, I’d like to welcome Precious Piri, who is our Africa Coordinator.

02:35
Danielle
Coming from Zimbabwe, Precious is a founding trustee of the Igugu Trust in Zimbabwe and worked for years with the Savory Institute. And through her work in holistic grazing and community resilience, she has helped regenerate degraded landscapes and support rural livelihoods across southern Africa. And she has also joined RI in work worldwide around regenerative agriculture. Over the past decade, RI has launched major global initiatives that have helped define the Regenerative agriculture movement. And I’m looking forward to hearing more about this from our guests.

03:09
Danielle
These include the People’s Food Summit, which is a multilingual 24 hour platform amplifying grassroots voices the Billion Agave Project, which restores arid lands and captures carbon through agroforestry in Mexico and widespread education programs training the next generation of regenerative farmers and most recently, the launch of the REGENERATION International Standard, a new certification framework built to protect the integrity of regenerative practice and resist greenwashing. Now, today, as we look back on where RI began and ahead to where we want to go next, our conversation explores the vision, regional breakthroughs and system changes, the future of this remarkable movement. So I’d like to welcome Precious, Andre, Ursilia and Mercedes. Let’s start at the beginning.

03:57
Danielle
So welcome everybody and I think I’ll pass it over to Andre just to share with us a bit about the history of the organization.

04:04
André Leu
Okay, thanks Danielle. I’ll go back to the very founding of it and where the idea came from. And that’s because I published a paper called Mitigating Climate Change with Organic Agriculture through the United Nations. It was a major publication by untag, the United Nations Trade Conference for Trade and Development. That paper caused quite a bit of a kerfuffle, particularly among scientists and others. But there are others who saw it and took it up, like the Rodale Institute. And one particular person who saw it was Tom Newmark, who basically was one of the people involved in funding Greenpeace. And he took it to other people within in Greenpeace and said, have a look at this is a game changer. We, we can reverse climate change by scaling up organic agriculture to take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and put it into the soil.

05:27
André Leu
He was met with a lot of skepticism, but he contacted me. And then in 2014 he organized couple of events in New York around the climate change meeting in September 2014. One of those events he did in conjunction with the Rodale Institute in the Rodale headquarters in Second Avenue in Manhattan. And at that event I was speaking, Ronnie was there, Steve Rye from Makola was there, and Dr. Vandana Shiva was there. And that event where we met and basically the idea of forming a larger global organization, a part of like minded organizations, a partnership of like minded organizations. We put that out and Ronnie being Ronnie, when he gets an idea, he just sticks with it and he really liked it. And so Ronnie and I are in contact and Steve Rye.

06:51
André Leu
And then I was back in the States in December and this is at the Acres USA conference in Columbus, Ohio. And Ronnie and Steve came there and we had further discussions on how to do this. And then both Ronnie and I were actually going down to Lima, Peru, and there was the climate change meeting there. So we. We were there and then we had another meeting in a restaurant. It was the first time I met Aselia and Umberto, and I was the president of iPhone at the time. I had two of my staff members, Patricia Flores, particularly our Latin American coordinator, and our other coordinator for basically putting out information. We all met in this wonderful restaurant and really, you could say that was the beginning of the steering committee and getting a solid idea of how we would go forward.

08:22
André Leu
The next part of it is, you know, we all went home and then we started having Zoom meetings. And there’s one Zoom meeting where it’s just Ronnie, Steve and I, and we said, we got to bring Vandana in. And I said, okay, I’ll go and contact her. And no sooner had I finished the Zoom meeting and I went to go email her, and there’s an email from Vandana to me saying, look, Hans Heron and I have been discussing this. And you know, and I said. So I replied, I said, you wouldn’t believe this, Vandana. And so that became the steering committee. And, you know, Celia, as I can say, was involved right in the beginning, in the early days.

09:15
André Leu
Then later on we brought in Tom Newmark, Larry Kopold, and it was on their farm in Costa Rica where we organized a meeting and we brought together people from all around the world. And I really want to praise Ronnie here. Ronnie raised several hundred thousand dollars. A lot of people don’t know that. He told me personally. Ronnie’s someone who very modest about what he did, but as a result, we managed to bring women and men from every corner of the planet and have a really inclusive meeting. And Ursi, you were there. If you wanna just now just talk about your experiences of what that meeting was like.

10:13
Ercilia Sahores
Absolutely. Thank you, Andre. Thank you, Daniel. Actually, Mercedes, you were there as well, I think, right? This was in Finca Luna Nueva in Costa Rica. And you’re absolutely right, Andre. There was the vision and the making from wanting to make that all happen and the convening. You said that in Lima we met at a restaurant. Most of our meetings are and were around food. And I think it’s not a coincidence that were at a restaurant. I’m Finca Luna Nueva also. This beautiful place, this lodge in the middle of Costa Rica. Women and men from every continent of the world over 60 people there, setting the foundation of this network of networks that eventually became Regeneration International. So much strength and brilliant minds.

