We Want to be Able to Choose! Ensure GMO-Free Food Production

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German youth associations demand that the EU genetic engineering legislation continues to provide a clear framework that makes GMO-free agriculture and food production possible and protects it.

We want to be able to continue to produce, breed, grow, process, market and consume high-quality food, whether organic or conventional, that is free of genetic engineering. In our view, this requires resilient agro-ecological agricultural systems that focus on environmental and climate protection, and food security.

As young people, we depend on the existing diversity and access to it, to face the coming challenges such as the climate crisis or species extinction.

For us and for all citizens, we want the freedom to decide and choose for ourselves what we grow, breed and eat, through labelling of genetically modified organisms.

Nature with its biodiversity is the most valuable thing we have.

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To Protect Corporate Profits, U.S. Plans to Bully Mexico Into Buying GMO Corn

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Corporate money has always corrupted the political process in order to create laws and trade agreements that protect corporate profits at the expense of not just U.S. citizens, but citizens of the world.

We can find, perhaps, no better case in point than genetically modified organisms (GMOs).

Developed over the decades by seed and chemical companies Monsanto, Calgene, Dow, DuPont, Bayer and others, genetically modified (GM) corn, soy, cotton and canola were touted as the solution to world hunger, the key to increased farm profitability, lower pesticide use and a better environment.

It all sounded good, but none of it was true.

The real truth was — and this was never mentioned — that these commodity crops were designed to produce vast corporate profit as they helped usher in a wave of corporate consolidation, loss of small farms, declining rural economies and a foisting of untested GM food on unknowing consumers.

While these GM crops dominate the fields of North America, the seed and chemical companies saw the world as their target for even more profit.

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The Hope of Regeneration: Together

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As I write this little note, Western Zimbabwe is in a dry and hot spell at an absolutely wrong time of the year. As agro-pastoral farmers, we are facing a bit of panic for the lagging crops that still needed a bit of rain, the crops that were ripened had to take an early drying. It’s a bit of a dilemma, as any rainfall now will cause sprouting of the drying grains and other root crops like peanuts and bambara nuts.

We are, on the other hand facing really hard times with Cyclone Freddy causing loss, of lives and properties in the Southern African region. Cyclone Freddy, having come in through Madagascar, is now in Malawi and making its way to Zambia and my home country Zimbabwe is under threat of this raging storm. The uneasiness that these moments stimulate, tends to bring a huge wave of hopelessness.

However, the potential of regenerative agriculture, stories of farmers, and many different humans of earth in regeneration have stimulated most of us to keep going. We now more than ever, need the hope of working TOGETHER, humans and nature to bring Team humanity out of the vicious cycles degeneration.

Photo credit: IGugu Trust-Zimbabwe

Photo from Kachechete Ward in Hwange, Zimbabwe, Leaders and community standing Together for regeneration.

Here’s a quote from Ronnie Cummins, one of The Founding Directors at Regeneration International that inspired me recently;

“Never underestimated the power of one individual; yourself. But please understand, at the same time, that what we do as individuals will never be enough. We’ve got to get organized and we’ve got to help others, in our region, in our nation, and everywhere…”

This quote spoke deeply to me and I suppose it may resonate with most of us. Keeping the connections alive, keeps us inspired, hopeful and on track.  The idea is not to only dream, but to see it coming to pass by taking the smallest actions in a bigger collective! Thankfully, we have a lot of networks that are bringing to life this network building around regeneration, and agro-ecology, seed and food movements, Holistic Management and many more.

To digress a little; our efforts of potential impact are consistently watered down by individualism, scarcity mindsets and comparisons in the movement. Yet, if we are to regenerate this world, we have to embrace the depth, and complexity of the connectedness of all pieces in this global puzzle. It is a messy dance, but a dance anyways.  We are all re-learning how to design with living patterns at the core.

