Carrying Regenerative Voices to Central Asia: Reflections from Uzbekistan

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Last month, I had the privilege of representing Regeneration International at the Uzbek-German Expert Dialogue on Agroecology in Uzbekistan, alongside my dear friend and colleague André Leu, Director of Regeneration International. It was an incredible experience to bring our global network’s voice to this important conversation on transitioning Uzbekistan’s agriculture toward sustainability and climate resilience.

André shared powerful global insights on regenerative agriculture, drawing on decades of experience worldwide. He emphasized how practices like soil regeneration, biodiversity enhancement, and ecological balance can restore degraded lands, improve farmer livelihoods, and strengthen food security. His message was clear: regenerative agriculture is not just a trend—it’s a global solution to the interconnected climate, food, and biodiversity crises.

For my part, I spoke about the importance of community-led approaches to natural resource management, and creating abundance-especially in seasonal rainfall regions like Zimbabwe. I also offered a reframing of the widespread mislabelling of “overgrazing,” highlighting it as “mismanaged grazing.” Sharing  how, when livestock is holistically managed with local communities at the helm, land can heal, livelihoods can flourish, and dignity can be restored. I also joined a field visit to the Navoi region, where we explored the challenges of pasture degradation and salinization—and shared how holistic grazing practices have worked in Southern Africa. The land in Navoi region is beaming with potential, and I look forward to how we will continue to design together with farmers to create abundant landscapes for all life.

What made this gathering so meaningful was the spirit of cross-continental learning and solidarity. Experts like Kaie Laaneväli-Vinokurov from Estonia, Baitemir Naizabekov from Kyrgyzstan, José van Noordenburg from the Netherlands, Dr. Raymond Briscoe from Afghanistan, Simon Chevalking from MetaMeta, and Roman Kemper from Bonn University enriched the dialogue with diverse experiences, from smallholder dairy systems to water-smart irrigation and pasture innovation.

For André and me, this was not just about presenting solutions, but about listening, connecting, and weaving global relationships that strengthen the regenerative movement. Our participation helped open doors for collaboration between Central Asia and the wider regenerative community, and deepened the global conversation on how agroecology can serve both people and planet.

As we left Uzbekistan, one thing remains, across all regions: agroecology is a paradigm shift, not just a set of practices. It’s about rethinking the relationships between soil, water, seeds, animals, farmers, and communities—and it will take all of us, across borders and sectors, to bring this vision to life.

I’m grateful to have been part of this important moment and look forward to continuing to build bridges between regenerative leaders around the world. And Congratulations to the government  of Uzbekistan for opening their doors to discussing this huge possibility.

Launching Certification to The Regeneration International Standard

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We launched our Regeneration International Standard at the beginning of March 2025. It is on our website’s front page.

Since then, we have partnered with the Organic Food Chain, an Australian certifier that has started certifying farmers to this standard.

Regeneration International offers this standard to a select group of organic certifiers whose systems we have evaluated. It will be available exclusively to organic certifiers, as they possess the most effective systems for verifying farming practices and preventing fraud.

The Regeneration International Standard was initially developed as a fit-for-purpose standard for our Agroecological, Regenerative, and Organic Ecosystem Services (AROES) project.

The final chapter of the Regenerative Agricultural Solution by Ronnie Cummins and I discusses this project in detail.

Although AROES is still under development following the results of our pilot programs, the directors of Regeneration International have chosen to publish and initiate certification for this standard to combat greenwashing and the hijacking of regenerative and organic practices. A key aspect of our standard is clearly defining what is prohibited and therefore not permitted in regenerative agriculture.

The driver for publishing our standard was California’s release of its definition of regenerative agriculture, which permits toxic synthetic chemicals and GMOs. Industrial agriculture and the poison cartels will exploit the promotion of their business-as-usual Roundup Ready no-till GMOs as regenerative. Pesticide purveyors, such as Bayer/Monsanto and Syngenta, are branding their degenerative systems as regenerative. Large agribusinesses are greenwashing their extensive use of industrial synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilizers as regenerative. They have managed to do this with sustainable agriculture to the point that it is now considered meaningless.

We must confront hydroponics, APEEL, CAFOs, and synthetic feed supplements, which are gaining worldwide acceptance in organic regulations. GM vaccines, the clearing of old-growth ecosystems, and soil carbon loss are the elephants in the room.

Another driver was multiple requests from farmers and certifiers for an international, standalone regenerative standard.

Initially, Regeneration International opposed the development of regenerative standards. However, as more standards were developed, we decided to review them. Opposing them was a waste of time and counterproductive.

Ronnie Cummins and I recognized the need to scale agroecological, regenerative, and organic systems to restore our ecosystems, climate, and communities. After several years of research examining markets, standards, and verification systems, our concerns regarding the credibility of carbon credits and biodiversity offset schemes grew. We explored all current standards and concluded that we needed to establish our own fit-for-purpose standard because the existing ones were inadequate for AROES.

When Ronnie and I discussed the necessity of our fit-for-purpose standard, we agreed it would be more stringent than the USDA organic regulation and would prohibit provisions for industrial organic hijacking. Our standard begins with Regeneration International’s definition of regenerative practices and the criteria for interpreting them. The explicit prohibitions within this standard ensure its integrity surpasses that of the USDA organic regulation, other national organic standards, and regenerative and agroecological standards.

Clearly defining what is prohibited and thus not allowed in regenerative agriculture is the simplest way to identify what is degenerative and therefore not regenerative.

Prohibitions

  • Synthetic pesticides
  • Synthetic animal feed supplements
  • Synthetic food additives
  • Water-soluble chemical fertilizers, except for correcting deficiencies with trace elements
  • Sewerage sludge/biosolids
  • GMOs, including gene editing and GMO vaccines
  • Nanotechnology
  • Animal cruelty – all animals must be able to express their natural habits.
  • Confined Animal Feeding Operations – all animals must spend adequate time on pasture and/or their natural habitat.
  • Hydroponics – all systems must be soil-based.
  • Clearing old growth and high-value ecosystems,
  • Damaging tillage
  • Burning crop residues, except for cool-season mosaic burns in First Nation agroecosystems
  • Grazing that produces bare soil

The Regeneration International Standard is clear and straightforward, rather than a lengthy or complex regulatory document. It aims to be user-friendly for farmers and landholders, especially since many farmers in the developing world have limited education and find it challenging to understand complicated certification standards. This standard was crafted with the initial intentions of organic standards before they evolved into extensive regulatory frameworks that can be costly in both time and money for farmers to comply with. Although it includes more prohibitions, it remains a significantly easier and more approachable certification standard.

Along with the prohibitions, it utilizes principles and guidelines instead of mandated practices, allowing farmers and land managers to select the most suitable practices and inputs while fostering innovation. The primary aim of this standard is to catalyze a paradigm shift from the current degenerative industrial-agricultural systems to ones that restore soil, biodiversity, climate, community, equity, care, and health. The standard empowers operators (farmers, ranchers, land managers, First Nations owners, etc.) to take the lead in defining their individual paradigm shifts.

Operators can get certified to the following levels.

Regenerative A Grade – meeting all the requirements

Regenerative in Transition – in the process of meeting all the requirements

Under our standard, most currently certified regenerative and organic systems would be classified as Regenerative in Transition, as they permit prohibited inputs and practices. Certified operators need a transition plan that outlines the timeline for reducing and eliminating prohibited products or production methods. There is no set period for operators to transition to Regenerative A Grade. However, all operators certified to Regenerative in Transition must specify time frames and methods for eliminating prohibited inputs and practices. This should be revised annually, with an emphasis on continual improvement.

The operators’ management plan will serve as the primary driver of the paradigm shift. It enables operators to make decisions based on the best practices and inputs.

Operators can achieve certification to the Regeneration International Standard as a standalone option, without needing certification to other standards. However, they can also certify to their respective national organic standards, as well as to additional standards and schemes. Our aim is to make this standard as farmer-friendly as possible, allowing operators to choose the options that best suit their businesses and markets.

The standard serves as an excellent guide for those who are not yet ready for certification. Two versions of the standard are available. A user-friendly version can be found on the website. https://regenerationinternational.org/ This version is designed to assist farmers, ranchers, and land managers in transitioning to regenerative systems.

A detailed version with guidance is utilized for certification purposes. (https://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/Regeneration-International-Standard-and-Guidance-with-numbering-V2-April-2025.pdf)

The standard and guidance documents are being translated into Spanish and will soon be implemented in Latin America. We plan to roll them out across the 80 countries on every continent where we have partners.

The standards and guidance are living documents. We will regularly revise them based on feedback from certifiers and operators.

At some point in the future, we will invite certified operators to join our AROES project and receive funding for their ecosystem services.

Plant Sentience Changes Everything

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I have always had a love and fascination for plants. I began growing them as a young boy at the start of grade school. I spent my childhood in the forest, learning the names of the plants and animals and understanding how they functioned as an ecosystem.

I was destined to be a farmer because growing plants is fundamental to our work. Now, in my 70s, I continue to farm because my passion for growing plants and raising animals remains strong, and I will never quit.

Two events profoundly influenced my approach to agriculture. In 1973, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird published ” The Secret Life of Plants,” which confirmed what I had known as a child: plants are sentient beings that communicate.

