Organic Certification as the Basis of Regenerative Agriculture?

There are discussions that organic certification should be mandated as the starting point of regenerative agriculture.

Our 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.

Regeneration International has consistently asserted that the four principles of organic agriculture are essential in determining whether practices are regenerative or degenerative.

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.

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, 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.

While we strongly support the principles of organic agriculture, Regeneration International cannot support mandating the current organic certification systems, such as the USDA and EU regulations, as the basis of regenerative agriculture. These systems need long-overdue reforms that are preventing the majority of farmers from taking up certification.

I am part of the generation of organic farmers who developed the first organic standards and certification systems in the 1970s and 80s to ensure the integrity of organic agriculture and stop false claims when people were selling their produce as organic. We did this to protect both farmers and consumers.

Our first standards were simple one—or two-page documents. Organic farmers developed them with extensive experience and knowledge of organic farming systems.

The first certification organizations were formed out of this. They were democratic, not-for-profit membership organizations. Our inspectors were other pioneering organic farmers whom we trusted for their knowledge and integrity. We would have an inspection once every two years and submit a signed declaration for the non-inspection years. We used to look forward to our inspectors, as it was time we could learn from them ways to improve our farms and organic production systems.

The worst thing that happened to the organic sector was when governments started regulating it. At the time, we believed that government regulation would protect the sector and stop fraudulent claims and substitutions, so we strongly advocated for it.

Our clear and compelling one and two-page standards became lengthy bureaucratic documents of complex requirements and restrictions. Our inspectors, initially respected fellow farmers, were replaced with auditors prohibited from giving advice.

The certifiers became inflexible bureaucracies that charged high prices for their services. The auditing process assumed that farmers were guilty until they could prove their innocence. The auditors spent less time inspecting the farm and more time inspecting the paperwork.

Initially, certification helped grow the organic sector as it built consumer confidence in the credibility of organic labels. As time passed and more countries enacted their national organic regulations, they became more variable and complex. Inconsistencies began to emerge, with some countries allowing antibiotic use, synthetic feed supplements, and toxic synthetic preservatives. These differences started to cause trade barriers, forcing producers who wanted to export to conform to each country’s regulatory systems and pay the extra costs of multiple certifications. It meant that only the largest operators with economies of scale could export their products as organic. This facilitated the rise of industrial organics.

Many countries were forced to change their national systems to conform to significant markets like Europe and the USA. I remember when Australia enacted an organic export law that complied with the European organic regulation so that a few grain growers could access that market. The rest of us were forced to pay extra for annual audits and comply with complex standards. The cost of certification in terms of time and money increased dramatically, even though most of us didn’t export.

Despite this, Australia had no agreement to export our primary organic produce, meat, because we didn’t have mandatory ‘housing’ for our livestock. We let our animals free range on pasture, eat grass and natural herbage, and allow them to express their natural behaviors. I was shocked when I first visited certified European organic dairy farms and realized the animals—cows, sheep, and buffalos—were confined in barns, stepping in their urine and manure, and fed unnatural grains for long periods. Organic CAFO systems.

The agribusiness cartels continued to hijack organic production systems and ignored the intentions of the standards. The USA had organic agribusiness CAFOs where the animals were confined and never allowed out into pasture. These factory farms deliberately disregarded the standard that mandated animals’ access to pasture. Some agribusiness operations were sued over this; however, they won in court when their high-priced lawyers successfully argued that having a window in the confined factory allowed animals access to pasture. Years were spent developing a new animal husbandry rule that required animals to spend time on pastures. The agribusiness cartels successfully lobbied members of Congress to prevent the new rule from becoming law, allowing massive cruel factory farms to sell their meat, milk, and eggs as organic. The law finally passed. However, there seems to be limited enforcement for them to comply.

The term ‘organic farming’  comes from J.I. Rodale, who popularized the name in the 1940s, He stated that the recycling of organic matter in soil was the basis of the system. Organic farming systems are soil-based systems. This was originally the first part of every organic standard. Initially, the most essential tool an inspector used was a shovel to inspect soil health. When certifiers employed auditors, the most critical tools were a laptop computer and a paper trail audit. Inspecting the soil was utterly neglected.

The ultimate betrayal of our original intentions in certifying organic was the agribusiness industry’s hijacking to get the USDA to approve soil-less organic systems—organic hydroponics. Due to the need for countries to conform to the largest markets, other countries are now approving hydroponics as organic. This has bitterly divided the organic sector. Many people feel that organic regulations and their certification systems have lost credibility.

What we started as pioneer organic family farmers 50 years ago has been hijacked by government bureaucrats and agribusiness cartels.  The trend is that in many parts of the world, the smaller family-owned organic farms have left the certified organic industry, although they still farm organically. The extra costs in money and overly bureaucratic, time-consuming compliance requirements mean that organic certification is not worth it. Consequently, the smaller family farms are being replaced by agribusiness. The trend shows the number of acres is increasing in a faster proportion than the number of farms. This is because large agribusiness corporations are replacing smaller family farms. Organic certification is increasingly becoming dominated by agribusiness.

My own experience is that I decided to stop being certified when I was President of IFOAM – Organics International, the worldwide umbrella body.  After decades of paying fees, I had received no benefits, only costs. I was not the only one in my region. Around the turn of the century (2000), our district had ten certified farmers. I was the 2nd last to give it up. By 2014, no certified farmers were left, although those of us who were still farming called ourselves organic farmers.

