About Regeneration International
In June 2015, about 60 people from 21 nations, representing businesses, the farming and scientific communities, educational institutions, policymakers and NGOs, convened in Costa Rica to draw up a blueprint for an international movement united around a common goal: to reverse global warming and end world hunger by facilitating and accelerating the global transition to regenerative agriculture and land management.
In January 2017, Regeneration International (RI) achieved 501(c)(3) nonprofit status. Today, RI engages with a network of more than 500 international partners and a growing number of Regeneration Alliances throughout the world, including in the U.S., South Africa, India, Canada, Belize, Mexico and Guatemala.
Our 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.
Our Vision
A healthy global ecosystem in which practitioners of regenerative agriculture and land-use, in concert with consumers, educators, business leaders and policymakers, cool the planet, feed the world and restore public health, prosperity and peace on a global scale.
Our Team
Prof. Dr. André Leu D.Sc., BA Com., Grad Dip Ed.
Dr. André Leu, D.Sc., was named international director of Regeneration International in 2017. Previously, he was president of IFOAM—Organics International, the international umbrella organization for the organic sector.
He was a founding member of RI. As president of IFOAM, he served on the RI steering committee.
During 50-plus years of visiting and working in more than 100 countries, André acquired an extensive knowledge of farming and environmental systems across Asia, Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Australasia. He and his wife, Julia, run an organic tropical fruit farm in Daintree, Australia.
André is an international lecturer who has spoken at the United Nations and at conferences, seminars, universities, and workshops. He has postgraduate qualifications in adult education and teaches at Universities, colleges, workshops, and online courses. He advises governments, industry, farmers, consumers, and NGOs on the multi-functional benefits of regenerative organic agriculture.
He is the author of “Growing Life,” “Poisoning Our Children,” and the “Myths of Safe Pesticides.” He has contributed articles to magazines, newspapers, scientific journals, book chapters, conference proceedings, newsletters, and websites.
Mercedes Martínez López
Mercedes Martínez López is the Latin America Director for Regeneration International, where she leads regional efforts to advance regenerative agriculture, food sovereignty, and community-based climate action. With a strong background in rural organizing, agroecology, and movement-building, she works closely with farmers, indigenous communities, and grassroots organizations to promote land stewardship practices that restore soil, protect biodiversity, and defend cultural food systems.
Based in Mexico, Mercedes has played a pivotal role in the Demanda Colectiva Maíz, the national collective legal action to stop genetically modified corn in the country. As one of the leading voices of this historic movement, she has worked to defend native maize varieties, protect campesino rights, and uphold Mexico’s deep ancestral relationship with corn as a cultural and biological heritage.
At Regeneration International, she facilitates cross-regional collaboration, supports policy advocacy, and strengthens networks that connect traditional wisdom with regenerative solutions. Her leadership centers on equity, sovereignty, and the regeneration of both ecosystems and communities, championing a vision of agriculture rooted in dignity, resilience, and collective power.
Ercilia Sahores
Ercilia Sahores is the International Co-Director of Regeneration International, a world-wide network dedicated to advancing regenerative agriculture, soil health, and climate resilience. With decades of experience in grassroots organizing, policy advocacy and campaigning for organic and regenerative education she plays a key role in connecting farmers, indigenous communities, scientists, and policymakers to promote regenerative solutions worldwide.
Born in Argentina, Ercilia has been a passionate advocate for food sovereignty and social justice across Latin America. Her work centers on empowering local communities to restore ecosystems, rebuild rural economies, and protect biodiversity through regenerative land management practices. She speaks internationally on the intersections of climate change, agriculture, and human rights, and is recognized for her leadership in building collaborative, multilingual movements that bridge the global North and South.
In her role at Regeneration International, Ercilia helps guide global strategy, facilitate international partnerships, and ensure that regenerative initiatives remain community-led and culturally rooted. She continues to champion a vision of regeneration that goes beyond agriculture—encompassing culture, equity, and the healing of both people and the planet.
Rose Welch
Rose Welch is the Executive Director and a longstanding leader in the organic, regenerative agriculture, and consumer advocacy movements. She is co-founder of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and serves as International Director of OCA, working to influence policy, mobilize communities, and promote regenerative solutions.