The second event occurred when I attempted to develop a diet that did not involve killing any sentient beings. I was a vegetarian following Ahimsa, the path of non-violence. I worked out which plants I could grow without harming anything to produce food. I began preparing the seedbed to plant these crops when I realized I was killing weeds. Weeds are sentient beings and play essential roles in regenerating ecosystems.

I had to rethink everything I believed at that time. I came to understand that I could not live without sentient beings dying to provide my food. I had a right to live, so I resolved to change my lifestyle to minimize the death and injury of sentient beings while maximizing their well-being. It was at that point that I gave up being a vegetarian, as plants are sentient like animals and should be regarded as equals, not as inferior forms of life. My farming became based on perennial systems of plants and animals to minimize disturbance and maximize diversity, complexity, harmony, and resilience.

The Secret Life of Plants sparked significant debate. It highlighted various experiments demonstrating plant sentience and showed that plants interact with a range of living entities, including humans.

Scientists heavily criticized it, stating that it promoted pseudoscientific claims. Fast-forward 50 years, and a vast body of scientific evidence shows that ” The Secret Life of Plants ” was correct.

Prof. Stefano Mancuso is a leading authority in plant neurobiology, investigating signaling and communication across all levels of biological organization. Plant neurobiology demonstrates that plants possess nervous systems and consciousness comparable to those of animals. He is a professor at the University of Florence and has published numerous books and papers on plants.

Forester and author Peter Wohlleben illustrates that trees are social beings and that the forest operates as a social network. He employs groundbreaking scientific discoveries to highlight the parallels between trees and human families: tree parents coexist with their offspring, interact with them, provide support during their growth, share nutrients with those in need, and alert each other to potential threats.

Wohlleben conveys his profound love for woods and forests, describing the extraordinary processes of life, death, and regeneration he has witnessed in his woodland.

Dr. Suzanne Simard is a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia and the author of ” Finding the Mother Tree. ” She is a pioneer in the field of plant communication and intelligence.

Simard is known for her research on how trees interact and communicate through below-ground fungal networks. This research led to the recognition that forests contain hub trees, also called Mother Trees. These large, highly connected trees play a crucial role in the flow of information and resources within a forest. She illustrates how these Mother Trees nurture their young and assist other species.

Her research explores how these intricate relationships enhance forest resilience, adaptability, and recovery. This work holds significant implications for the management and regeneration of forests affected by human activities, including climate change.

Research scientist Dr. Monica Gagliano offers authentic, firsthand insights from her studies on plant communication and cognition. Thus Spoke the Plant explores her findings and how plants aided her throughout her journey.

Gagliano has written numerous peer-reviewed articles investigating the Pavlovian-like reactions of plants to various stimuli, showcasing their capacity for learning, memory, and communication with neighboring plants. She has pioneered the new field of plant bioacoustics, providing experimental proof that plants emit their own ‘voices’ and can sense and react to environmental sounds. Her studies reveal that learning extends beyond the animal kingdom, indicating that plants are sentient organisms. She demonstrates that they exhibit subjectivity, consciousness, and will.

Numerous researchers are exploring the field of plant sentience and communication. They have found that plants:

  • Plants can hear
  • Plants communicate through sound – they scream in high frequencies when in pain!
  • Plants communicate through volatile chemicals
  • Plants have vision – they have more light receptors than animals
  • Plants can smell – they have more smell genes than animals
  • Plants can make decisions
  • Plants have memories and can learn
  • Plants have social lives with many species
  • Plants nurture their young and look after each other
  • Plants feel stress and pain and fight to live!

So, how can plants be conscious, sentient, learn, have memories, communicate, and make decisions if they don’t have a brain?

Due to their stationary nature, plants cannot escape from predators. If plants had specialized organs for specific functions, such as hearts, kidneys, livers, and brains, they would not survive if these organs were attacked by insects or grazed by herbivores. Instead, plants possess numerous organelles that perform these functions and are distributed throughout their bodies, particularly in the leaves and stems. They can lose parts of their bodies to predation, as all essential functions for life are replicated millions of times throughout their structures. The remaining tissues can still function and assist in recovery.

The images below illustrate how plants possess a nervous system and experience pain. The first picture highlights the area of the leaf that has been torn. The neurotransmitter glutamate travels through the vascular system (veins).

Plants utilize the neurotransmitter glutamate similarly to animals. However, instead of having a distinct nervous system composed of nerve cells, electrical signals (pain) travel through the vascular system (veins).

The images show the neurotransmitter traveling throughout the plant as part of a nerve signal network that responds to the damaged leaf. This network represents a neural network similar to those found in animal brains.

The entire body of a plant functions as a neural network- effectively, a brain. This system allows a plant to lose part of its neural network without sacrificing consciousness or bodily functions, unlike how similar damage affects animals when their brains are harmed.

Plant Networks and Communication

Plants and fungi are interconnected in a complex web, communicating and exchanging nutrients and information. Researchers refer to this network as the Wood Wide Web—a living Internet.

Caption: Network model showing the linkages between Douglas-fir trees through the fungal network. The arrow points to the Mother Tree – the most highly connected tree. Diagram from Beiler et al. 2010.

Plants combine water and carbon dioxide (CO2), using solar energy from photosynthesis to produce glucose. They convert glucose into sugars, starches, oils, proteins, and wood.

Plant roots secrete around 30 percent of the glucose carbon compounds to feed the soil microbiome and build Soil Organic Matter (SOM).

Plants provide glucose and other molecules to microorganisms like fungi. These vital molecules serve as the primary energy source that fuels the entire ecosystem. In return, fungi extend the reach of plant roots over great distances, supplying nutrients, water, and protective compounds. They also protect their hosts from pests and diseases.

This phenomenon is called synergy, where the collective benefits of the species surpass those of each individual.

Symbiotic fungi connect with various plants to form a network that exchanges nutrients, water, protective compounds, energy, and conveys information. Research is revealing sentience in fungi and other microorganisms.

Ecosystems, including agroecosystems, are complex, interconnected networks of sentient beings, such as plants, microorganisms, and animals. This complexity has many implications for our food and farming systems.

Pesticides such as Roundup, fungicides, and synthetic chemical fertilizers kill beneficial organisms, disrupting their network connections. Instead of poisoning and killing this network of sentient beings, we need to redesign our systems to reduce their death and injury while enhancing their well-being.

Many examples of these systems exist and will be discussed in future articles.

The Implications of Plant Sentience

Plant sentience raises numerous substantial issues. The fact that plants are conscious, self-aware, and can feel stress and pain, valuing their lives like animals, means that we need to treat plants in the same way we believe in humanely treating animals. Plants are not a lesser form of life; in fact, they are fundamental to the existence of most life forms on this planet. Nearly every lifeform owes its existence to the products of plant photosynthesis – glucose and all the molecules of life produced from it. Glucose and molecules such as ketones made from it serve as the fuel source for 99.999999% of life on Earth. They are also responsible for most of the oxygen we breathe. Without this, much life would not exist. Instead of being relegated to a low status, plants must be valued as the most important life forms and treated accordingly.

Instead of giving these sentient beings the respect they deserve, humans are at war with them, constantly killing them, clearing their ecosystems, poisoning them with herbicides, and plowing them up to create bare ground. None of this is necessary to produce the food, fiber, medicine, and construction materials we need. All of this can be produced with humane perennial systems that minimize the destruction of plants and ensure that most of them experience well-being.

Allan Savory has demonstrated through holistic managed grazing that it is possible to run large numbers of livestock without killing a single plant. In fact, these systems enhance the diversity and abundance of plants and animals, allowing them to coexist in harmony and synergistically support all the living entities in the ecosystem.

Another issue is that it is difficult to kill a plant humanely. Because all the functions of life are distributed throughout a plant’s body, when a plant is cut down, plowed out, or poisoned, it dies a slow and painful death. Take carrots as an example: they are pulled out of the ground and experience stress and pain, gradually dying over weeks until they are cooked. Humans ignore this pain and distress. The carrots people buy are living entities that can be replanted and allowed to recover. Most people are horrified and disgusted when animals are treated cruelly like this, yet they are completely blind to the distress they cause to plants.

On the other hand, animals can be killed humanely. They can be treated kindly and rendered unconscious instantly before being killed, ensuring there is no fear, pain, or distress. This is not possible with plants. Research shows that plants experience fear, distress, and pain as they die slowly. Plants emit high-frequency sounds when in pain, although we cannot hear them. However, researchers can record and convert these sounds into frequencies that we can hear.

Now that we know plants are sentient beings that nurture their young, care for the sick and injured, feed the ecosystem with the molecules of life, feel pain and stress, communicate on many levels, remember, learn, make decisions, hear, and see, we must treat them humanely, just as we do animals.

Plants provide us with fruits and seeds in exchange for our assistance in their reproduction. Other plants, such as grasses, have evolved alongside animals, allowing them to tolerate a loss of leaves in return for the urine and dung that fertilize the soil. Instead of exploiting and harming plants as the basis of agriculture, we need to redesign our food systems to function like interconnected ecosystems, where relationships are synergistic and mutually beneficial to all, especially plants, since their photosynthesis powers all ecosystems.