The only countries with significant increases in organic family farms are those that allow group certification. This is because it is cost-effective and fair. The bulk of new organic farmers come from India, Mexico, and Uganda, and they are group-certified.

Many countries permit participatory guarantee systems (PGS) to ensure fairness for small producers. PGS systems are based on farmers peer reviewing each other to ensure the integrity of organic claims rather than being certified by a third-party organization. Most professional groups, such as doctors, lawyers, and scientists, use peer review to ensure the integrity of claims. Farmers should not be an exception. PGS has the advantage of being affordable for smaller farmers, especially in the global south, where third-party certification usually costs more than their annual income.

The world’s largest organic markets, the EU and the US prohibit PGS and make it illegal for these producers to call their products, such as coffee, tea, vanilla, and cocoa, organic.  At the same time, large industrial-scale corporate organic farms can access these markets because they have the economies of scale to afford third-party certification. This is grossly unfair to some of the poorest farmers on the planet.

The exodus of family farms from organic certification, combined with the reluctance of many farmers to be certified organic, has meant they must find another way to label their produce. Many farmers now market their produce using terms like regenerative and agroecological.

Certification systems must be reformed if the organic sector wants to engage these family farmers and avoid being dominated by industrial organic corporations. They need to be simpler, cheaper, and fairer. Group certification systems, especially PGS, are some of the best options to do this.

We must take back standards and certification from governments and agribusiness and have control over them. We must build a new, more significant movement that combines like-minded systems such as Agroecology, Organic Agriculture, and Regenerative Agriculture as the natural alternative to degenerative industrial agriculture.

Regeneration International believes that all agricultural systems should be regenerative, organic, and based on the science of agroecology. We are developing AROES (Agroecological Regenerative Organic Ecosystem Services) as a project that uses organic certification to our AROES standard, which is fit for purpose. Ronnie Cummins and I put a lot of time into this concept.

A significant difference is that we will be paying farmers to be certified. I have spent a lot of time road-testing AROES by giving presentations about this to numerous farmers on every continent. Most stated they would not pay for organic certification. However, when I asked them if we paid them for ecosystem services, they said they were prepared to be certified.

Our AROES standard and certification system will be genuinely regenerative, regenerating the climate, agroecosystems, and communities. In future articles, we will expand on this and explain how it works.

Biodiversity is Life – Graphic Novel

The Graphic Novel  “Biodiversity is Life” addresses the issue of biodiversity erosion and conservation. The story told in the graphic novel follows a group of young people who, when brought into direct contact with local agricultural ecosystems, learn how biodiversity loss is not a distant problem, but instead has a direct impact on health and food security.

The graphic novel tackles the theme of the erosion of plant genetic diversity and the uniformity of agricultural crops, highlighting how this has contributed to the decrease in the number of cultivated species and the loss of nutrients in the foods we consume. The industrial production model, based on monoculture and standardization, is analyzed as a threat to biodiversity and food sovereignty.

The educational project “Biodiversity is Life” aims to raise awareness among young people about the ecological implications of food production and to promote sustainable agricultural practices. Through visits to organic farms and practical activities, participants become “guardians of biodiversity” and are actively involved in the defense of their native agricultural diversity.

The publication of the graphic novel, illustrated by the cartoonist Federico Zenoni, acts as a reference point for the next phases of the project, which seeks to continue bringing more and more young people out into the fields.

Involving younger generations is considered crucial for promoting a paradigm shift towards more sustainable agricultural practices and for re-establishing the bond between humans and nature, in order to safeguard biodiversity and food sovereignty.

KEEP READING ON NAVDANYA INTERNATIONAL

Carta hacia el Cuarto Tribunal Colegiado en materia Administrativa del Primer Circuito

Ciudad de México, 21 de mayo de 2024.

Estimados magistrados
Ricardo Gallardo Vara
José Patricio González Loyola Pérez
Jean Claude Tron Petit
Cuarto Tribunal Colegiado en materia Administrativa del Primer Circuito

Hoy más que nunca, la búsqueda de una alimentación sana, sin agroquímicos, sin transgénicos, así como la protección a nuestros maíces nativos y la reafirmación del derecho a la alimentación adecuada, consagrado en nuestra Constitución y en la recientemente aprobada Ley General de Alimentación Adecuada y Sostenible, se torna apremiante para nuestro país.

En este ordenamiento nacional, de gran calado y acorde a los más altos estándares en derechos humanos y buenas prácticas en la materia, se establecen obligaciones muy puntuales para El Estado mexicano y se mandata la priorización del derecho a la salud, al medio ambiente, al agua y el interés superior de la niñez en las políticas públicas relacionadas con la alimentación adecuada. Asimismo, se obliga a

Como parte de las acciones para la protección de la salud, alimentación, ambiente y patrimonio biocultural de México, el CONAHCyT presentó información sobre la utilización de 18 herbicidas adicionales al glifosato que están prohibidos en otros países, en al menos 614 cultivos de gran escala. Además, esta misma dependencia, evidenció los efectos nocivos ocasionados por la exposición al glifosato y los herbicidas hechos con base en esta sustancia.