11:09
Ercilia Sahores
And I think that there was something that was particularly important for me, which was unusual and is still very unusual in movement building at that moment. Everyone decided to put their egos aside and kind of like their, you know, their team jerseys aside and be like, okay, this is, it’s one for all for one, and let’s make this vision, this movement coalition happen. So it was like three very intense days of meeting, brainstorming, eating, of course, but you could really tell there was a before and an after that Costa Rica meeting. And it’s evident to me because even nowadays, whenever I attend meetings at different corners of the world, because for work we have to go to meetings either in Peru or in Tanzania or in New York.

12:16
Ercilia Sahores
I still meet people that I met there 10 years ago, and maybe I haven’t seen them for eight, seven, six, five years, whatever it is, but there’s a connection, there’s a bonding, there’s like a strength there that is still intact. And I think that’s one of the strengths of Regeneration International. It’s like that was that formative meeting from Costa Rica. That’s where the baby was born. And I think we all come from there. That definitely was a meeting where we conceived that together we can make a change, that together that would be possible. And it’s a point of reference for the regenerative movement throughout the world. And it was even really great also to.

13:10
Ercilia Sahores
Because I had met a Mercedes andre before I had worked with Mercedes because I was already working at B Organica and Organic Consumers association in Mexico before Regeneration International started. But I had met Andre before and of course work with Mercedes. But that was one of those moments where I think that we began working more and together with Mercedes was there as well.

13:39
André Leu
So. And this is where Precious comes in. What happened is after Costa Rica, you know, there’s all this enthusiasm and all the people go back to their respective countries to basically put out the message of regeneration. That’s how it started to take off. We sowed many seeds. Examples are kiss the ground. They were at our meeting, Badagodia, so on, you know, various supermarkets, Acres, usa, You know, in terms of getting media and so on, we had a broad cross section of people and they all went back with this word, regeneration. Well, the next thing we did, and once again, Ronnie, this is Ronnie’s genius as an organization, was the Paris climate change meeting. And Basically, we all pretty well ended up in Paris at all these events.

14:49
André Leu
And, you know, were talking at events all over Paris at what was then regarded as the most important climate change meeting. And this gave us a voice for regenerating soils, regenerating agriculture to reverse climate change. And that took off. And as Ursi said, once again, we’re very good at doing it around food, a little bit of alcohol. And this is where Precious came in, and we realized that she was the right person to have on our steering committee. So, Precious, if you want to just talk about it from your perspective at that point.

15:37
Precious Phiri
Yeah, thank you. Also unbelievable that it’s 10 years already. I think it would be nice to shed in a little bit of how I came into the circle. I remember it was 2015. I was literally in a transitional state of life. I had met the bigger world beyond holistic management, which is what I was doing. And so I was sort of branching out to see how I can continue to weave holistic management. At that time, I had admit the term regenerative agriculture in the force and power that it existed between Anne Hirani, Ursilia, Hans Herren, all the guys that I met in Washington, D.C. so I was busy trying to think deeply about how to weave with communities. That’s when I founded Earth Wisdom. I just transitioned from my job at the Savary center in 2015 in Zimbabwe.

16:41
Precious Phiri
Then over time, that evolved into Iguku Trust, which is a trust now that you use as an army to work with communities. So I remember I was going to Biodiversity for a livable climate conference in Boston. And then I met one day while I was in Boston, I met a long train of emails. If anybody knows, Precious, period, please send this email to her. If anybody knows. Look who is looking for me. Ronnie needs to talk to her. So. And then I’m like, oh, okay. I’m actually in Boston. They’re like, oh, my God, you are coming over. There’s a press conference tomorrow. So Ronnie was that kind of person. I was like, okay, you know, like, you’re running to the airport. Everybody’s like, they’re good people. Go. So I went.

17:33
Precious Phiri
We stayed at a hotel in Washington, D.C. that’s when I first met Essie, who would really later become my wonderful friend and sister and literally, like, the person that you shouldn’t be afraid of the streets when you’re with. And then I met Andre. I met Ronnie. I met Alex. So. And Alexis. So this was my first introduction to what had happened in Costa Rica. And then we had a press conference. At the press club, I was very new in the environment and the energy of the people that were with the generosity, food again, we did lots of work with Catherine and Ronnie and everybody around dinner and my first impression of Regeneration International and they were saying, it’s new.

18:23
Precious Phiri
Just, we just had our first meeting, we just had our first launch and this is our first press conference to communicate this powerful message towards Paris. Cop 15. Yes. In 2015. Cop 21.

18:42
Ercilia Sahores
21 in 2015, yeah.

18:44
Precious Phiri
One in 2015. Yes. Oh, my God, the cops are so many. But I was immediately invited after my first speech, like, you know, if you’re available, can we go to Paris? And that was the, honestly, the most life changing moment in my life. My life took a whole pivot because I met our seniors in terms of, in life, they had lived so long, passionate lives of fighting comrade, fighting GMOs, the injustice in the food and seed systems. But then to see these passionate people convert their passion into forming Regeneration International, which was really, honestly new ground for people like Ronnie and I’m sure Andre, it wasn’t very new ground because he’s also a farmer, but he’s fought this system for many years as we are learning and we see his writings.