We should celebrate the magnificence of plants. Our lives depend on them!

The Fourth Regeneration International Certificate Course in Partnership with The South Seas University

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The Regeneration International Academy, in collaboration with South Seas University, has conducted its fourth online certificate course in regenerative agriculture, agroecology, and organic farming. Integrating the three major global nature-based agricultural movements—agroecology, regenerative agriculture, and organic farming—is essential as complementary systems.

This semester, 20 students from each continent—Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Central America, South America, Australasia, and the Pacific—will receive certificates. Importantly, these certificates are from an accredited degree-granting university.

Most people know me as a long-time organic farmer and the international director of Regeneration International. I possess decades of teaching experience, a degree in communication, and a post-graduate degree in adult education. I have taught and lectured at higher education institutions across most continents, developing and conducting various courses. These include training programs for farmers, some delivered in institutions and others held on farms during farmers’ shed meetings.

I have had the opportunity to use the title of adjunct (part-time) professor for decades; however, I have only chosen to do so now. The current course I developed in partnership with South Seas University is the most important of all the courses I have developed and taught. I revise and improve this course after every semester.

From experience, I have learned that developing innovative courses in most long-established tertiary institutions is very hard. They like conformity to traditional norms and do not like taking risks. The academic mainstream largely ignores and denigrates our agricultural systems. As an organic farmer, teaching in standard agronomy courses offered by most institutions meant being ostracized and marginalized by the academic staff and management for criticizing the mainstream paradigms of toxic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers.

South Seas University (SSU) has a history of innovation, so I jumped at the opportunity to develop courses.

SSU was established with the aim of providing quality education at an affordable price, utilizing innovative technology and collaborating with the world’s leading academic institutions. The institution emerged following the political upheaval in the Dominican Republic during 1997-1998, which led to the closure of numerous universities and medical schools. Aspiring medical professionals found themselves vulnerable to unscrupulous individuals who took advantage of their desperation.

Sir Tom Davis and Dr. Reza Chowdhury worked tirelessly to raise significant funds to establish SSU, aimed at addressing the gap left by the loss of these universities and medical schools, and to provide affordable degrees for students from low-income communities around the world. By 1999, SSU was registered with the Government of the Cook Islands as a degree-granting university. The James Cook School of Medicine (JCSM) was recognized as the SSU Faculty of Medicine. It was included in the WHO World Directory of Medical Schools and other licensing authorities. The first group of displaced students from the Dominican Republic made up the inaugural class at JCSM. This achievement provided SSU’s JCSM graduates with eligibility for U.S. board exam registration, affirming the quality and credibility of their education.

SSU’s management recruited distinguished faculty from the Dominican Republic, Mexico, India, Australia, and the United States. SSU established partnerships with clinical sites across the US, UK, Dominican Republic, India, and Mexico. The institution also launched IT programs to address local demand and collaborated with a school in India to develop a nursing program. In the region, SSU was regarded as an innovative role model in helping students obtain degrees in Medicine, Nursing, and IT. This international collaboration encouraged a diverse student body, enriching the educational experience and broadening perspectives.

Running and financing a small university in a developing country brought numerous challenges, particularly the costs associated with securing the necessary registrations and recognitions from relevant authorities before students could enroll. The expensive and limited housing in the Cook Islands, along with the high cost of communication and political changes, necessitated various adjustments and reorganizations of teaching methods as SSU established its foundation.

The advances in online technology saw SSU increase its reach and affordability for students, reducing the need for travel and accommodation costs. This means that we can offer the certificate course at far lower fee costs than most universities. We also offer a range of scholarships to ensure that everyone can participate and no one is excluded because they cannot afford it.

From my perspective as a long-term organic farmer and educator, providing high-quality, accessible, and affordable education is the key to scaling up our nature-based regenerative systems. This is essential to break degenerative industrial agriculture’s near monopoly control on education. SSU gives us a critically important opportunity to do this.

Guidance Document for Certifying and Operating to The Regeneration International Standard

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Introduction

This Guidance Document is written to assist certifiers and operators in understanding how to comply with the standard.

The Regeneration International Standard has been crafted in a format that is more accessible for farmers, rather than adopting a regulatory standard format.

The standard is mainly informative rather than normative. It includes the Definition, General Principles, Guidance, and clear Prohibitions.

The prohibitions are normative and are mandatory. The Definition, General Principles, and Guidances are informative rather than mandatory practices so farmers and land managers can make decisions based on the most appropriate practices and inputs and encourage innovation.

This standard’s primary purpose is to assist in a paradigm shift from degenerative industrial-agricultural systems to systems that regenerate soil, biodiversity, climate, community, fairness, care, and health.

Developing management plans is mandatory and must be regarded as a norm. They are the key to achieving this paradigm shift by getting farmers to document, think about, revise, and improve their practices based on the guidance and prohibitions in the standard document. The content and form of the plans should be brief, flexible, and straightforward, allowing farmers to develop them in their own words rather than complex technical documents.

Operators can get certified to the following levels.

  • Regenerative A Grade – meeting all the requirements
  • Regenerative in Transition – in the process of meeting all the requirements

Operators can be certified to other standards and schemes.

Prohibitions – These are Normative and Mandatory 

Synthetic pesticides

These are toxic poisons made from compounds that do not exist naturally to kill insects, weeds, fungi, and other crop pests. However, naturally occurring compounds are permitted for pest and disease management.

Synthetic animal feed supplements

Synthetically produced substances like hormones, amino acids, antibiotics, and urea cannot be used as feed additives. Natural substances such as salt licks, seaweed, lime, and dolomite are permitted. Livestock should be managed to derive most of their nutrition from pasture and natural habitats. While antibiotics and other synthetic compounds are permitted as medications for treating acute diseases, their use must cease once the animal has recovered.

Synthetic food additives

Synthetic food additives such as dyes, colorings, preservatives, and flavor enhancers are prohibited. All food should be unprocessed or minimally processed, such as fermented, ground, dried, or cooked.

Water-soluble chemical fertilizers, except for correcting deficiencies with trace elements

Water-soluble chemical fertilizers of macronutrients synthesized in factories, such as ammonium nitrate, urea, superphosphate, muriate of potash, etc., are prohibited as they disrupt the soil microbiome and cause imbalances in plant metabolism. However, applying water-soluble trace elements is acceptable when a deficiency is demonstrated. The small amounts do not overwhelm the soil microbiome and assist by correcting deficiencies.

Macro nutrient deficiencies can be corrected by applying naturally occurring minerals such as lime, dolomite, gypsum, ground basalt, etc.

Sewerage sludge/biosolids

Sewerage sludge/biosolids are prohibited, as history shows they can spread human diseases such as hepatitis and may be contaminated with toxic synthetic chemicals like dioxins and PFAS.

GMOs, including gene editing and GMO vaccines

Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and other artificial genetic modification technologies, such as gene-edited organisms, result from DNA recombinations or modifications that do not happen in nature. A significant amount of scientific research indicates various adverse effects of GMOs on animals, humans, microorganisms, and the environment. Long-term safety data remain insufficient.

Nanotechnology

Many compounds behave differently at the nanoscale, which is one reason why nanotechnology is utilized. Nanocompounds can penetrate cell walls into the nucleus and mitochondria, potentially causing damage. The safety testing data is insufficient at this stage, so the precautionary principle is applied to restrict nanotechnology.

Animal cruelty – all animals must be able to express their natural habits.

All domestic and wild animals must be treated with respect and not subjected to cruel and painful procedures. Whips, electric prods, toothed traps, wire snares, and other painful devices are prohibited. Domestic animals should be allowed to express their natural behaviors, such as dust bathing for chickens and rooting or wallowing for pigs. Adequate shelter from adverse weather, including trees for shade and windbreaks from storms, is essential. When culling is necessary, it should be performed in the quickest and least painful manner.

Confined Animal Feeding Operations – all animals must spend adequate time on pasture and/or their natural habitat.

Keeping animals confined 24/7 is prohibited. All animals need daily access to pasture and enough time to eat, drink, and express their natural habits outside.

Hydroponics – all systems must be soil-based.

Regenerative agriculture is based on regenerating soils. Consequently, non-soil production systems such as hydroponics cannot be regenerative.

Clearing old growth and high-value ecosystems

Regenerative agriculture is based on regenerating the environment. Degenerative activities such as clearing old growth and high-value ecosystems have no place in regenerative agriculture.

Damaging Tillage

Damaging tillage refers to the type of tillage that destroys soil structure. Well-structured soils consist of peds formed by organisms nourished by living roots. These organisms bind soil particles together to create peds, resulting in aggregated soil structures that enhance aeration, improve friability, and increase water infiltration and mineral availability.

Tillage performed too quickly, when the soil is excessively wet or dry, harms the peds and compromises the structure. This results in soil compaction, erosion, and diminished aeration, water infiltration, and mineral availability.

Burning crop residues, except for cool-season mosaic burns in First Nation agroecosystems

Crop residues should be allowed to biodegrade, feeding the soil microbiome. Plants consist mainly of cellulose made from long chains of glucose and water. Microorganisms break this down and use glucose as an energy source to support the soil microbiome. Burning destroys this energy source. Plants also produce lignins, which microorganisms convert into humus, one of the most vital types of soil organic matter. This process is also halted by burning.