De igual manera, el CONAHCyT ha difundido alternativas y experiencias exitosas de producción agroecológica implementadas junto con la Subsecretaría de Autosuficiencia Alimentaria de la SADER a través de su programa “Producción para el Bienestar” y “Sembrando Vida” este último programa de la Secretaría de Bienestar, los cuales han demostrado que la producción sin glifosato es viable. Se ha coordinado también el desarrollo de nuevos bioherbicidas, identificándose al menos 6 que son inocuos y que han probado tener hasta más de 90% de eficacia. Adicionalmente, se han implementado sistemas agroecológicos y se ha reducido significativamente el uso de glifosato en más de cinco millones de hectáreas, con la participación de casi dos millones de agricultoras y agricultores de pequeña y mediana escala, quienes han observado aumentos en los rendimientos y mejoras de sus ganancias, así como una importante reducción del uso de agroquímicos.

todas las autoridades del Estado, en el ámbito de sus respectivas competencias, a garantizar

los principios contenidos en la Ley como el principio de precaución, entre otros.

No obstante a estos importantes avances, nos preocupa que las próximas resoluciones de amparos promovidos por empresas, que en próximos días se discutirán en nuestro país, afecten severamente el derecho a la salud, el derecho a alimentación adecuada y el derecho al medio ambiente sano, el derecho de los pueblos indígenas, la cultura agrícola y las semillas mexicanas que actualmente son parte de nuestro marco nacional y convenciones.

También vemos con preocupación que este tipo resoluciones pueden generar una dependencia aún mayor de pocas corporaciones que controlan el mercado mundial y que abarcan más del 50% de este mercado, que no tienen prácticas sostenibles con nuestro medio ambiente, ni respeto por el derecho a la salud, ni los derechos humanos y de nuestros pueblos, y ponga en riesgo el futuro de la biodiversidad y la alimentación de las futuras generaciones de nuestro país y del mundo.

Por ello, por medio de esta carta hacemos un exhorto respetuoso al Cuarto Tribunal Colegiado en materia Administrativa del Primer Circuito, a privilegiar el derecho a la salud y la alimentación adecuada y el derecho a un medio ambiente sano por encima del interés privado.

LEER EL COMUNICADO COMPLETO AQUÍ

Group Organic Certification

I am part of the generation of organic farmers who developed the first organic standards and certification systems in the 1970s and 80s to ensure the integrity of organic agriculture and stop false claims when people were selling their produce as organic. We did this to protect both farmers and consumers.

Our first standards were simple one—or two-page documents. Organic farmers developed them with extensive experience and knowledge of organic farming systems.

Out of this, the first certification organizations were formed. They were democratic, not-for-profit membership organizations. Our inspectors were other pioneering organic farmers whom we trusted for their knowledge and integrity. We would have an inspection once every two years and submit a signed declaration for the non-inspection years. We used to look forward to our inspectors, as it was time we could learn from them ways to improve our farms and organic production systems.

The worst thing that happened to the organic sector was when governments started regulating it. At the time, we believed that government regulation would protect the sector and stop fraudulent claims and substitutions, so we strongly advocated for it.

Our clear and compelling one and two-page standards became lengthy bureaucratic documents of complex requirements and restrictions. Our inspectors, initially respected fellow farmers, were replaced with auditors prohibited from giving advice.

The certifiers became inflexible bureaucracies that charged high prices for their services. The auditing process assumed that farmers were guilty until they could prove their innocence. The auditors spent less time inspecting the farm and more time inspecting the paperwork.

Initially, certification helped grow the organic sector as it built consumer confidence in the credibility of organic labels. As time passed and more countries enacted their national organic regulations, they became more variable and complex. Inconsistencies began to emerge, with some countries allowing antibiotic use, synthetic feed supplements, and toxic synthetic preservatives. These differences started to cause trade barriers, forcing producers who wanted to export to conform to each country’s regulatory systems and pay the extra costs of multiple certifications. It meant that only the largest operators with economies of scale could export their products as organic. This facilitated the rise of industrial organics.

Many countries were forced to change their national systems to conform to significant markets like Europe and the USA. I remember when Australia enacted an organic export law that complied with the European organic regulation so that a few grain growers could access that market. The rest of us were forced to pay extra for annual audits and comply with complex standards. The cost of certification in terms of time and money increased dramatically, even though most of us didn’t export.

Despite this, Australia had no agreement to export our primary organic produce, meat, because we didn’t have mandatory ‘housing’ for our livestock. We let our animals free range on pasture, eat grass and natural herbage, and allow them to express their natural behaviors. I was shocked when I first visited certified European organic dairy farms and realized the animals—cows, sheep, and buffalos—were confined in barns, stepping in their urine and manure, and fed unnatural grains for long periods. Organic CAFO systems.

The agribusiness cartels continued to hijack organic production systems and ignored the intentions of the standards. The USA had organic agribusiness CAFOs where the animals were confined and never allowed out into pasture. These factory farms deliberately disregarded the standard that mandated animals’ access to pasture. Some agribusiness operations were sued over this; however, they won in court when their high-priced lawyers successfully argued that having a window in the confined factory allowed animals access to pasture. Years were spent developing a new animal husbandry rule that required animals to spend time on pastures. The agribusiness cartels successfully lobbied members of Congress to prevent the new rule from becoming law, allowing massive cruel factory farms to sell their meat, milk, and eggs as organic. The law finally passed. However, there seems to be limited enforcement for them to comply.

The term ‘organic farming’  comes from J.I. Rodale, who popularized the name in the 1940s, He stated that the recycling of organic matter in soil was the basis of the system. Organic farming systems are soil-based systems. This was originally the first part of every organic standard. Initially, the most essential tool an inspector used was a shovel to inspect soil health. When certifiers employed auditors, the most critical tools were a laptop computer and a paper trail audit. Inspecting the soil was utterly neglected.