Over the years, Rose has been deeply engaged in the founding and growth of Regeneration International and Via Regenerativa y Organica helping to bring together farmers, scientists, organizers, and grassroots voices to accelerate the transition to regenerative agriculture and land management worldwide.
Our Steering Committee
Vandana Shiva, Navdanya
Dr. Vandana Shiva is a scientist, philosopher, feminist, author, environmentalist and activist for peace, sustainability and social justice. In 1991, Shiva founded Navdanya, a national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources. She is a recipient of the Right Livelihood Award for her work in placing women and ecology at the center of the international development agenda. Shiva is the author of more than 300 papers in leading scientific and technical journals, and more than 20 books, including “Soil Not Oil,” “Who Really Feeds the World” and “Earth Democracy.”
Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, Main Street Project
Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin, native of Guatemala, is the principal architect of a leading Regenerative Poultry System design under implementation in the US and internationally, he directs the Regenerative Agriculture Alliance with a mission to scale-up the regenerative poultry and a family of economically, ecologically and socially related sectors that make up the regenerative poultry system. He has won numerous awards for his work, including the Twin Cities International Citizens of the Year (1996), and the Northfield, Minnesota, Service to Mankind Award (SERTOMA), 2008. He recently was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship and one of MOSES-2020 advancing organic agriculture Changemaker Award. Haslett-Marroquin serves on several nonprofit boards, including the Conservation Corps of Minnesota and Iowa. He is a founding member of Regeneration International and multiple regenerative initiatives. He is the author of “In the Shadow of Green Man.”
Renate Künast, Chairwoman in Bundestag (German Parliament)
Renate Künast is a German politician of Alliance '90/The Greens. She was the Minister of Consumer Protection, Food and Agriculture from 2001 to 2005. She now serves as chairwoman of her party's parliamentary group in the Bundestag. Always taking a firm stand, she has put herself fully behind the Save Our Soils Campaign.
John D. Liu, EEMP
John D. Liu, filmmaker and writer, is director of the Environmental Education Media Project (EEMP), ecosystem ambassador for the Commonland Foundation and a visiting research fellow at theNetherlands Institute of Ecology of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1997, Liu founded the Environmental Education Media Project to help educate the public about environmental and ecological issues first in China and then worldwide, producing, directing, writing, filming and presenting many ecological films broadcast worldwide.
Ronnie Cummins, RIP
Ronnie Cummins was co-founder and international director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and its Mexico affiliate, Vía Orgánica. Cummins had been active as a writer and activist since the 1960s, with extensive experience in public education, grassroots mobilization, and marketplace pressure campaigns. Over the past two decades he had served as director of U.S. and international campaigns dealing with sustainable agriculture issues including food safety, genetic engineering, factory farming, and global warming. Cummins has published hundreds of articles in the alternative and mainstream press. He is also the author of "Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers,” and a series of children’s books called "Children of the World.”
Precious Phiri, Earth Wisdom
Precious Phiri is founding director of EarthWisdom Consulting Co., which directs community organizing and training in regenerative and restorative agriculture and holistic grazing practices in the Hwange Communal Lands region of Zimbabwe. Her work focuses on training rural communities and collaborating with networks in Africa to reduce poverty, rebuild soils, and restore food and water security for people, livestock and wildlife and reduce drought and flood risks. Phiri’s previous work includes nine years with with the Savory Institute Hub in Zimbabwe, focused on training and community engagement.
Hans Herren, Millennium Institute
Hans Herren is a Swiss entomologist, farmer and development specialist. He was the first person from Switzerland to receive the 1995 World Food Prize and the 2013 Right Livelihood Award for leading a major biological pest management campaign in Africa, successfully fighting the Cassava mealybug and averting Africa’s worst-ever food crisis. Herren is the president and CEO of the Washington-based Millennium Institute and co-founder and president of Biovision, a Switzerland-based foundation focused on food security and sustainable agriculture.
Jesus León Santos
Jesús León Santos is a Mexican environmentalist. In one of the most barren regions in the world, an indigenous farmer using ancient Mixteca traditions helped to conserve more than 4,000 acres of farmland, prevent massive soil erosion, increase local farm productivity, create more economic growth and, among other things, plant 2 million trees. For these efforts and others, Jesus Leon Santos of Nochixtlan, Oaxaca, Mexico, was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for sustainable development for 2008.