19:35
Precious Phiri
But Regeneration International was like the regenerate the action, the solutions wing of this important work. I still feel it’s still a fight, but a fight that is presenting solutions to say, hey guys, there is an alternative and maybe we can, you know, we can take away the divide of them and us, if we all agree on how to regenerate our world, to bring back the sanity and food and systems and all the ecosystems of the world that we have so much put into trouble now. I bear the same passion. I don’t stop when I start talking, but it’s been, it’s really been wonderful and amazing and radical and transformative and I’ve been growing so much and here we are. I think I officially started the walk back then when were in Paris and then the rest is history.

20:31
André Leu
Yeah. I just want to say the other person who was really important in both Costa Rica and Paris was Dr. Vandana Shiva. She was such a insightful, driving force, inspiring, you know, force in Paris. She was just incredible, you know, coming to our events and because she was there and she’s got, you know, rock star status, we just pulled in, you know, all our venues were just packed because of her. And I just want to say one of the really impressive moments was Mercedes gave her first presentation in English and did really well. Always remember that were really proud of you, Mercedes.

21:23
Mercedes Lopez
Thank you, Andre. And I can say that the history of Regeneration International has been surrounded by many anecdotes such as our participation in climate change summits, but above all, exchanges with local communities through site events. I remember every morning in the different cops. Every morning when we woke up, Ronnie andre were speaking and their voices were inspiring and always filled us with hope for the events. They were a guide and Ronnie is gone, but Andre is a guide. And it is a pleasure to have meetings with people from all over the world like Andre, Precious, Ursilia, Oliver and all. And a lot of people that not is here, but all that people were working for Regeneration International.

22:44
Danielle
Well, thanks you all. So I’m interested in hearing.

22:47
Danielle
It’s so cool to hear how you.

22:49
Danielle
All came to it and clearly you all came from different parts of the world with very similar values and seeing a similar need. And I think sometimes we take it for granted when we’re in the work of what those values are and what the work you’re doing. But what for people who aren’t really aware what was the void? Why was there such a need for this? In that moment and maybe even in your own experience and your own backgrounds, how did your backgrounds bring you all to this same common goal?

23:22
André Leu
I’ll break the ice. I think sometimes it’s always the best way to do it. In my case it was the importance of the role of farming, in particularly organic farming, in taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere through photosynthesis and putting in the soil to build up soil organic matter. That’s where the word organic in organic agriculture comes from. It’s soil organic matter. But what I’d been trying to show for several decades actually was that by scaling up organic agriculture we could reverse climate change, that it was the solution.

24:12
André Leu
When we’re in the meeting in New York, that’s when I realized that organic alone wasn’t big enough. In fact, a lot of the hostility that I met in this has actually come from the environmental movement and the organic movement. But there are other agricultural movements that were like minded, like holistic management that Precious came through has come from and a whole range the agroecology movement in Latin America. There’s a whole range of like minded movements that, you know, instead of us all being in silos, we need to all come together. We’ve got to and regenerate a planet. And I think the other, you know, so it came out of climate change.

25:02
André Leu
But what Costa Rica looked at was the bigger pictures, not just the climate we have the environment we have social issues, we have the holy shore, peace, all these, the big picture of regenerating our planet, our communities, our future. And we do that not by fighting over ideologies, but let’s all work together and work where we have commonalities. And that’s our strength. And what we’ve done in 10 years is we’ve gone from a concept to an organization with 670, actually more than 670 partners in more than 80 countries on every arable continent. And equally important is every day in the news, somewhere the word regeneration is there. It’s being discussed. We started a whole paradigm shift in agriculture. We started a revolution. And that is ongoing.

26:17
Danielle
Thanks, Andre. And I just want to say that one of the things that I really love hearing from you, Andre, just in hearing you speak at various times, we have so much happening in the media. We see so much that’s so negative just kind of in this arena. And it can be really hard to have hope sometimes because of all of the news constantly coming out. But then whenever I hear from, listen to any of you speaking, you realize that there’s. There’s just so many grassroots organizations and so many individuals that there’s so much hope, so many positive things are happening. So I’m looking forward to hearing more about that from each of you. Just what you’re seeing kind of in your own work and in your partnerships. But I’d like to hear a little bit more first.

27:04
Danielle
Precious or Celia, in your work, why was this important to you to be joining a movement like this in the moment that you joined? What was the need you were seeing in your communities?

27:17
Precious Phiri
I think for me, over and above what Andre has so beautifully articulated, I think it was also Regeneration International was serving as a space for bringing together actions or solutions and activism together. I remember we once had a hashtag. They were not even called hashtags by then. I think it was a campaign which said resist and regenerate. You know, which is whether you’re a farmer, a rural farmer in rural Zimbabwe, or rural. Anyway, your action towards being ethical, towards how you grow your crops, how you live your life, and how you interact with the nature around you. It’s part of resisting this, advancing mega agriculture that will really see us being buried to the ground. So the message was strong, full of hope, but also, you know, not beating about the bushes because there’s no gray. It’s either a regenerative or degenerative.