The ultimate betrayal of our original intentions in certifying organic was the agribusiness industry’s hijacking to get the USDA to approve soil-less organic systems—organic hydroponics. Due to the need for countries to conform to the largest markets, other countries are now approving hydroponics as organic. This has bitterly divided the organic sector. Many people feel that organic regulations and their certification systems have lost credibility.

What was started by us, the pioneer organic family farmers of 50 years, has been hijacked by government bureaucrats and agribusiness cartels.  The trend is that in many parts of the world, the smaller family-owned organic farms have left the certified organic industry, although they still farm organically. The extra costs in money and overly bureaucratic, time-consuming compliance requirements mean that organic certification is not worth it. Consequently, the smaller family farms are being replaced by agribusiness. The trend shows the number of acres is increasing in a faster proportion than the number of farms. This is because large agribusiness corporations are replacing smaller family farms. Organic certification is increasingly becoming dominated by agribusiness.

My own experience is that I decided to stop being certified when I was President of IFOAM – Organics International, the worldwide umbrella body.  After decades of paying fees, I had received no benefits, only costs. I was not the only one in my region. Around the turn of the century (2000), there were 10 certified farmers in our district. I was the 2nd last to give it up. By 2014, no certified farmers were left, although those of us who were still farming called ourselves organic farmers.

The only countries with significant increases in organic family farms are those that allow group certification. This is because it is cost-effective and fair. The bulk of new organic farmers come from India, Mexico, and Uganda, and they are group-certified.

Many countries permit participatory guarantee systems (PGS) to ensure fairness for small producers. PGS systems are based on farmers peer reviewing each other to ensure the integrity of organic claims rather than being certified by a third-party organization. Most professional groups, such as doctors, lawyers, and scientists, use peer review to ensure the integrity of claims. Farmers should not be an exception. PGS has the advantage of being affordable for smaller farmers, especially in the global south, where third-party certification usually costs more than their annual income.

The world’s largest organic markets, the EU and the US prohibit PGS and make it illegal for these producers to call their products, such as coffee, tea, and cocoa, organic.  At the same time, large industrial-scale corporate organic farms can access these markets because they have the economies of scale to afford third-party certification. This is grossly unfair to some of the poorest farmers on the planet.

The exodus of family farms from organic certification, combined with the reluctance of many farmers to be certified organic, has meant they must find another way to label their produce. Many farmers now use terms like Regenerative and Agroecological to market their produce.

Certification systems need to be reformed if the organic sector wants to engage these family farmers and avoid being dominated by industrial organic corporations. They need to be simpler, cheaper, and fairer. Group certification systems, especially PGS, are some of the best options to do this.

The Demand Is Clear: Mexico Should Not Postpone the Ban on Glyphosate and GMOs

Last week, over 60 Mexican and international organizations signed a joint letter addressed to Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador and the people of Mexico to demand the protection of a GMO and glyphosate free country.

The demand is clear: Mexico should not postpone the ban on glyphosate and its associated pesticides as well as GMOs, which have been proved to cause environmental, health, social and economical damage.

This letter is the result of the coordinated work of many organizations including Vía Orgánica, Regeneration International and Organic Consumers Association and has been endorsed by farmers, beekeepers, activists, scientists, organic certifiers and members of academia.

Glyphosate is a herbicide classified by the World Health Organization in 2015 as a possible carcinogen in humans. Its dangers have already been proven in 1,108 scientific articles (Rossi, 2020 available on the website: nature of rights (http://www.naturalezadederechos.org/antologia5.pdf ). Congenital malformations, alterations in the nervous, hormonal and gastrointestinal systems, infertility, various types of cancer (Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma), encephalopathy, mutagenesis, autism, Parkinson’s, nervous system, endocrine and renal system disorders, gluten intolerance, liver damage, and damage to the immune system have widely been reported and covered. Damage to biodiversity includes damage to amphibians, fish, birds, reptiles, mollusks, turtles, bees and other pollinators. There are also affectations to water and soil (Watts et al, 2016 cited by Bejarano, 2017)

Alternatives to glyphosate already exist in Mexico and other places in the world. Several bio factories have already been set up in Mexico and the Mexican government has stated that new reviews and meta-analyses of hundreds of scientific investigations and field experiences confirm and strengthen the evidence that in diversified and agroecological agriculture there are viable alternatives to glyphosate for producers of different scales.

READ FULL STATEMEN HERE (IN SPANISH)

Earth Day – Regenerating the Earth, Regenerating Our Health. A Call for Biodiversity

The health of the planet and the health of the people are One, maintained through the cycle of food, the cycle of life, the cycle of regeneration. We are part of nature and of its complex living processes. The earth, food and our bodies are interconnected living systems.

Food is Medicine when it is part of the flow of life, from soil, to plants, to our gut. Biodiversity is food, biodiversity is health. Biodiversity grows biodiversity.

At the heart of an ecological future is a sustained continuum between eating and growing. When this delicate equilibrium is disrupted, the repercussions reverberate across all aspects of life.

Industrial food produced using fossil fuels and fossil chemicals is driving the biodiversity on the land and in our gut to extinction, diminishing our cultural and food diversity, creating hunger and chronic diseases.

From the indiscriminate use of chemicals to the proliferation of GMOs and monocultures, the precedence of trade for profit has wreaked havoc on ecological systems, our health and livelihoods. Globalization has accelerated this destructive trend, exporting a model of food production that prioritizes profit over people.