The exception is First Nations traditional land management systems, where minor cool-season mosaic burns are utilized to regenerate pastures and prevent large, harmful forest and pasture fires.

Grazing that produces bare soil

Bare soil and dead plants cannot photosynthesize or create the molecules essential for life. Bare soil is prone to erosion from rain, wind, and direct sunlight. It also loses moisture because it is exposed to the sun without any shade. Living plants provide protection for the soil. Their roots stabilize it by acting as reinforcing rods and secreting substances that microorganisms utilize as glue to form soil structure. Plants mitigate the harmful effects of heavy rainfall and function as silt traps to prevent the loss of topsoil.

Grazing should be managed on a rotational basis to ensure that animals are removed before the soil becomes exposed and are not returned until the pasture vegetation has recovered.

Management Plans

The plans do not have to be detailed; they can be brief. The main thing is to get the operator to start thinking and strategizing differently as part of a paradigm shift.

Environmental

  • Increasing soil organic matter
  • Building soil fertility
  • Increasing plant and animal biodiversity
  • Ground cover and weed management
  • Pest and disease management
  • Traditional ecosystem mosaic burning – where appropriate
  • Minimize plastic

Social

  • Fair wages
  • Gender equity
  • Community engagement

Governance

  • Farm and Ecosystem Management Plan and Map
  • Marketing Management Plan
  • Financial Management Plan

Transition Plan

Describe with time frames how you will reduce and eliminate any prohibited products or production methods.

Management Plans Guidance

Increasing Soil Organic Matter

The management plan encourages operators to adopt practices that increase soil organic matter while avoiding those that decrease it. Although soil tests are desirable, they are not essential. Operators are encouraged to implement proven methods such as cover crops, polycultures, agroforestry, and rotational grazing, which allow pastures to recover fully. They should avoid bare soil, bare fallows, and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers. Additionally, soil should be seeded immediately after tillage.

Building soil fertility

The management plan describes methods for improving soil fertility, such as cover crops for green manure, legumes for nitrogen, and ground natural minerals such as lime, dolomite, gypsum, basalt, rock phosphate, and trace elements. While soil tests are desirable, they are not essential.

Increasing plant and animal biodiversity

The management plan outlines the transition from monocultures to more diverse systems.

Ground cover and weed management

The management plan details the strategy for managing ground covers and weeds, emphasizing the practice of transforming weeds into cover crops.

Pest and disease management

The management plan outlines the methods for managing pests and diseases, emphasizing ecological approaches instead of sprays.

Traditional ecosystem mosaic burning – where appropriate.

This section is exclusively for First Nations cultures that incorporate mosaic burning into their food and land management systems. The management plan details the procedures, methods, and timing.

Minimize plastic

The management plan outlines how plastics, particularly single-use plastics, are minimized and substituted with non-toxic alternatives.

Fair wages

Wages should be sufficient for workers to have a reasonable standard of living.

Operators should ensure that their workers receive fair pay sufficient for a standard of living that allows them to afford food, housing, clothing, healthcare, and education, while also having time for family and recreation.

Paying award wages is the minimum for countries with regulated wage systems.

Gender Equity

Women and men should have the same life opportunities.

Women are often treated as second-class citizens in many countries. Operators should ensure that women have equal opportunities and wages as men. All workers deserve a safe environment free from sexual harassment and bullying.

Community Engagement

The operator participates in and volunteers for the local community, such as being a member of a sports club, service organization, or history society, buying raffle tickets, and more. This practice is common among most local farmers. Its purpose is to exclude industrial agricultural corporations that do not contribute to the local community.

Farm and Ecosystem Management Plan and Map

The management plan includes a basic map of the farm layout and outlines the entire farming system regarding crops and livestock, as well as the management of vegetation and wildlife.

 Marketing Management

This is essential. Most farms fail because they have difficulty selling their products for a reasonable profit. Operators need to strategize regarding how, where, when, and to whom they will sell their produce, as well as how to maximize the price they receive.

Financial Management

Farms need to operate as profitable businesses. The plan must demonstrate how they reduce their costs and expenses in relation to their income to achieve an annual profit. It doesn’t have to be a detailed balance sheet or P&L; rather, it should focus on the strategies to accomplish this.

Transition Plan

Outline the timeline for reducing and eliminating any prohibited products or production methods.

There is no set period for operators to transition to Regenerative A Grade. However, all operators certified to Regenerative in Transition must outline time frames and methods for eliminating prohibited inputs and practices. This should be revised annually, with an emphasis on continual improvement.

Guidance on other issues

Post Production

Certifiers must follow the same chain of custody guidelines as organic products. This is why we will only accredit organic certifiers with years of experience and compliance procedures to ensure verification.

The processor does not need certification; only the production process must be documented in the management plan to show that no prohibited practices or inputs were used and that there was no mixing with non-regenerative products, validated as part of the inspection or audit. If a facility is already certified organic, it should be considered acceptable. Non-certified facilities can also be acceptable. The primary issue is to verify that no prohibited inputs or practices are employed for an A-grade product. If there are concerns about non-compliance, a surprise inspection is the best way to uncover the truth.

 Made With Regenerative

Products made mostly of certified regenerative ingredients can use the Made with Regenerative A Grade/ Made with Regenerative in Transition labels. This is the same concept as Made with Organic. We created this standard to encourage farmers and others to change their practices. Made With Regenerative will help farmers market their products.

Apiaries

Apiaries in a forest exemplify our goals. They help preserve biodiversity by supporting bees, which pollinate plants. The forests provide value to the community and the environment, and harvesting honey creates economic incentives to sustain these forests. They enhance soil organic matter; bees serve as vital indicators for pesticides and pollutants. Healthy bees indicate a healthy environment. The honey can be rated as A grade. The apiary operator must solely document the relevant practices in their management plan.

Reversing the Loss of Soil Organic Matter – The Elephant in the Room and Solution to Closing the Emissions Gap

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Academics and policymakers make data-free assumptions that most of the increase in CO2 from 278 ppm in 1750 to over 427 ppm in 2024 comes from burning fossil fuels and cement production, with a small proportion from deforestation and nothing from the loss of soil organic matter. 1

According to leading soil scientist Professor Rattan Lal of Ohio State University, soils contain over 2,700 Gt (billion tons) of carbon, the largest terrestrial carbon source 2. This is the climate change debate’s ‘Elephant in the Room’. It defies scientific credibility to ignore a carbon source that is more than double the combined global reserves of 905 Gt of carbon stored in coal, natural gas, and oil and 450 Gt in vegetation.

The Global Carbon Budget, the primary document used by scientists, governments, and the UN, underestimates soil carbon at 1,700 Gt and assumes it does not contribute to CO2 emissions. This is despite the reality that carbon in soils, as soil organic matter (SOM), has been significantly depleted and oxidized into CO2 due to the expansion of industrial agriculture since the Industrial Revolution in 1750. 1,2,3


CAPTION: The Global Carbon Budget underestimates the amount of carbon held in soils and, despite being the largest terrestrial source, incorrectly assumes it does not contribute to CO2 emissions

The oxidation of the carbon in soil organic matter (SOM) caused by excessive tillage, bare soil, erosion, and synthetic nitrogen fertilizers breaks down SOM. It converts it into CO2, significantly increasing atmospheric CO2 levels.

Determining the amount of CO2 resulting from the significant loss of SOM, which began with the rapid expansion of broad-acre agriculture to supply commodities for the Industrial Revolution, is difficult due to limited records of the original SOM levels. Ronnie Cummins and I provide a conservative estimate in “The Regenerative Agriculture Solution” regarding the USA and Australia. At the onset of the Industrial Revolution, both countries had vast areas of uncultivated land that were transformed into some of the first industrial-scale farms. Records of the original SOM levels were available. Based on current average SOM levels, we conservatively estimate that the United States and Australia alone are responsible for 660 Gt of CO2 emissions due to SOM loss. This suggests that thousands of Gt of CO2 have been released from the soil into the atmosphere globally, significantly exceeding the total reserves of fossil fuels. 3

Farming Systems that use Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizers

Researchers analyzed the SOM levels of a 50-year agricultural trial in Illinois. They discovered that the use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer led to the complete disappearance of carbon residues from the crops and an average loss of about 10,000 kg of soil organic carbon per hectare (10,000 lbs per acre), which equates to emissions of 36,700 kg of CO2 per hectare (36,700 Lbs per acre). 4,5,6

This loss exceeds the thousands of pounds of crop residue that oxidize into CO2 annually. Multiple studies have shown that the higher the application of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer, the greater the amount of soil organic matter lost as CO2. 4,5,6

A simple back-of-the-envelope calculation (see Appendix) extrapolating this data across 90% of croplands indicates that, conservatively, 51 Gt of CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere each year due to the oxidation of SOM. This source of CO2 surpasses fossil fuel emissions, and it is not accounted for in current models or climate change negotiations.