If we agree that regeneration and regenerative actions are a cure to ecological disasters, social decay, and economic struggles, then we must embrace that this work is established in chaos. That is, an acceptance that each of us have a localized wisdom on how to bring back the essence of our communities at all levels of life. We are learning again what made us and our ecosystems thrive, and how do we bring that to manifestation in the current times. Looking ahead, we are all building the beautiful story of regenerating our world.  There’s no singling out champions, because in the end, we either win or sink as Team Humanity. Which one will it be?

I am eternally grateful for all the incredible minds and human spirits (too many to count, but I hold you in my heart with lots of gratitude) that charted the path of thinking differently. I believe sharing our small victories, thoughts and lessons creates beautiful waves of learning, action and support. In my head, I’m reminded of the Mexican wave, in a huge soccer stadium, in a place of unlikely order or form, yet supporters and spectators in a game they love and wish for a win – achieve a metachronal rhythm to express their support and create a winning environment in the stadium.  The supporters don’t move from their seats –but their actions, create a ripple, and enhance a movement of the wave to the next community of people in the stadium. The catch-  they do it faithfully when it’s their turn, the wave continues to travel around the stadium. There is no particular order, within those disconnected seating arrangements, back and forth as others would have had a little much to drink- the idea is to win- Together!

Citizens of Humanity Group and Kiss the Ground partner to create “Kiss The Ground Cotton,” taking a fresh approach to promoting Regenerative Agriculture

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Los Angeles, CA, Jan. 11, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Los Angeles, CA (January 11, 2022) – Citizens of Humanity Group and Kiss the Ground announce their strategic partnership to establish “Kiss the Ground Cotton,” a fresh approach for promoting regenerative agriculture and a pathway to regenerative cotton. The trademark will let consumers know that the products they purchase are made with cotton grown on farms engaged in regenerative agriculture practices. This partnership will benefit Kiss the Ground with endowments for each pound of cotton produced in efforts to support the broader regenerative agriculture movement as a viable solution to combat climate, water, and health crises.

Regenerative agriculture is one of the greatest tools and opportunities for reversing the effects of climate change while increasing soil fertility, replenishing fresh water, and improving human health.

KEEP READING ON GLOBE NEWSWIRE

How Regenerative Agriculture Can Enable Sustainable Nutrition

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At COP27 in November 2022, the food sector was recognised in all its complexity: a formidable producer of emissions, which is uniquely vulnerable to the extreme weather events caused by climate change. As global weather patterns become increasingly erratic, and population rises steadily, our current agri-food system is proving unviable world-over. There is a growing consensus that we cannot continue with farming practices that degrade soil while not sequestering carbon at scale.

Industrial farming techniques, which have largely prioritised yield over resilience, and the climate change impacts they contribute towards, have already left around a third of the world’s soils degraded. This puts our global food supply at serious risk. A recent FAO report found that up to 828 million people already face chronic hunger globally. With hunger comes malnutrition, and a host of dangerous deficiencies and health impacts. For the food system to provide nutrition and food security in a warming world with a ten billion-plus human population, agricultural transformation through regenerative and sustainable approaches is crucial.

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‘During Droughts, Pivot to Agroecology’: Q&A With Soil Expert at the World Agroforestry Centre

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WESTERN TURKANA, Kenya—Driving across Northern Kenya’s Turkana County, the seemingly boundless terrain of sand dunes, dusty brushes and hard, dry soil makes it hard to imagine anyone could farm and eke a living out here. As Kenya and the Horn of Africa are confronted by the fifth consecutive failed rainy season since September 2020—the region’s worst drought in four decades—around 22 million people (roughly the population of Taiwan or Sri Lanka) are food insecure, says a U.N. World Food Programme report released last month.

In Kenya, the number stands at 4.4 million as of December 2022, with children needing acute treatment for malnutrition on the rise.

The numbers and immense toll on pastoralists and agro-pastoralists, who rely on both crops and livestock, grow starker still: their animals have been dying en masse with, 2.5 million livestock deaths recorded by the Government of Kenya, and entire communities pushed to pursue different livelihoods as traditional means and resources fail.