Industrial agriculture and its food systems are fossil fuel and plastic based systems. All over the world, fossil-fuel based agrochemicals, artificial fertilizers and plastics have caused devastation to ecosystems, our health, the health of the soil and to biodiversity. The monocultures necessary for industrial agriculture are promoted for fossil fuel inputs, and are driving loss of biodiversity and genetic diversity, pollution of water and soils, chronic diseases, and global species extinction. The disbalance of the Earth’s natural rhythms and cycles has now caused failing human and planetary health, and climate chaos.

Biodiversity stands as a cornerstone of climate resilience, a vital component at all levels of ecosystems that maintain balance and resilience. Health, too, must embrace diversity—the rich tapestry of life that sustains us. True sovereignty over our well-being can only be attained by regenerating and working in harmony with all the sources of our sustenance, from food, to water, to soil, to biodiversity.

We call for the protection of the Earth on all levels for a more resilient future.

The Rights of Mother Earth are deeply rooted in the very essence of life itself—the seed. The seed embodies the essence of Earth’s sovereignty, representing her inherent right to flourish and evolve according to her own rhythms. Only in a poison-free food system can the seed truly flourish, free from the shackles of chemical contamination and corporate greed.

It is within the practice of ecological small farmers and all other custodians of the Earth, that these rights find their truest expression, through nurturing the soils, biodiversity, cultural diversity and health in all its forms. Returning to the earth is vital to human freedom and survival. We must regenerate our seed, our soils, and hence our future.

On this Earth day, the symptoms of our ailing planet are now all too apparent. We refuse to follow the path to extinction laid out before us, for extinction is not an option—it is an affront to the very essence of life itself. On this Earth day we make the call for humanity to embark on the path of the   regeneration of the Earth. The path that reverses the degradation of the earth, our food, our freedom. The path that paves the way for a liveable future, built on the multiple, diverse, ecological realities. The path through which food and agriculture systems in diverse cultures have evolved over thousands of years and can continue to evolve into the future. As we stand at a crossroads of our future, let us reaffirm our commitment to Earth and her inherent rights. Our pledge is one of dedication to the defense of biodiversity, the preservation of health, and the empowerment of custodians of the earth as the custodians of our planet’s future.

This Earth Day we resolve to end a century of oil, petrochemicals, poisons, plastic, and pollution of the soil, water, seeds, our food, and our bodies. 

  • We renew our commitment to grow and spread poison-free food and farming.
  • We commit ourselves to protecting and regenerating our biodiversity, healing the earth, healing the human community, protecting the health of future generations.
  • We will reclaim our seeds, our food, our health, our knowledge, which have been stolen from us.
  • From the grassroots to  public policy, let us amplify the voices of those who regenerate our soils—the true custodians of our Earth. They are the guardians of health. The stewards of biodiversity.And the embodiment of Earth’s and people’s rights.
  • We will rebuild solidarity and community and together cultivate hope, in cooperation and partnership with our Earth family.
  • Working with the Earth, we will grow in abundance. We will reverse the desertification of the soil, our gut, our minds, our hearts. United as one humanity on one planet, we will grow life, health and wellbeing.

It is from the soil that biodiversity, cultural diversity, health and climate resilience all come forth. Protecting the earth is protecting our life, our future, our freedom.

We are members of the Earth Community in which all species, peoples, cultures have intrinsic worth and rights to sustenance.

Monthly Newsletter – Vía Orgánica

Backyard Crop Production

The diversity of vegetables, herbs and other species grown on the ranch are part of the ecological management of the garden. The proposal to produce healthy and delicious vegetables begins in the soil, building life and fertility with the use of green manures, the application of compost, biodynamic preparations, etc.

During your visit to the ranch you will notice that the soil is prepared to oxygenate and allow the roots to develop better by inoculating it with native microorganisms, which promote root health and plant nutrition.

More than 56 species are grown on less than a quarter of a hectare throughout the year on the ranch: vegetables, aromatic herbs, roots and more. Thanks to this mix, the presence of beneficial insects and the overall health of the garden is self-regulating.

You can start growing this season! Take advantage of the warm weather and start transforming your gardens and soil into edible areas full of vitality. We would like to extend an invitation to come to our tours and visit the agro-ecological park to learn more and start building your own vegetable garden at home!

Tours at the ranch                  Video tour with Azu and Rubí               Plan your Vegetable Garden at Home

Infographics

How to grow organic tomatoes at home                                   Book a bike tour to see our Orchards

Seasonal Crops

Visit Our Restaurant to See All Our Recipes with Our Seasonal Crops

Recipe of the Month

Tomato sauce for pizza

Ingredients
10 ripe tomatoes
1 medium onion, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced or finely chopped
2 tablespoons tomato paste or tomato puree (optional)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation
Start by removing the skin from the tomatoes: make a cross cut on one end of each tomato. In a large pot heat enough water, when it starts to boil, add the tomatoes five by five.

Wait 40 seconds and remove from the water. Transfer them to a bowl of cold water with ice cubes and remove. Remove the skin and chop the tomatoes into medium pieces.

In a skillet over medium heat, heat the olive oil. Add the onions and cook until slightly caramelized. To achieve this, stir constantly until they are transparent and then turn golden brown. Be careful not to burn them or they will make your sauce bitter.

Add the garlic and cook for one minute; add the tomato and the pasta or puree. Stir and boil until the tomatoes release liquid.

Cook until the tomato is soft and has changed color.

Blend the tomato, onion and garlic together with the oregano, salt and pepper. To cut the acidity, you can add a teaspoon of sugar to your sauce.

Wait for it to cool before putting your tomato sauce on pizza dough or other base. If you want to store it warm in a sterilized glass jar, close and turn upside down until it cools.