Grazing Systems and Soil Organic Matter (SOM) Loss

The results are even more striking considering the oxidation of soil organic matter (SOM) from the 3.4 billion hectares of rangelands and permanent pastures, which account for 68% of agricultural lands. These areas are experiencing some of the most significant SOM losses, transforming once-fertile, carbon-rich pastures into dustbowl deserts. Many of these regions contained deep, carbon-rich topsoils with 3% to 16% or more soil organic matter. Now, extensive areas have less than one percent. A one percent loss of soil carbon per hectare results in 154 tons of CO2 being released into the atmosphere. Extending this across 3.4 billion hectares, the one percent loss equates to 524 gigatons of CO2. Since most areas have experienced a considerably greater loss of SOM than one percent, the total global emissions from rangelands since 1750 would be significantly higher in the thousands of gigatons.  This data indicates a conservative underestimation of loss of 0.10% SOM due to rangeland degradation, which would contribute to 52 Gt CO2 emissions annually.

Landscape Degradation and Emissions

The IUCN estimates that annual emissions from peatlands drained for industrial agriculture total 1.9 Gt of CO2. This figure accounts for 5% of Global Carbon Budget greenhouse gas emissions, which is disproportionate considering that damaged peatlands cover only 0.3% of the Earth’s landmass. For example, in 2015, fires in Indonesian peat swamp forests released nearly 16 million tons of CO2 per day, exceeding the total emissions of the entire United States. 7

The latest research shows that the carbon loss from deforested and drained tropical peatland has been underestimated, with an average loss of 31 tons per hectare annually. This is 113.77 tons of CO2 emission per hectare. 5.1 million hectares of peatland have been deforested for industrial agriculture in Peninsular Malaysia and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo, in the western part of insular Southeast Asia, since 1990. These alone contribute 580 million tons of CO2 emissions annually. They are the tip of the iceberg. 8, 9

According to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), humans have already altered 70 percent of all ice-free land, and current agricultural practices erode soils worldwide up to 100 times faster than natural processes can replenish them. These eroded and degraded soil oxidize soil carbon into CO2. 10

Annual CO2 emissions of 52 Gt from rangeland degradation and 51 Gt from croplands are conservative and realistic assumptions. Overlooking potential annual emissions exceeding 100 Gt of CO2 from rangeland and croplands demonstrates that current climate models are flawed. These emissions are significantly more than the 36 Gt from fossil fuels and cement, partly explaining the consistent failures in implementing solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change over the last 40 years and why these failures will continue.


CAPTION: Current climate change models completely ignore CO2 emissions from the loss of soil organic matter, even though soil is the largest terrestrial carbon source. Research shows that the degradation caused by industrial agriculture emits more than 100 Gt—three times the amount of fossil fuel emissions.

A study published by Skrable, Chabot, and French analyzed changes in the proportions of carbon-14 (C-14) in the atmosphere and disproved the idea that the increase in CO2 is primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels. This study has been criticized by those who argue that climate change is caused solely by fossil fuels; however, it has undergone peer review, and its methodology and conclusions are valid.

All living organisms absorb C-14. It decays over time and disappears after 45,000 years. Its decay rate is used to date artifacts in archeology, paleontology, and many other sciences. Fossil fuels are so old that they do not have C-14. Consequently, the authors of this study could use it to determine the percentage of fossil fuel-based CO2 in the air from the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. 11

“Our results show that the percentage of the total CO2 due to the use of fossil fuels from 1750 to 2018 increased from 0 percent in 1750 to 12 percent in 2018, much too low to be the cause of global warming,”.

The research indicates that a significant portion of the increase in atmospheric CO2 since 1750, from 280 ppm to over 400 ppm, originates from living carbon sources rather than fossil fuels. These sources are primarily due to deforestation and the loss of soil organic matter (SOM). Since 1750, the start of the Industrial Revolution, 1.5 billion hectares (3.7 billion acres) of forest have been cleared, an area 1.5 times larger than the United States. This deforestation has contributed, and continues to contribute, substantially to current CO2 levels. These forests played a crucial role in absorbing CO2 through photosynthesis. Not only has this capacity for removal been diminished, but all the biomass has been oxidized into CO2 and released back into the atmosphere. Clearing these ecosystems also leads to significant SOM losses that are oxidized into CO2. 3

The Emissions Gap

Most human-generated CO2 is produced in the northern hemisphere; however, the oceans and forests of the southern hemisphere act as sinks for it. As CO2 diffuses throughout the atmosphere, levels decrease because the oceans and plants can absorb it. The average CO2 level recorded at Mauna Loa in Hawaii for January 2025 in the northern hemisphere was 426.65 ppm.12 The CO2 levels recorded at Cape Grim in Tasmania, in the southern hemisphere, for January 2025, were 421.58 ppm.13 This reduction of 5.07 ppm corresponds to 39 Gt of CO2 being removed from the atmosphere. The vast majority of CO2 emissions are removed through photosynthesis by land plants and blue-green algae in the oceans.


CAPTION: In January 2025, the levels of CO2 decreased from 426.65 ppm at Mauna Loa in Hawaii to 421.58 ppm at Cape Grim in Tasmania. This reduction of 5.07 ppm corresponds to 39 Gt of CO2 being removed from the atmosphere, primarily through photosynthesis by plants and algae. This is more than the total amount of fossil fuel emissions of 36 Gt.

The critical issue is ending the emissions gap between Earth’s natural systems’ ability to remove CO2 and anthropogenic emissions. The gap recorded at Cape Grim from January 2024, 417.97, to January 2025, 421.58, is 3.61 ppm, meaning atmospheric CO2 increased by 28 Gt.

For the past forty years, efforts to close this gap by reducing fossil fuel consumption and increasing the use of renewable energy have failed. Many countries, including India, China, and now the USA, are actively increasing their fossil fuel production and consumption to meet the energy demands of economic growth. Little is expected to change in these activities for decades, if ever. The minor decreases in European emissions are merely a ripple effect, incurred at significant economic and severe environmental costs due to the industrialization of their rural landscapes for renewable energy. The gap in CO2 emissions continues to widen each year, and there is no realistic chance of achieving the elusive net-zero emissions by 2050 under this scenario.

Closing the Emissions Gap

Implementing easy-to-adopt regenerative agricultural practices like cover crops and rotational grazing to prevent 100 Gt of CO2 emissions from rangelands and croplands will swiftly close the emissions gap, begin sequestering excess atmospheric CO2 into the soil, and restore the climate.

Implementing regenerative agriculture can reverse climate change by eliminating CO2 emissions from SOM loss caused by industrial agriculture. Regenerative agriculture captures CO2 in the soil and enhances SOM. The key to restoring our planet’s climate lies in removing the primary source of CO2 and increasing the terrestrial environment’s capacity to absorb it through photosynthesis. This can be accomplished by stopping ecosystem destruction, restoring forests and pastures, and discontinuing synthetic nitrogen fertilizers by replacing them with cover crops. These are easy-to-achieve, shovel-ready solutions. 3, 14

Appendix for Calculations

Conversion Formulas

  • For simplicity, the numbers have been rounded off to the nearest decimal.
  • There are 2.471054 acres to a hectare. I have rounded this off to 2.5 acres to the hectare, a standard practice.
  • Similarly, I have rounded off pounds per acre to kilograms per hectare.
  • This article treats Metric and US tons as equivalent.
  • A gigaton (Gt) equals one billion tons.
  • 3.67 is the conversion of carbon into CO2
  • One ppm of CO2 equals 7.76 gigatons (Gt) of CO2

Calculations

These calculations are not intended as scientific proof; rather, these types of back-of-the-envelope analyses are intended to help conceptualize the potential of a strategy or methodology when testing a hypothesis. They are a starting point, not an ending point.

By the same token, calculations of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions should be viewed skeptically, as governments and organizations employ different methodologies and assumptions based on various sources. Estimated figures must always be questioned for their credibility. This is the nature of good science—always question to revise outcomes.

Farming Systems that use Synthetic Nitrogen Fertilizers

The land use figures come from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (UN FAO).

  • Arable cropland: 1,396,374,300 hectares (3,490,935,750 acres)
  • Permanent crops: 153,733,800 hectares (384,334,500 acres)

Total 1,550,108,100 hectares = 1.55 billion hectares.

The Green Revolution pushed using synthetic nitrogen fertilizers as the primary way to increase crop yields, resulting in about 90% of these farms regularly utilizing them. Less than 1% is under organic production. Khan et al. (2007) showed that adding nitrogen fertilizer caused soil carbon loss, producing 36.7 tons of CO2 emissions per hectare.

A simple formula to calculate the soil carbon emission from this sector is 90% of 1.55 billion hectares multiplied by 36.7 tons of CO2 per hectare equals 51 Gt of CO2 emissions annually.

This means a conservative estimate of 51 billion tons (Gt) of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere yearly by industrial agriculture’s oxidation of soil organic matter. This large source of CO2 is not accounted for in the models or climate change negotiations.

Grazing Systems and Soil Organic Matter (SOM) Loss

The UN FAO has estimated that grazing occurs on 3,358,567,600 hectares of rangelands and permanent pastures (8,396,419,000 acres). The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) estimates that most of these areas are degraded with moderate to severe soil carbon loss.