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Regenerative Agriculture: Key to Solving the Climate Crisis

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Meet Gabe Brown. If you haven’t read his groundbreaking book Dirt To Soil, visited his North Dakota farm, seen his Netflix documentary Kiss The Ground, or his Congressional testimony, you can find Gabe speaking around the country about regenerative farming.

Brown describes how regenerative agriculture not only fixes farming, but also the farming business model. It delivers more nutritious food, healthier rural culture, and enables smallholder farmers worldwide to feed themselves and the rest of us. It’s also essential if we want to solve the climate crisis.

“Regen ag,” as it’s called, enables farmers and ranchers to sequester enormous amounts of carbon in the soil — and at a profit. If farmers around the world adopt the practice, it will start to roll climate change backward. Couple that with renewable energy, and it solves the climate crisis.

KEEP READING ON CLIMATE AND CAPITAL MEDIA

Latin America’s Food Paradox

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The most biodiverse region on the planet, Latin America is an agroindustrial superpower that exports fully one fourth of its total production. By contrast, another agricultural superpower, Asia, exports only 6 percent of its production. Still Latin America has never succeeded in tapping into its agricultural wealth to adequately feed its population. At the moment, at least six countries in the region are in the throes of a food crisis, with nearly 268 million Latin Americans currently feeling the effects of food insecurity, with many millions more sure to join their ranks in the coming months.

Despite all that, Latin America also gives us reasons for hope. It is the birthplace of major breakthroughs in the fight against ultra-processed foods, with Chile, Peru, Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia adopting clear warning labels for these harmful products. Mexico has been working to prioritize and scale-up agroecology—an ecosystemic alternative model to industrial agriculture that is heralded as improving not only the lives of small-scale farmers and their families, but also having a positive effect on biodiversity, the environment and nutrition.

KEEP READING ON FOOD TANK

 

 

Women Smallholders Will Drive Africa’s Transition to Regenerative Agriculture

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An estimated 140 million people in Africa are facing acute food insecurity[1], yet, in Kenya alone, 50% of all productive soil is badly degraded. Worse still, because of record droughts, half of Kenyan farmers have harvested nothing in the last four seasons.

Regenerative agriculture techniques offer the world’s poorest farmers a lifeline, restoring soils and boosting yields and incomes – while at the same time sequestering carbon emissions. 80% of Kenyan farmers are women, which is why, to regenerate landscapes at scale, women must drive the change towards regenerative farming.

What do we mean by regenerative agriculture?

More carbon resides in soil than in the atmosphere and all plant life combined (IPPC). Increasingly, businesses are looking at how regenerative agriculture can help them to achieve their carbon reduction goals under SDG13. But what does the term really mean?

‘Regenerative agriculture’ covers a wide spectrum of approaches, but put simply, it’s a method of farming that rebuilds organic soil matter and restores biodiversity – while sequestering dangerous carbon emissions.

KEEP READING ON AGRICULTURE

With “regenerative” Farming, Small Growers Can Reap Big Profits for Air and Soil

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Mollie Engelhart’s Sow a Heart Farm in Fillmore, a town northwest of Los Angeles, doesn’t look anything like the orderly farms next door. Between the avocado trees are messy mixes of peppers, garlic, broccoli and cauliflower. But everything is planted somewhere for a reason.

“Fennel is actually an insectary. So the fennel is keeping the bugs off of the kale without spraying any pesticides or anything,” Engelhart said.

Recently harvested plots are patrolled by chickens and sheep, which eat the scraps, churn the dirt and poop out fresh fertilizer. This makes for healthier food and healthier soil.

Engelhart’s method of farming is some of the best carbon-capture technology around. It’s called regenerative agriculture, and it’s still far from the norm, but some farmers are using it to grow more sustainably. Environmentalists hope it will get some support in this year’s version of the farm bill — the legislation that determines the fate of farming livelihoods in the U.S.

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