Salsa Making Workshop with María de Jesús Zermeño at Vía Orgánica

Meet the Animals from the Farm

Coqueta (Coquette) 

This little goat is very friendly and playful, every morning she jumps on the rocks and branches inside and outside the corral. She is very docile and accustomed to contact with visitors. She feeds on branches and shoots of tender trees and maguey fodder. Every morning the herd goes out to graze in the ranch’s pastures and returns to its pen at midday.

Next Workshops

Check the Full Calendar here                                          Book your event here

EVERY FRIDAY WE TAKE YOU TO THE VÍA ORGÁNICA RANCH!

Includes transportation, lunch, mini tour of the garden and tamale making demonstration.

RESERVE ON THE FOLLOWING PHONES: 
Office: 44 2757 0441
Whatsapp: 41 5151 4978

DON’T FORGET TO VISIT US!

Remember that we are open from 8 am to 6 pm
Carretera México/ Querétaro, turnoff  to Jalpa, km 9
Agroecological Park Vía Orgánica.
For information on our products, seeds and harvest,
call our store at 442 757 0490.
Every Saturday and Sunday nixtamalized tortilla with Creole and local corn!
Enjoy our sweet and sour kale chips for children and not so children!

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Mekong Organics Invites Regeneration International to Promote Regenerative Organic Development Across Vietnam

In January, our friend and partner Mekong Organics invited Regeneration International to participate and share knowledge on a very successful series of events they brilliantly managed entitled “Strengthening Trade and Investment in Organic Agriculture between Australia and Vietnam”, held from January 15 to 21 in both Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, funded by the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and part of a program to bolster economic cooperation between the two countries.  

HO CHI MINH CITY

“Strengthening Trade and Investment in Organic Agriculture between Australia and Vietnam” occurred following our trip to Dong Tháp Province in the Mekong Delta. Prominent regenerative farmers from Australia, such as Regeneration International’s Prof. Dr André Leu, Peter Randall, and Alan Broughton, were welcomed by Mekong Organics and the University of Social Sciences and Humanity of Ho Chi Minh (USSH) to give keynote presentations that showcase the triple bottom line benefits of regenerative organic agriculture to an attentive and discerning audience at USSH during a three-day event that included a forum and workshop by Mekong Organics, and an organic food expo of local and regional producers working under OCOP (One Commune One Product of Vietnam) a national cooperative developed to create value chains for small hold farmers.

Further presentations highlighting the importance of organic development as an economic driving force between Vietnam and Australia were given by USSH Rector Dr Ngo Thi Thuong, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, The Embassy of Australia, The National Association for Sustainable Agriculture Australia (NASAA Organic), and The Export Council of Australia.

Fifty-seven enterprises registered for the event, and over 150 participants attended the forum and workshop from January 15-18 at USSH in Ho Chi Minh, including rice farmers, livestock managers, southern regional officials from the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Leaders from the Departments of Agriculture and Rural Development from several provinces, organic food and inputs business executives, and the Vietnamese Organic Agriculture Association the Embassy of Australia in Vietnam, and state media.

Ho Chi Minh:

Hanoi:

 

During the forum in Ho Chi Minh we met with farmer Joe who produces purple rice in the Mekong Delta who says “The importance of farming organically is above all to save our farmers health – just within my community, those who convert to organic no longer have irritations and daily skin rashes – and their chances of developing cancers decrease. Unfortunately, there are not enough organic farmers in Vietnam, especially as the conventional ones are too scared to make conversion as they think they will lose money and harvests during the transition period”.

Farmer Joe has found a clever way to combine rice and shrimp farming that benefits rice farmers in the Mekong Delta. The living organisms in the rice fields provide food for the shrimps, while also fertilize and regulate pests in the rice paddy. This practice has been recognized by the Vietnamese government as a climate solution in the Mekong Delta and is receiving increased investments at scale. However, the Mekong River, also known as the Mother Water, is being severely affected by upstream dams, illegal sand mining, aquifer depletion, and rising sea levels. As a result, the freshwater supply to Vietnam’s rice basket, the Mekong Delta, is under threat. These farming practices will be limited in the long run unless more investments are made towards environmental conservation of the Mekong Regions and the restoration of its ecosystems – and this is where our partner, Mekong Organics assists communities according to their wants and needs through research, policy, conservation, and regenerative organic development.

HANOI

The second part of “Strengthening Trade and Investment in Organic Agriculture between Australia and Vietnam” took place from January 18-21 in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, with an “Australia – Vietnam Organic Agriculture Trade and Investment forum, followed by organic and PGS certified farm visits organized by the Vietnamese Organic Agriculture Association (VOAA) to the Trang Trai Hüu Organic Darwin Farm which focuses on large and medium scale production of vegetables with state of the art processing facilities to facilitate the export of its products. The second visit brought us to the PGS certified Nhóm Thanh Xuân farm cooperative, a beautiful mosaic of highly productive organic gardens on the outskirts of Hanoi growing and producing fruit, vegetables and flowers symbiotically for the domestic market – two very distinct and unique farming models that create sustained revenue for farmers, promote climate resiliency in food systems, and provide safe and nutritious for consumers in Vietnam and abroad.

In both rounds of events in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi, RI’s Prof. Dr André Leu highlighted the importance of regenerating agriculture using photosynthesis for root secretions to build soil fertility and presented regenerative innovations and successes happening across the globe, such as pasture cropping in Australia, holistic planned grazing systems in East Africa, micro-farming in California, and how regenerative organic agriculture is the future of food production in a world affected by climate change, as it can store water on land, converts atmospheric carbon into soil fertility and uses biodiversity to self-regulate pests and diseases while producing higher yields than conventional farming.