Dr. Christine Jones states, “An increase of 1 percent in the level of soil carbon in the 0–30 cm soil profile equates to sequestration of 154 tons CO2/ha with an average bulk density of 1.4 g/cm3.”14

A simple formula to calculate the CO2 emissions from a one percent loss of SOM in this sector is 3.4 billion hectares multiplied by 154 tons of CO2 per hectare equals 524 Gt.

A conservative assumption of a 0.10% annual loss of SOM equals 52 Gt of CO2 emissions annually.

The Emissions Gap

The average CO2 level recorded at Mauna Loa in Hawaii for January 2025 in the northern hemisphere was 426.65 ppm. The CO2 levels recorded at Cape Grim in Tasmania, in the southern hemisphere, for January 2025, were 421.58 ppm. Using the accepted formula, one ppm of CO2 equals 7.76 gigatons (Gt) of CO2; this reduction of 5.07 ppm corresponds to 39 Gt of CO2.

The gap recorded at Cape Grim from January 2024, 417.97, to January 2025, 421.58, is 3.61 ppm. Using the accepted formula, one ppm of CO2 equals 7.76 gigatons (Gt) of CO2, results atmospheric CO2 increased by 28 Gt over Cape Grim.

References

  1. Friedlingstein, P., O’Sullivan, M., Jones, M. W., Andrew, R. M., Bakker, D. C. E., Hauck, J., Landschützer, P., Le Quéré, C., Luijkx, I. T., Peters, G. P., Peters, W., Pongratz, J., Schwingshackl, C., Sitch, S., Canadell, J. G., Ciais, P., Jackson, R. B., Alin, S. R., Anthoni, P., Barbero, L., Bates, N. R., Becker, M., Bellouin, N., Decharme, B., Bopp, L., Brasika, I. B. M., Cadule, P., Chamberlain, M. A., Chandra, N., Chau, T.-T.-T., Chevallier, F., Chini, L. P., Cronin, M., Dou, X., Enyo, K., Evans, W., Falk, S., Feely, R. A., Feng, L., Ford, D. J., Gasser, T., Ghattas, J., Gkritzalis, T., Grassi, G., Gregor, L., Gruber, N., Gürses, Ö., Harris, I., Hefner, M., Heinke, J., Houghton, R. A., Hurtt, G. C., Iida, Y., Ilyina, T., Jacobson, A. R., Jain, A., Jarníková, T., Jersild, A., Jiang, F., Jin, Z., Joos, F., Kato, E., Keeling, R. F., Kennedy, D., Klein Goldewijk, K., Knauer, J., Korsbakken, J. I., Körtzinger, A., Lan, X., Lefèvre, N., Li, H., Liu, J., Liu, Z., Ma, L., Marland, G., Mayot, N., McGuire, P. C., McKinley, G. A., Meyer, G., Morgan, E. J., Munro, D. R., Nakaoka, S.-I., Niwa, Y., O’Brien, K. M., Olsen, A., Omar, A. M., Ono, T., Paulsen, M., Pierrot, D., Pocock, K., Poulter, B., Powis, C. M., Rehder, G., Resplandy, L., Robertson, E., Rödenbeck, C., Rosan, T. M., Schwinger, J., Séférian, R., Smallman, T. L., Smith, S. M., Sospedra-Alfonso, R., Sun, Q., Sutton, A. J., Sweeney, C., Takao, S., Tans, P. P., Tian, H., Tilbrook, B., Tsujino, H., Tubiello, F., van der Werf, G. R., van Ooijen, E., Wanninkhof, R., Watanabe, M., Wimart-Rousseau, C., Yang, D., Yang, X., Yuan, W., Yue, X., Zaehle, S., Zeng, J., and Zheng, B.: Global Carbon Budget 2023, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 5301–5369
  2. Lal R (2008). Sequestration of atmospheric CO2 in global carbon pools. Energy and Environmental Science, 1: 86–100.
  3. Ronnie Cummins and André Leu, The Regenerative Agriculture Solution: A Revolutionary Approach to Building Soil, Creating Climate Resilience and Supporting Human and Planetary Health, Chelsea Green, September 2024
  4. Khan, S.A., R.L. Mulvaney, T.R. Ellsworth, and C.W. Boast. 2007. The myth of nitrogen fertilization for soil carbon sequestration. Journal of Environmental Quality 36:1821-1832.
  5. Mulvaney, R.L., S.A., Khan, and T.R. Ellsworth. 2009. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers deplete soil nitrogen: A global dilemma for sustainable cereal production. Journal of Environmental Quality 38:2295-2314.
  6. Man, M., B. Deen, K.E. Dunfield, C.Wagner-Riddle, and M.J. Simpson. 2021.Altered soil organic matter composition and degradation after a decade of nitrogen fertilization in a temperate agroecosystem. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 310:107305.
  7. https://iucn.org/resources/issues-brief/peatlands-and-climate-change#:~:text=Peatlands%20are%20the%20largest%20natural,global%20anthropogenic%20CO2%20emissions. (Accessed March 3, 2025)
  8. Gusti Z. Anshari, Evi Gusmayanti, M. Afifudin, Monika Ruwaimana, Lauren Hendricks, Daniel G. Gavin, Carbon loss from a deforested and drained tropical peatland over four years as assessed from peat stratigraphy,CATENA, Volume 208,2022,105719,ISSN 0341-8162,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105719.
  9. Miettinen, J. and Liew, S.C. (2010), Degradation and development of peatlands in Peninsular Malaysia and in the islands of Sumatra and Borneo since 1990. Land Degrad. Dev., 21: 285-296. https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.976
  10. https://www.unccd.int/land-and-life/land-degradation-neutrality/overview (Accessed March 2, 2025)
  11. Kenneth Skrable, George Chabot, and Clayton French, World Atmospheric CO2, Its 14C Specific Activity, Non-fossil Component, Anthropogenic Fossil Component, and Emissions (1750–2018), Health Physics 122,no. 2 (February 2022): 291–305,
  12. https://gml.noaa.gov/ccgg/trends/mlo.html (Accessed March 5,2025)
  13. https://capegrim.csiro.au/GreenhouseGas/data/CapeGrim_CO2_data_download.txt (Accessed March 5, 2025)
  14. Leu André, GROWING LIFE, REGENERATING FARMING AND RANCHING, Acres USA, Greeley Colorado, USA, December 2021

The Corn Saga: How Years of Activism, Scientific Research and Perseverance Led to an Inspiring Victory Against Big Ag and the GMO Giants.

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**UPDATE 3/6/2025: After five hours of deliberation, with a vote of 97 in favor and 16 opposing, the Mexican Senate approves the constitutional reform to ban GMOs. In a closing statement the director of the Morena party Adán Augusto López Hernández stated, “We must continue protecting our country, we will not fail.”

Mexico City – On February 25, the Chamber of Deputies approved a constitutional reform to articles 4 and 27 to prohibit the planting of genetically modified corn, prioritize the protection of biodiversity and food sovereignty, defend the milpa system and promote traditional crops and native seeds.

The road to this victory has been long and arduous involving many dedicated activists, organizations, lawyers, researchers, farmers, environmentalists and concerned citizens. The Organic Consumers Association (OCA) and our sister organization, Vía Orgánica, are proud to say that we have played a key role in the success of this movement. 

An Important Step for Civil Society: Winning the Cultural and Political Battle 

In 2018, OCA tested results on samples of Maseca white and yellow corn flour, sourced from different regions of Mexico, which showed concerning levels of glyphosate and GMOs. Some flour samples tested as high as 94.15 percent for the presence of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This important research has added invaluable tangible facts to the case against GMO corn in Mexico, showing the risks GMOs and the pesticides that accompany them present to public health. OCA’s work with the Sin Maíz No Hay País (No Corn No Country) campaign, along with continued research, education, activism, network building, and support, was fundamental in achieving a temporary ban in 2020 on the open-field production of GM corn in Mexico.

The powerful Sin Maíz No Hay País campaign, was fundamental in safeguarding not only Mexico’s panoply of corn varieties, but also the millennia-old seed saving and breeding practices through which they were developed and the resurgence of national pride surrounding native maíz. More and more seed exchange festivals have emerged and the celebration of the National day of Corn (September 29th) became a well-known day of celebration of biocultural richness in all of Mexico.

With this increase in celebrations and festivals, consumers all over the country have become aware and concerned about the dangers of GMO corn and are demanding labeling and transparency.

The “100 percent nixtamalized (the process used to make authentic traditional tortillas)” OCA campaign has also been important in the protection of the nixtamalized tortilla and the recognition and inclusion of the communities that produce the nixtamalized tortilla, providing information for consumers to make decisions for the benefit of their health while exposing the low quality of industrialized corn flour tortillas.

OCA has also been fundamental at connecting networks of support and dialogue between Mexican buyers and farmers and US farmers: this rejection of GMO corn in Mexico could be a great opportunity for the $40 billion non-GMO market in the US, and non-GMO grain suppliers, seed companies and farmers to supply Mexico with non-GMO white and yellow corn.

Is Corn Just a Commodity?

In December 2020, a presidential decree was issued seeking to ban GM corn for human consumption in Mexico by 2024. This caused a tremendous and fast reaction in the US market, after all, Mexico is the biggest buyer of the corn grown in the United States, 90 percent of which is genetically engineered. The US government argued that the decree was in violation of the USMCA (United States-Mexico-Canada free trade agreement). Mexico annually imports 16 million tons of corn from the United States, the equivalent to $2.7B dollars. White corn for human consumption is grown domestically in Mexico, but the import of yellow corn for livestock feed and for processed industrialized foods such as high-fructose corn syrup remains controversial. 