28:20
Precious Phiri
And I think this message has never been stronger in this movement. For me, that was very important. And coming from a continent where governments are really at the mercy of corporates in debt and every day things are just being forced down on our countries because we are hopelessly in debt. And so to see, to hear a group of people that are bringing all of us together in this big energy to me has been very important and I feel very blessed because through this platform of Regeneration International, I’ve been able to take part in our southern African region, Africa wide, at a global space. And right now I’m actually a focal person for the UN Committee for Food Security, so through the civil society and indigenous peoples mechanism.

29:18
Precious Phiri
So I’m contributing at that global scale, but with the banner of I represent a network of networks. I represent the people of the world and the people of Southern Africa through Regeneration International. And I feel like that’s been our strength. And like Andre says, everything has evolved now we have courses that we are offering. It’s a forest. A forest is a forest because it’s diverse. And we are people of diversity beyond race, language or anything, as long as we speak the same language of Regeneration. To me, this has been very important.

29:54
Ercilia Sahores
That’s nice. Precious. Yeah, absolutely.

29:58
Ercilia Sahores
And I’m going to continue the message from Andrea and Precious because I think that’s something that we all feel. But for me, there’s two things. One, the perspective of coming from a country that is a poster child of everything that has gone wrong in terms of agrochemicals, intensive use of pesticides. As you know, Argentina is clearly the indication of the dangerous effects of pesticides and that there is no minimum or good dose. Unfortunately, we have so many examples of diseases and health issues related to the intensive use of. Of pesticides. So that’s kind of my background. And coming from that and seeing an organization that puts out a message of hope, which is what Regenerations from Nashville has done for many years, is okay, things are really bad. But what we bring is hope.

30:56
Ercilia Sahores
And we kept that message of hope through organizing, through movement building. I think that what you just mentioned, pray, about the resistance we generate is very important. But also this spirit of we’re perennial optimists. Despite all the adversities, we’re always there and we continue fighting, we continue struggling. And I think that the void was precisely that lack of coordination, the lack of activism. And this is where things change with Regeneration International, with that Costa Rica. Costa Rica meeting, but all the organizing after that for many years. And I think that RI brought that fierce into the conversation and allowed people to Be perfectly honest and transparent and bring maybe the more radical players and actors to the organization with a very clear message of we are an umbrella organization.

32:01
Ercilia Sahores
We bring in our ecology, regeneration, organic. We don’t fight around that, but we’re very clear about what it means to be regenerative and what it means to be degenerative. And you were mentioning the idea of principles. Clearly there’s something we all have and that we all join in terms of principles beyond the practices. And it’s always been this idea of the law of return, of giving back, this idea of the commons that we have to take care of being our planet and the health of our planet, one of the main commons.

32:39
Ercilia Sahores
But the idea of biodiversity and those messages that Ari and the network is constantly putting out to me are the guiding forces is what gives me hope and that what makes you wake up every morning and go to work and do your thing and talk to people with that message of hope. And I want to also mention, as Mercedes said, when we’ve been at ncop, the first two voices early in the morning were Ronnie andre, and the last two voices to go to bed late at night were Ronnie andres as well. So that was like, you know, an inspirational thing to see these guys, like, constantly strategizing, talking and arguing and, you know, planning marvelous, radical things. So hopefully, I think that perspire into the rest of the team, some of which are here, some of us, because we got a larger team.

33:41
Ercilia Sahores
And that’s also important to mention so many people that have worked with us in the past and are still part of the network. This is a network of partners. We’ve got many partners. And there’s so many other people who make our work possible as well. So it’s a privilege to be able to represent them.

34:01
Danielle
Thanks, Erci. And, you know, I. Well, let’s just quickly, I want to continue focusing on each of you. Mercedes shared a lot about the important work that you’re doing in Mexico around GMOs and corn. And I want to hear more about your precious. You talked about this being a forest and a network of networks. And each of you here, each, all four of you here represent, you know, one of those roots in this huge forest that you’re talking about, this huge network that we have. And I want to hear more about your roots a little bit. I know, Andre, you’re not just talking about the science behind it or talking about the practice of it.

34:45
Danielle
You’re living it.

34:46
Danielle
You have a farm that, a successful farm that’s showing that’s living proof of everything we’re talking about, right?

34:55
André Leu
Yeah. 50 years of farming and still farming. And I’m farming because I love it. And I work with farmers all around the world. One of the things that I do is I go to farming meetings. So, you know, a few weeks ago I was in New Zealand. I actually do local ones now. You know, Precious and I, were in Uzbekistan. But basically in that time I’ve worked with farmers on every continent, training, meeting, listening to them. And I suppose the other thing that I have concentrated on as international director has been building this network, making these links, getting the people in. That’s been our strength. Because I realized when I was president of iPhone, if I said I was president of an organic organization, I got ignored when I said I was the president of an organization with 870 affiliates in 120 countries.