Dr Andre Leu’s knowledge transfer of global regenerative organic development and his workshop and forum contributions in Dong Thàp, Ho Chi Minh, and Hanoi have built solid partnerships and paved the way for Regeneration International to collaborate on future multistakeholder events with Mekong Organics and partners such as the Vietnamese Organic Agriculture Association to promote long-term solutions that combine climate, environmental, and market resiliency in food systems through regenerative organic farming.

Regenerating Nature-based Systems – The Solution to Cooling the Climate

A research paper published in Nature this February (2024) showed that the world had already passed the preferred Paris goal of 1.5C (2.7°F) and would pass the 2C (3.6F) threshold by 2030. 2023 broke records as the hottest year since records began, and 2024 is shaping to be even hotter. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) estimated global temperatures in 2023 were 1.45C above the 1850–1900 average, exceeding the previous record warm years of 2016 and 2020. Global sea surface temperatures were the highest on record for all the months between April 2023 and January 2024, and this record-breaking trend continues.

The greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) reached a record of 424 ppm in May 2023, the highest in 800,000 years due to human activities. Humans have emitted this CO2 by burning fossil fuels, clearing forests, and farming degeneratively, oxidizing soil organic matter.

The WMO has reported that there has been a fivefold increase in extreme weather events (floods, storms, droughts, fires, etc.) in the last 50 years. The causes and adverse effects of climate disruption are worsening despite the Paris Agreement.

Climate Forcings

Changes to the Earth’s climate system affect how much energy enters or leaves the Earth’s climate equilibrium, forcing temperatures to rise or fall. Consequently, they are called climate forcings. Changes in the Sun’s brightness, long-term sun cycles, minor variations in the shape of Earth’s orbit over thousands of years, volcanic eruptions that inject light-reflecting particles into the stratosphere, methane from melting permafrost and forest fires from lightning strikes are natural climate forcings.

People cause climate forcings through numerous activities. The rising concentration of atmospheric CO2 and other greenhouse gases through the burning of fossil fuels, deforestation, loss of soil organic matter, deliberately lit forest fires, methane leakage from gas wells and animal factory farming, and nitrous oxides from synthetic fertilizers trap heat instead of radiating it into space are human forcings. They contribute to the disruption of the climate equilibrium.

Human-produced greenhouse gases (GHGs) absorb radiant heat and energy and reflect it in the atmosphere, causing an amplifying effect on water vapor, the main greenhouse gas. This is radiative forcing, and despite skeptics saying there is no evidence that CO2 causes warming, this forcing has been detected and measured since the 1970s.

Strong Scientific Evidence that Humans are Disrupting the Climate

NASA launched the IRIS satellite in 1970 to measure infrared radiation. The Japanese Space Agency launched the IMG satellite in 1996, which recorded similar observations. Their data over the 26 years found a decrease in radiation going out into space at the wavelength bands that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane absorb energy. The measurements were direct evidence showing the increased heat and energy absorbed and radiated by these gases.

These results have been confirmed by subsequent research using more recent satellite data, showing that anthropogenic greenhouse gases trap energy and heat and are a significant cause of climate change. This has added an extra 4.1 W/m2 of energy into the atmosphere since 1750, the start of the Industrial Revolution. This amounts to an extra 2,091 trillion watts of energy, the equivalent of billions of atomic bombs, violently fueling and disrupting our weather systems.

Water vapor is responsible for 75% of the greenhouse gas effect; however, it does not persist, and the excess heat quickly goes out into space. NASA and NOAA models show that carbon dioxide is responsible for 20% of the greenhouse gas effects and is highly persistent, lasting over a thousand years. The other gases, methane, nitrous oxide, and halocarbons, account for 5% and are not as long-lasting. The models show that the heat-amplifying effect of CO2 stabilizes and amplifies water vapor as the main greenhouse gas so that heat does not readily escape into space. This leads to increased energy and heat fueling and disrupting our weather systems.

Forests and Vegetation Cover

Forests, vegetation cover, and soils profoundly affect local and global temperatures, the transpiration of water vapor, and atmospheric and terrestrial hydrology, including rainfall.

Greenhouse gases, such as CO2, are just one type of climate forcing. Forests absorb heat and energy through photosynthesis, shade the ground, and cool the planet through the transpiration of water vapor. Deforestation results in the soil absorbing sunlight and heating up, making this a significant warming climate forcing.

According to Our World in Data, 1.5 billion hectares (4.5 billion acres) of forest have been cleared over the last 300 years – since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. That’s an area 1.5 times the size of the United States. This loss of forest cover is a significant climate forcing and contributor to increasing global temperatures.

The European Investment Bank estimates that around 15 to 18 million hectares (45 to 54 million acres) of forest are destroyed yearly, with 2,400 trees cut down each minute. A high proportion of this deforestation is driven by consumers in the world’s wealthiest countries to produce GMO soy and maize used to feed cruel confirmed animal feeding operations – factory farms in Western Europe and East Asia. These feeding systems are incredibly inefficient. They need 10 tons of plant protein to produce one ton of animal protein.

There is no justification for clearing these forests to ‘feed the world’ when they are not feeding the food insecure. This industrial agriculture system grossly wastes land and resources to provide commodities for the world’s wealthiest consumers. The same applies to the beef, biofuels, sugar, vegetable oils, cocoa, coffee, and paper produced on deforested land and exported to the global north. They are not produced to feed the undernourished; they are luxury and, in many cases, unnecessary commodities for the world’s most affluent consumers.