Four years later, in December 2024, a trade dispute panel ruled against Mexico’s restrictions on the use of genetically modified (GM or genetically engineered) corn, siding with the United States and Canada and forcing Mexico to allow the use of GM corn for food. The panel stated that Mexico’s efforts to ban the importation of transgenic corn on human health grounds weren’t scientifically supported. This proved once again, as it has been demonstrated for almost 32 years, how corn has been a victim of free trade agreements.

A Defining Moment for Civil Society: The Fundamental Rights of Corn

A clear example of the power of organized civil society was the addendum proposed by Claudia Sheinbaum in early February to the Chamber of Deputies on the Constitutional Reform Initiative on the protection of native corn. It rectified the initiative sent on January 23rd which generated rejection among social, farmer and scientific organizations that make up the National Campaign Sin Maíz No Hay Paíz. The group of organizations argued that the first initiative only protected native corn from GMOs, an obsolete biotechnology, but left the door open to other forms of genetically modified corn.

During the morning conference, the President read the proposal to modify Article 4,

President Sheinbaum stated:

“Mexico is the center of origin and diversity of corn, element of national identity, basic food of the Mexican people and the basis of the existence of indigenous and Afro-Mexican peoples, its cultivation in the national territory must be free of genetic modifications produced with techniques that overcome the natural barriers of reproduction or recombination such as transgenic ones.”

In addition: “Any other use of genetically modified corn must be evaluated under the terms of the legal provisions to be free from threats to biosecurity, health and the biocultural heritage of Mexico and its population, priority must be given to the protection of biodiversity, food sovereignty, agroecological management, promoting scientific and humanistic research, innovation and traditional knowledge”.

In Our Own Words

As Mercedes López, Mexican Director of Organic Consumers Association’s sister organization Vía Orgánica and representative of the “Demanda Colectiva” class action lawsuit explains:

“In order to defend the modification of two constitutional articles is underway: Article 4, which seeks to protect Mexico as the center of origin and permanent diversity of corn, an element of national identity, and which establishes its cultivation free of genetic modifications; as well as Article 27, which protects and promotes traditional crops with native seeds through the milpa system”.

“This initiative was approved by the Chamber of Deputies and will be analyzed in the coming days by the Senate of the Republic. It seeks the conservation and protection of native Mexican corn that has been developed for 10,000 years by indigenous and Afro-American populations to give Mexico and the world 64 breeds and thousands of varieties of corn that are used by the population as food, compost, medicine, sacred rites, handicrafts and construction. For unscrupulous transnational companies such as Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta and Dow Agrosciences, corn is nothing but a highly valuable commodity to manipulate and control. This constitutional reform seeks to prevent genetically modified corn as a result of the trade dispute that Mexico lost, in the framework of the USMCA, last December, a task in which the work of the peasant communities and native peoples who continue to plant native corn and milpa (a holistic system of growing food and traditional medicines) has been fundamental, as well as various networks such as the National Campaign without Corn there is no Country, of which Vía Orgánica, Organic Consumers Association and Regeneration International are an integral part”.

The Regeneration International Standard

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Guidance Document for Certifying and Operating to The Regeneration International Standard

Agriculture must change from chemically intensive degenerative industrial systems to regenerative, biological, biodiverse, nature-based ones to regenerate our ecosystems, climate, health, and communities. Such systems improve resources, reduce, and ultimately avoid synthetic chemicals. It is not based on animal or plant cruelty. Instead, its foundations are biodiversity, plant biology, living soil science, and humane livestock systems.

Overview of Standard

This standard is brief and direct instead of a lengthy, complex regulatory document. It aims to be user-friendly for farmers and landholders. Regeneration International will periodically update this standard.

It has the Definition, General Principles,  Guidance, and Clear prohibitions.

Apart from the prohibitions, it uses principles and guidance rather than mandated practices so farmers and land managers can make decisions based on the most appropriate practices and inputs and encourage innovation. The primary purpose of this standard is to assist in a paradigm shift from the current degenerative industrial-agricultural systems into systems that regenerate soil, biodiversity, climate, community, fairness, care, and health.

Operators can get certified to the following levels.

  • Regenerative A Grade – meeting all the requirements
  • Regenerative in Transition – in the process of meeting all the requirements

Operators can be certified to other standards and schemes.

The Definition of Regenerative Agriculture

Regenerative systems improve the environment, soil, plants, animal welfare, health, and communities.

The opposite of Regenerative is Degenerative

This is an essential distinction in determining practices that are not regenerative.

 Agricultural systems that use Degenerative Practices and inputs that damage the environment, soil, health, genes, and communities and involve animal cruelty are not regenerative.

Synthetic toxic pesticides, synthetic water-soluble fertilizers, genetically modified organisms, confined animal feeding operations, overgrazing, exploitive marketing and wage systems, destructive tillage systems, and clearing high-value ecosystems are examples of degenerative practices.

Such systems must be called degenerative agriculture to stop greenwashing and hijacking.

The best way to determine if practices and inputs are regenerative or degenerative is IFOAM-Organics International’s Four Principles of Organic Agriculture.

Health
Organic agriculture should sustain and enhance the health of soil, plant, animal, human and 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 with regard to the common 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.

General Principles and Guidance on Best Practices

 Maximize Photosynthesis

Agriculture starts with plants, which create soil by using photosynthesis to feed the microbiome with the molecules of life.

Plants will hardly grow in freshly ground rock. However, if you add organic matter, they will grow. Plants do this naturally, creating soil.

The key to successful regenerative agriculture is maximizing the capture of solar energy through photosynthesis in plant leaves. This solar energy powers the production system that feeds the soil microbiome, making nutrients, water, pest, and disease management available to plants and animals. Photosynthesis is the basis of most life on our planet—directly and indirectly. We use this energy to power farming and ranching systems. The key to getting the highest productivity is collecting as much photosynthesis energy as possible to power the system.

95% to 98% of plants’ biomass comprises water and carbon dioxide (CO2). Through photosynthesis, plants harness the sun’s energy to create glucose, the essential molecule for life. Glucose is the basis for all molecules of life and is the substance most living organisms need for energy, growth, reproduction, and survival.

 Regenerate Soil

Soil is fundamental to all terrestrial life on this planet. It is the source of our food and biodiversity. Soil is not inert dirt—it is living, breathing, and teeming with life. The soil microbiome is our planet’s most complex and richest biodiversity area. The rhizosphere, the region around plant roots, has the greatest biodiversity.

Plants feed the soil microbiome with the molecules of life they create through photosynthesis. These molecules are the basis of organic matter—carbon-based molecules—on which all life on Earth depends. Organic matter is fundamental to all life, and SOM is essential to life in the soil.

Farming practices that enhance SOM improve soil fertility, increase water retention capacity, and strengthen resilience to pests and diseases, thereby boosting agricultural systems’ productivity. As SOM comes from carbon dioxide fixed during photosynthesis, increasing SOM can significantly benefit the climate by removing this greenhouse gas from the atmosphere.

The fact is that our health and wealth come from the soil.

Cash Crops and Cover Crops

A cash crop is a crop we eat, swap, or sell. A cover crop is a crop we grow to feed the soil microbiome and produce fertility and nutrients for the cash crop. Both can be the same, such as pastures for livestock.

  • Maximize living plants and deep roots

A key principle is to ensure that agricultural systems include photosynthesizing plants for the longest possible durations within their climates. Dead plants and bare soil do not photosynthesize. Consequently, the most productive regenerative systems avoid using herbicides and excessive tillage to kill plants. Instead, plants are managed as ground covers and cover crops to enhance soil fertility, maximizing the carbon compounds that roots secrete into the soil.
As plants grow, 10% to 40% of these molecules of life are secreted into the soil through the roots. Thanks to the depth of the roots, these carbon compounds penetrate deeper into the soil than above-ground or tilled SOM, which can quickly convert back into CO2. Systems with deeper roots are preferred because their carbon compounds help build more durable SOM, making deep soil carbon more stable.

  • Maximize Soil Cover

A general principle is to cover the soil with the highest possible amount of living plants for as long as possible. Bare soil is vulnerable to wind and water erosion. Plant cover protects the soil and serves as a silt trap to prevent erosion. Bare soil and dead plants do not photosynthesize.

  • Increase Diversity

Utilizing a diverse range of well-managed plant species ensures maximum sunlight capture per acre or hectare. This captured sunlight provides the energy needed to convert CO2 into organic compounds that contribute to SOM through the soil microbiome. Maintaining permanent covers of living plants and implementing limited tillage systems are the most effective methods for increasing SOM. Properly managed polycultures are more resilient and produce higher yields than monocultures.

  • Increase Perennials

Perennials have longer photosynthesis periods and deeper root systems. Choosing the right species can yield fruit, fodder, and nitrogen, which boosts resilience to climate extremes like droughts, floods, and storms. Overall, they need less management than annuals. 