36:04
André Leu
People go, oh, you’re out there with the big NGOs like Greenpeace and you know, WEF and all these others, and they listen to you. And I realized then that this is what we had to do with Regeneration International. We go to a meeting and we say, we’re 670 partners in 80 countries on every continent. We are now the world’s biggest regenerative organization and people take us seriously. And that is very important. And when we have people also like Vandana Shiva, who’s one of our steering committee members and you know, comes to Mexico to support the Mercedes and her campaign and I just want to say, you know, congratulating Mercedes for everything she’s done, but for us, why it was so important, you know, Mexico is the opposite poster child of Argentina and Mexico is the success story. Banned GMOs, the band roundup.

37:13
André Leu
You know, this is. And we’re not really getting that should be global news and a good news story, but that’s something, you know, we’re one of the partners we got involved with, you know, just wasn’t one organization, a lot of organizations, but we made sure were part of that, working with local partners. And that is the way we need to work. We did things like that in Sri Lanka, in Bhutan. We’re starting in Uzbekistan. You know, we really need to do it in Zimbabwe, don’t we, Precious? And, well, you know, there’s a chance actually in East Africa now. Yeah.

37:58
Danielle
Andre, when you say, Andre, when you say we need to do it, what do you mean? We need to do what? What do we, what do we do?

38:03
André Leu
Well, we scale up. But the big trouble is, you know, we’ve Got all these countries that just love us to be there on the ground helping them. It’s very hard when we have no money. I think the really amazing thing is what we’ve achieved is on the smell of an oily rag. Our budgets have been, you know, a bit above non existence as everyone knows. And it’s really, you know, what I want to say here. It is the dedication of the people here, our staff, people who put in the time, you know, and it’s not just a job, it’s a lifestyle and it’s a belief in having a better planet for all of us.

38:56
Ercilia Sahores
And if I could add to that, Andre, I think also it has to do with this message of hope, but also the concrete examples. That’s what we are good at, you know, identifying best practices, concrete examples and giving them visibility. And really if you have some, you know, Igor Bhutan, I got Mexico. There are messages of hope and I think that has to do also with movement, building with farmers power, with being able to also have leverage on public policies. And there are several examples around the world of things that have gone well. And there’s hope for other places for this to happen, which is need to get organized and make them happen. But, but I think it is contagious. If you have things that work like in the case of Mexico, why not bring that everywhere else? So that’s part of.

39:58
Ercilia Sahores
I would say that’s one of the strengths from Regeneration International.

40:09
Mercedes Lopez
Okay, I want to talk about our work in defense of native corn. And we have a class action lawsuit to prevent the commercial planting of genetically modified corn in the center of origin and diversification, which is Mexico. For 12 years we have defended the biodiversity, achieving the prohibition of the planting of transgenic corn through a precautionary measure dictated by the Judas. We had the last Saturday a very beautiful celebration for the defense. And it is important to say that Regeneration International is an important part of this work. With the support of personalities such as Andre Lu and Bandana Shiva, we have been fundamental supporting the advances. For example, two years ago, the foundation Pax Natura Paspar El Mundo A Peace for the World, awarded us its prize for defending corn and nature. Bandana sent a message together with Jane Goddard.

41:49
Mercedes Lopez
Both of them are great women famous around the world. And it must also be said that Ronnie Cummings, one of the most important leaders and founders of Regeneration International, was instrumental in the founding of Regeneration International and that he was very committed to Mexico and all the struggles. He was very proud that I was appointed as a representative of the class action lawsuit against genetically modifying corn. And this year we also succeeded in getting two articles in the Mexican constitution, the 4th and the 27th, which established the prohibition of genetically modified corn in the center of origin and the promotion and care of biodiversity.

42:58
Mercedes Lopez
And there again, the inspiring work of Regeneration International has been an important source to sustain these very diverse struggles on the part of peace in groups, environmentalists, scientists, academics and people who consume corn, of which there are millions of us with diverse communities such as farmers, indigenous, artistic, scientific, academic, traditional cooks, people who consume corn to defend the biodiversity in the milpa that supports us, to defend healthy, local quality food based or on native Mexican corn. And we have to say that we are an example because we are the only country in the world that has stopped international monster companies such as Valer, Monsanto, Pioneer and agroscience that wanted to plant their transgenic corn in Mexico.

44:14
Mercedes Lopez
From there, Regeneration International and its struggles is an example and is present in all continents and is a voice not only of criticism, like Ursila said, but of hope.

44:36
Danielle
Have mentioned just the various levels of work that we do, from farmers to consumers to education to policymakers, presuming that we have people kind of on all levels of that listening. What are the ways that people get involved? What are the ways that people who. You know, I moved from a big city to a community where it’s full of regenerative acts. And I find it very easy now to live those values because I’m surrounded by it. But in big cities or if you don’t really have access or you’re not in these communities, how do people get involved with us, with the work we’re doing and live into these values more deeply?

45:22
Precious Phiri
I mean, I would say Regeneration International is really aimed at reaching everyone. Maybe before I answer your question, Danielle, your contribution. I think one of our strengths has been to, I mean there’s also bigger movements that we’ve plugged in to just promote and push and give presence and yeah, to display in front of everyone these ecosystem restoration communities, which has really captured youth and educating everyone on regreening. We are, we’ve been an important and a. A good partner to such movements. And then Andre writes articles now like it’s going out of fashion and they are free, they are online. He also runs subsidized courses. And I think the most important thing is if people can access social media, they can access information. In Africa, I also contribute to writing just knowledge hubs for people to know.

46:27
Precious Phiri
How can I help my Community to be regenerative or to grow food and healthy soil at the same time. I think our strength is really the hope. But also being available at a very shoestring budget, half the time we don’t charge. Andre and I just came from Uzbekistan. We are participators at Lush Spring Prize where we’ve been judging for almost six years. We’re part of afsa which is an Africa wide network. So I feel like everyone can get involved by either tapping in as a resource. Hey guys, I have information. Or some people can even take part if you have access to funding to enable our team. Like ERSYS said, we are more than what you see on the screen and I think we all stand with each other almost shoulder to shoulder because some tides are rough and were very hard hit.

47:29
Precious Phiri
We lost big flame Ronnie, but it almost looks like he exists in each one of us because we all are more than ever super stubborn. I mean, I haven’t like this before, but we’re all so determined to see the message go. And I honestly would like to acknowledge our team’s efforts. Asilia is all over the world communicating. I’m there. Mercedes, Andre, Peka, you, Danielle, you guys are all doing amazing work. Scott, Corey and everybody that I may have forgotten. But like we have all done so much groundwork and I think each of our partners, if we let go of our own hats and badges and accolades and really understand that this is for our future, for our Earth and for generations that are following behind us, we have the willpower to do it and we can support each other.

48:28
André Leu
Yeah, I think what Precious is saying is the really important thing is we are a network of partners and in part is being there to support our partners. So, you know, we don’t even put our name in lights. You know, for instance, you know, a big study came out from Europe on the multiple benefits of regeneration and that got news all around the world and that’s by the European Regeneration Group. Now I was actually involved in helping them get together and basically mentoring them in the beginning to get them to form the organization. Now Precious, you interviewed them for our people’s Food Summit. And I think that’s actually a very important thing that we do is getting all these messages across. And then right in the beginning when they’re putting this study out, I’m one of the people that they run it past.

49:39
André Leu
Look at the guidelines just. And so my name might be mentioned anywhere in this study, but I’m the person who gets referenced in that in the next phase I’m the person who they email me. It’s the same with Uzbekistan and all these places. You know, very happy to sort of work behind the scenes and help. Help our partners achieve things, give them advice where we’ve got the expertise. Things like the People’s Food Summit is really important because we’re giving everybody a voice and we’re featuring people from every continent and we’re featuring the people who normally don’t have a voice. And we’re getting that out to millions. I think that is substantial, our training courses. And that is something that we will be scaling up over time.

50:44
André Leu
And I also believe that now that we’ve put out the Regeneration International standard, that is really important to stop the greenwashing and stop the Monsantos and Syngentas and others from hijacking us, to make sure we’re very clear what is regenerative and what is degenerative and then the other one. And Daniel, this is where you’ve got a really important role. And same with you, Paco. Communication, that’s what we really do. And end of the day, doesn’t matter where we are in the world. We could be in a remote place in Bhutan or the remotest place in Kenya. Everybody has this. And this is the key to what we do, is to get our messages across. And it’s what we’re doing, I believe we’re doing very effectively, given the budget we’ve got.

51:51
Ercilia Sahores
I agree. And sometimes I feel like. And I don’t know if this happens to you guys, I sound like a broken record, like I keep repeating the same messages over and over again. But there’s always, you know, new audience or new public or people that need to hear that message again. And that is what is important about what we do. We stick to that message. And were able to do outreach to new people constantly. Our network is great. Partners can become members of Regeneration International, they just go to our website. There’s an affiliate program. It has no cost. They can join us. And we’re available all the time. And that’s part of the thing you were saying. Well, we work at a local, regional, federal, global level. So the People’s Food Summit is an example.

52:42
Ercilia Sahores
The People’s Cups, which we’ve been doing since Paris, always is a Carlo Cop, which is the real cop. It’s a people cup that’s been great at building our strengths, but I think that’s the other thing. We’re always available, as you know, Mercedes or Precious Rhonda. How many times members or affiliates call us and we’re weavers. In the end, that’s also what we do. We connect folks. And it’s very fascinating. Sometimes you have forms or folks who are one hour away, they didn’t know each other and then they connect through Regeneration International. That’s happened so many times to us. And the beauty of how intertwined all four members are is. And I think this is an example of something this organization from our friend Alana Leah. I give trees. She started this organization many years ago around the same time as Regeneration International.

53:48
Ercilia Sahores
So she was doing a lot of reflection Station mainly in Brazil. We met her, you guys remember, in Morocco at one of the Marrakech club. So, you know, everything has a cycle. She finished the cycle of her own foundation and had some money and decided to donate that money to Regeneration International because she couldn’t think about a better organization to donate that money to because it continued the purpose of her own organization. And our paths were, you know, crossed so many times. And that’s kind of like a beauty of the cycle of life and how it comes back and those seeds go back to others in our network. So I think that’s a perfect example of the life that Regeneration International brings. And the many trees and branches were in this forest is Precious.