Minimize Disturbance

Short-term soil disturbances, such as animal trampling in pastures and effective tillage practices, help aerate the soil. This process encourages soil microbes to decompose organic matter, releasing essential nutrients. There is considerable misunderstanding about the role of microbes in oxidizing soil organic matter. Some degree of oxidation is necessary to free minerals vital for crop growth. Without sufficient oxidation, many minerals remain trapped within organic matter. The key is to effectively manage the cycles of both short-term and long-term soil organic matter fractions. The labile fraction should continuously cycle and release nutrients to support crop growth, which can be achieved while enhancing the stable soil organic matter fractions.

Strip tilling

Strip tilling minimizes soil disturbance during cultivation. Most soil remains uncultivated as the crop is sown in the tilled strips. The most effective weed management strategies involve turning them into cover crops. Pasture cropping is one of the best examples of implementing this approach.

 Maximize Recovery

Ecosystems naturally regenerate once a disturbance stops. Consequently, regenerative agriculture not only maintains resources but also improves them. Understanding how to manage this powerful force is essential. Maximizing recovery after grazing, tillage, and other disturbances allows the plants and soil to reach their full production potential.

 Integrate Livestock

Livestock can manage weeds, pests, and diseases, supply nitrogen via manure, and increase  SOM.

Various strategies are used to manage weeds and use them as cover crops to build fertility. Grazing is a widespread management tool for these regenerative systems. Many systems, known by different names, fall under the heading of regenerative grazing, such as Holistic Planned Grazing, AMP grazing, cell grazing, mob grazing, and rotational grazing.

Overgrazing occurs when animals graze for too long without allowing the ecosystem sufficient time to recover. When many animals graze briefly, allowing the vegetation adequate time to heal before returning them to the field mimics the natural grazing patterns of herding animals and enhances biodiversity. Even a low stocking density of animals that continuously eat their favored species can damage plants because they cannot recover.

Maximize Efficiency

The best regenerative farmers redesign farming systems to create a series of integrated systems that prevent pests and diseases, giving the cash crop a significant advantage. They aim to take a whole-systems approach, resulting in a resilient, low-input, high-output farm. This is where effective traditional practices, scientific rigor, and farmer-led innovations combine to produce new systems, applying an ecological approach to agriculture.

Ecosystem-based regenerative production systems manage biodiversity to achieve the optimal utilization of ecosystem services. The aim is to maximize the multi-functional benefits of ecological functions rather than synthetic chemical intensification.

These services encompass pest and disease management, water retention and drainage, soil enhancement, soil biology and fertility, nutrient cycling, nitrogen fixation, photosynthesis, CO2 removal, diversity in crops and animal species, pollination, and many others.

Education to Train Farmers in Best Practices

This standard is based on a culture of continuous improvement. Certified operators are encouraged to take courses and workshops on best practices such as but not limited to:

  • Regenerating soils
  • Nutrient balancing
  • Organic agriculture
  • Agroecology
  • Regenerative grazing
  • Animal husbandry
  • Cover and pasture cropping
  • Permaculture
  • Agroforestry
  • Biodynamics

Prohibitions

  • Synthetic pesticides
  • Synthetic animal feed supplements
  • Synthetic food additives
  • Water soluble chemical fertilizers, except for correcting deficiencies with trace elements
  • Sewerage sludge/biosolids
  • GMOs, including gene editing and GMO vaccines
  • Nanotechnology
  • Animal cruelty – all animals must be able to express their natural habits.
  • Confined Animal Feeding Operations – all animals must spend adequate time on pasture and/or their natural habitat.
  • Hydroponics – all systems must be soil-based.
  • Clearing old growth and high-value ecosystems,
  • Damaging tillage
  • Burning crop residues, except for cool-season mosaic burns in First Nation agroecosystems
  • Grazing that produces bare soil

Management Plan – Continuous Improvement, Accountability, and Practices

This standard’s most critical aspect is that it helps operators manage the transition to a fully regenerative system. Certified operators will be inspected and evaluated for progress based on their management plan.

Please describe how you manage and intend to improve the following:

Operators can choose their preferred format for documenting their practices, plans, and maps. You must document and improve them every year.

Environmental

  • Increasing soil organic matter
  • Building soil fertility
  • Increasing plant and animal biodiversity
  • Ground cover and weed management
  • Pest and disease management
  • Traditional ecosystem mosaic burning – where appropriate
  • Minimize plastic

Social

  • Fair wages
  • Gender equity
  • Community engagement

Governance

  • Farm and Ecosystem Management Plan and Map
  • Marketing Management Plan
  • Financial Management Plan

Transition Plan

Describe with time frames how you will reduce and eliminate any prohibited products or production methods.

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Cultivating Hope: Wrapping Up 2024

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Dear Friends and Supporters,

As Dr. Vandana Shiva writes in the foreword of The Regenerative Agriculture Solution, “Knowledge and action are a continuum, flowing from the living systems of the Earth (…) Practice the principles of regeneration. Grow life. Grow hope.”

Growing life and hope is precisely what Regeneration International has been doing for nearly a decade. This year, we celebrate our ninth anniversary and the expansion of our global network to 600 partner organizations across 78 countries.

While our work is global, our direction is shaped by local farmers, scientists, activists, conscious citizens, and supporters. Together, we form a vibrant, interconnected community that shares knowledge, amplifies voices, and creates an enabling environment for change. Our network has grown to over two million people, united in the pursuit of a regenerative future.

We are deeply grateful for your support of Regeneration International. As consumers, activists, organizers, farmers, and scientists, you are helping build the international movement to regenerate the Earth and reverse climate change. The road ahead is challenging, but we are not alone—and with each passing day, we are growing stronger.

Our network already has the solutions. We are rooted in principles of biodiversity, living soil, justice, fairness, and the commons. We know how to restore life to our poisoned food systems, environment, and health. But we need to change minds, redirect subsidies, and dismantle a broken agricultural system based on corruption, extractivism, and inequality.

The image at the top of this message—our Planting Peace banner—symbolizes this call to action. Now more than ever, we must plant the seeds of international peace and cooperation. The future of our planet depends on us working together to co-create a world where humanity thrives in harmony with nature.

We ask you to continue engaging with your friends, family, and neighbors. Be part of the local political discussion. By doing so, you are helping ignite and strengthen a global movement for change.

Now, more than ever, we must unite against those who seek to control our health, our food, and our knowledge. Regeneration International, alongside our sister organizations like the Organic Consumers Association and Vía Orgánica, is proud to stand at the forefront of this revolution for life and peace. You can count on us as allies—and we hope to count on you to carry this essential work forward.

Support Our Work, Donate Today 

2024 Highlights & Seeds of Change

1. The Regenerative Agriculture Solution – This groundbreaking book by André Leu and Ronnie Cummins was released this year, highlighting the Billion Agave Project and other innovative practices that restore forests, rangelands, and farming ecosystems to combat climate change and enrich communities.

2. Africa – We continue our vital work in Africa, collaborating with local partners and participating in initiatives like the Cultivating Change Gathering in Tanzania and Kenya.

3. Food Sovereignty in Mexico – Our efforts to defend native corn in Mexico remain a priority, ensuring that traditional food systems are protected from corporate control and land grabs.

4. AROES (Agroecological, Regenerative, and Organic Ecosystem Services) – Farmers should be paid for the ecosystem services they provide—not just their yields. This economic shift is key to creating a more just and sustainable food system.

5. Billion Agave Project – Learn more about the Billion Agave Project, a groundbreaking initiative that demonstrates the power of regenerative practices to restore land and climate.

6. People’s Food Summit – In 2024, we produced the Fourth Edition of the People’s Food Summit, showcasing global voices on organic and regenerative farming practices, food sovereignty, and community resilience.

7. Building Regenerative Networks – Our work continues to bridge the agroecological, organic, and regenerative movements. Watch our recent conversation on agroecology and regenerative agriculture here: Video

Your ongoing support fuels this critical work. Together, we can regenerate the Earth, restore justice to our food systems, and create a future of peace and abundance for all.

Thank you for standing with us in this revolutionary movement.

With gratitude,

                                                                                         
Ercilia Sahores                                                                                        Dr. André Leu International Director, Regeneration International
Regional Director, Regeneration International                   International Director, Regeneration International

How Much Goes it Cost to Preserve Mexican Biodiversity?

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For the past 11 years, Vía Orgánica has been fighting to protect the 64 native corn varieties and hundreds of local strains in Mexico. These corn varieties not only represent a traditional food source for millions of people but are also key to the country’s biodiversity, culture, cosmogony, and religious rituals. Above all, they are part of the defense of ancestral seeds that have been passed down over 10,000 years by generations of farmers, contributing to both Mexico’s and the world’s
agricultural heritage.

We have successfully halted the planting of genetically modified corn in the heart of the crop’s origin region through a civil lawsuit that led to a precautionary measure preventing its commercial cultivation. This victory also serves as a powerful defense against multinational corporations like Bayer-Monsanto, Syngenta, and Dow Agrosciences.

We invite you to support this vital struggle through your donation. Every contribution helps sustain our efforts to protect ancestral resources, food sovereignty, and the right to preserve the culinary traditions of Mexican cuisine, which UNESCO has recognized as Intangible Heritage of Humanity.