54:45
Mercedes Lopez
Yes, I agree. We are working in the territories from science, with the communities, from the media. We are a rich, powerful and inspiring network and we should congratulate ourselves for this. Thank you guys.

55:08
Danielle
Thank you all. I think that’s. We’re close to a conclusion there. I have to say I knew Ronnie before joining the organization and since joining the organization. Ronnie’s been gone since I’ve joined. But I really see that fire you’re talking about in all of you. I see his fire living on in this work. And I’m constantly amazed at how it really does feel like this organization is just this like really well oiled machine of a ton of really impactful individuals, right, who are all just like doing their thing but finding a way to work together but really taking huge initiatives and doing really important work. So it’s always really inspiring to hear from all of you. I’ve listened to all. You’re all over the place. There’s.

55:58
Danielle
You can look up each of you on podcasts, on YouTube, on Facebook, hear more about each of your work. I don’t know, maybe to close off, would a few of you share what’s next? What are you up to now? We hear that Andre and Precious have been in Zimbabwe. We hear that Mercedes has had these and her Celia have had these huge wins in certain arenas. What are you guys thinking about today after you hang up here? What are you doing next?

56:29
André Leu
Actually, well, one thing I’ve got to do, it’s probably not Regeneration International, but I’m really looking forward to it is I’m the main speaker at the International Water Lily Society in New York in Manhattan on breeding Australian water lilies and finding and also finding new species of Australian water lilies. Because I’m actually one of the world water lily experts. Most people don’t know that and I’ve found I’ve been involved in finding new species but also most of what we call they call the Aussies, that’s all my work in hybridizing. That’s the farmer in me taking plants out of the wild and you know, for 100 years no one could grow them and I did the work to make sure that they could be grown in pond culture. So now you’ll see these water lilies all around the world.

57:27
André Leu
So I got invited to New York for that and then I’m home a few days and I go to China because one of my books has been translated into Chinese and that’s actually translated in 2019.

57:46
Danielle
Which book is that, Andre?

57:48
André Leu
That’s the Mists of Safe Pesticides, the first one I wrote. And that because of all the COVID and all the things that have happened, you know, and all the politics, you know, I couldn’t get the China. It was a couple times it was about to go and then things got cancelled. But anyway I’m looking forward to having a book launch of that in Shanghai and in September. And the other area group of people I’ve been working very closely with is ifomatia and all the organic groups in Asia. And so also later that month I’ve been invited to be one of their keynote speakers in Vietnam.

58:40
André Leu
So and then the other thing I, I would do and I do every year is after I go home I’ll go to India and I’ll teach at Vandana Shiva’s course in her A to Z that you went to last year, Mercedes in Navdanya. And I’ll go back to there. And then finally I’ve actually been invited to be a speaker at Acres USA this year back in Madison, Wisconsin in December. This is the 50th anniversary, so it’s a big one and for me it’s an incredible honor. And one of the things which is for me which is really important because we did invite Acres to our Costa Rica meeting is that you’ll see that everybody in Acres now talks about regeneration. And this is the biggest farming conference in the US of what we could say, nature based farming.

59:54
André Leu
And so to me, that’s an incredible achievement. There’s a, you know, where we can get our message across to thousands of farmers, real farmers in the US and have impact. So these are sorts of, you know that these are sorts of things that will keep me out of trouble, keep me on best behavior.

01:00:26
Danielle
Enjoy the water Lily Conference, Andre. I love that.

01:00:29
André Leu
I will, I will actually. And I’ll get to visit some lovely water lily gardens around New York. And of course it’s August, so it’ll be lovely weather.

01:00:40
Danielle
We’ll have to look for some photos of all your water lilies online.

01:00:45
André Leu
Yeah, yeah, you’ll find them there. If you, if you Google me in ward lilies, I’ll come up.

01:00:52
Danielle
All right, what about the rest of you?

01:00:55
Mercedes Lopez
We will continue building networks. Ronnie always called us to join more people around the world in the defense of regeneration, in the search for the community resistance. So we will continue with this work and from Mexico we will win the class action law against genetically modified corn.

01:01:31
Precious Phiri
Yeah, amazing. I mean, first of all, thank you for this dialogue. So emotional as well. Can’t believe we’re here. But I think going forward we’re continuous. As Mercedes andre have expressed, we’ll continue to spread ourselves as much as we can. We have the People’s Food Summit coming up, our most exciting time that where we get to spread global stories from the grassroots of our communities and those with voices at policy levels and networks. So it’s gonna be again, I believe, bigger than we’ve done in years. Last year, I think we reached over 5 million interactions. So we hope for more this year because, I mean, a good message like this can only go forward, right? I think, yeah. So.

01:02:25
Precious Phiri
And I’ll continue to contribute to the Southern African Network and the African Network as well as the UN Competition committee for food security this year. So I think this will be really amazing. And I think Andre and I are going to be cooking something like a little course because he’s already been teaching. So he’s also. Andre is giving of himself to help us all connect and he’s done lots of connections because he has all these connections across Africa. We continue to be grateful for Ronnie and his life and all our support team in media, in the office Rose a special mention and Liz support with the media and Danielle and everybody, as I said earlier, Becca, all of you, we really like, appreciate your support. I Know, we deal with very thin threads. But we still achieve to weave such a beautiful big network.

01:03:22
Precious Phiri
So I’m very excited about the future. I’m full of hope and look forward to more young people coming on board and. Yeah, thank you.

01:03:32
Danielle
Thanks, Precious.

01:03:33
Ercilia Sahores
That’s nice. I was. Last week, I was in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for the 4.1000 initiative as part of Regeneration International. Vice president of the 4.1,000 Initiative, which is sourced for food, security and climate. So we had a meeting there. It was very interesting. Lots of people from the Ministry of Agriculture from Brazil, but also other places in Latin America and from Latin America and the Caribbean as well, and the Scientific and Technical Committee. But stories this was. The whole conference took place. Well, part of it was in the Botanical Gardens from Rio de Janeiro, which are beautiful.

01:04:17
Ercilia Sahores
I bet you’ve been there, Andre.

01:04:20
André Leu
Yeah, of course.

01:04:22
Ercilia Sahores
The rest of it was at the. This place is called the Museo do Amania. So it’s a museum of the future, the Museum of tomorrow. So it’s a. It’s a beautiful space right next to the marinas. Where you can actually catch the ferry to close to cross to Niteroi, this city, this island across from Rio, built by Oscar Niemeyer, the architect. And this is a beautiful museum built by architect, Spanish architect Caliatra. But the topic of the museum is basically, this is the museum of the future. So if we don’t change certain things, this is what the future will look like. So it could be, you know, it could be very bad, or it could be not that bad, or it could actually be great.

01:05:11
Ercilia Sahores
So that put me to think a lot about, you know, the actions, what do we do today and how that has an effect on the future. So I think that moving forward is being very conscientious about everything that we do now. And the impact that it will have in our future. So more and more we have to really reflect on what our choices are, from what we eat to who we vote, to who we put our energy with and work with and interact with. And how we can build a stronger and better feeder based on our interactions from today for tomorrow. So that’s part of what I think we need to think about. And also looking into the People’s Food Summit, because that’s, as Precious said, a very exciting moment for Ari. That’s in October 16th. But that’s where you actually see everything happening.

01:06:08
Ercilia Sahores
For all the wonderful work from the whole team, which is not here, but over there. And a lot of that is recording and contacting and networking. So I think we’re going to have also participatory research truck for these people’s Food summit, which should be very exciting about science, committed to society and movement, which has a lot to do with what we do all the time in Regeneration International. So, yeah, lots of fun.

01:06:45
André Leu
Yeah. I just want to say one really important thing also that we didn’t really touch on, but when Ursi mentioned that she’s the vice President of the 441000 now that is a UN organization that set up in Paris in 2015. Now I’m actually signature number seven on that document. And we became actively involved and have supported it and having Earthy there as vice president, you know, while having to say it takes from her time, but it is very important for our standing. Similarly with Precious being in afsa, the African Food Sovereignty association, that is the major Pan African group. And Precious has a role there. And then the UN Committee for Food Security in Rome, I used to have a similar role on that. That is the major UN group to do with the discussions of food security.

01:08:01
André Leu
Similarly, Mercedes is working at the highest level with Victor Suarez within the Mexican government. So this is where we actually have impact. We mightn’t be putting ourselves in neon lights and all that, but the fact is we’re there. We’re there as respected people, and that brings respect to Regeneration International. I think that is really important. And the other side I want to do too is also mentioned. For instance, Rose. Ronnie used to tell me he couldn’t have done it all without Rose. How important Rose was to. Basically, Rose held the fort while Ronnie went out with this, you know, the sword and. And. And the shield and went out on the attack. Rose kept it all together. And I just want to say, you know, without Rose, you know, she’s the one keeping it all together.

01:09:11
André Leu
I want to acknowledge Paco. Same thing Liz said. Becca, Scott, and you, Danielle, you know, without you, we wouldn’t have an organization. We wouldn’t be able to do all the things we’ve got. And I think the word Ronnie would always do is call us a team. And I think that is the most important thing. We’re a team. And the other thing, I really like 10 years and we’re still really good friends.

01:09:48
Danielle
Awesome. Thanks, Andre. And thanks for mentioning Rose. I think Rose, Ronnie’s other half is really holding. Holding everything, isn’t she? Since he’s been gone, doing an incredible job. And Paco has been mentioned a few times. He’s behind the scenes here helping us with our tech. So thank you to Paco and thank you all for sharing so much of your incredible, beautiful, important work. I love that ending with the team and returning to precious concept of the forest. And you are all those. I, I see you all as those little roots, those major root system in the forest. You know, you don’t see that work necessarily being done underground, but it’s really just producing so much fruit that we all get to appreciate and be a part of. And congratulations on 10 years of teamwork and friendship and impactful, meaningful, community led work.

01:10:49
Danielle
So yay, celebration for all of that. And let’s do another 10 years and we’ll see it. We’ll see you then and we’ll celebrate some more.