The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) states that industrial agriculture is responsible for 80% of deforestation and is one of the primary greenhouse gas emitters. Researchers calculated that the actual contribution of deforestation to global climate warming since 1850 is as much as 40 percent and that the current rate of tropical deforestation could add a further 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7°Fahrenheit) to global temperatures by 2100 even if there were zero fossil fuel emissions.

Forests moderate local climates by keeping their local environments cool. They do this by shading the land and releasing moisture from their leaves. This process, called transpiration, requires energy extracted from the surrounding air, thus cooling it. A single tree can transpire hundreds of liters of water in a day. Every hundred liters (25 gallons) has a cooling effect equivalent to two domestic air conditioners daily.

Monitoring rapidly deforested regions of the tropics has shown the effect of losing this arboreal air conditioning. Sumatra has been losing forests to palm oil cultivation faster than anywhere else. A study found that since 2000, surface temperatures have increased by 1.05 degrees Celsius (1.8°F), compared with 0.45 degrees in forested parts. Another study found temperature differences between forest and clear-cut land of up to 10 degrees Celsius (18°F) in parts of Sumatra. Research in the Amazon found a difference of 3 degrees Celsius (5.4°F) between the cool of the forested Xingu indigenous park and surrounding croplands.

The regeneration of tree cover is one of the most effective strategies for climate change mitigation.

Clearly, the destruction of ecosystems is contributing to global warming, whereas regenerating these forests and rangelands would cool the climate.

Most of the Warming is in the Oceans

The NOAA states that more than 90 percent of the warming on Earth over the past 50 years has occurred in the oceans. The ocean’s heat energy will continue to warm the planet after net zero is achieved. Ocean heat is a significant driver of weather. The oceans and the atmosphere are already more than one degree Celsius warmer than at the start of the Industrial Revolution.  They have broken new records at the beginning of 2024.

Even if CO2 levels went down to the 1750s level of 280 ppm, it would take centuries for the heat in the oceans to dissipate. Regenerating and conserving forests, rangelands, and diverse terrestrial ecosystems will cool the planet faster than only reducing GHGs. Scaling up agroforestry and silvopasture systems, where animals are grazed under trees, can significantly cool the planet, restore hydrology, and regenerate our climate.

What is agreed upon by most scientists is that the world is warming with increases in air and sea temperatures, ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are melting, most of the world’s glaciers are shrinking, and sea levels are rising.

This extra 2,091 trillion watts of energy is already violently fueling and disrupting our weather systems. It is causing weather events to be far more intense. Winter storms can become colder and are pushed further south and north than usual due to this energy, bringing damaging snowstorms and intense floods. Similarly, summer storms, especially hurricanes, tornadoes, tropical lows, etc., are far more intense, with increases in deluging destructive rainfall and floods. Droughts and heat waves are more common, resulting in more crop failures and water shortages. They are also fueling damaging forest and grass fires that are burning out whole communities and changing regional ecologies due to not allowing time for recovery before the subsequent fires.

The frequency and intensity of these events will only worsen exponentially when the world warms to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), the upper limit of the Paris Climate Agreement. We are on track to shoot far past this goal.

Eliminating Fossil Fuels by Replacing them with Renewable Energy is Not Enough

The final version of COP 28 calls for “transitioning away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, accelerating action in this critical decade, so as to achieve net zero by 2050.”

COP 28’s ‘diplomatic’ language shows no intention to phase out fossil fuels. They will be a significant part of the energy mix and the resulting GHG emissions if, by some miracle, net zero is achieved by 2050.

The annual rate of CO2 emissions increased to 2 ppm per annum in the decade before the 2015 Paris Agreement. CO2 emissions have increased by about 2.87 ppm annually since 2015, so the rate is rapidly accelerating. Atmospheric CO2 increased by 37 billion tons of CO2 in 2023.

We must reach net negative emissions as soon as possible to avoid runaway global warming, wholesale biodiversity collapse, climate catastrophes, endless poverty-driven conflicts, forced migration, and wars.

Net Zero by 2050 is too late to stop catastrophic climate change. Even if the world transitioned to 100% renewable energy tomorrow, this would not prevent rising temperatures and sea levels. The world will continue to heat up because CO2 lasts around 1,000 years in the atmosphere. The oceans’ heat will continue adversely affecting the climate until it slowly dissipates.

Just eliminating fossil fuels by replacing them with renewable energy will only reduce part of the CO2 emissions, as fossil fuels are only responsible for a percentage of emissions. Research shows that emissions from destroying ecosystems such as forests and rangelands and the loss of soil organic matter are sources of a considerable amount of atmospheric CO2 and methane.

The UNCCD states that industrial agriculture has altered the face of the planet more than any other human activity. It is responsible for 80% of deforestation and 70% of freshwater use and is the most significant cause of terrestrial biodiversity loss.

The destruction of forests and diverse ecosystems generates the bulk of CO2 emissions associated with land use change, nitrous oxides from synthetic chemical fertilizers, the methane emitted by factory farms, and intense animal production. These are significant greenhouse gas sources.

The widespread scaling up of industrial agriculture in the last century has neglected soil health and below-ground biodiversity, especially the soil microbiome, the source of most of our food, due to its focus on toxic synthetic chemicals as the basis of increasing production.

Soil carbon is the largest pool of carbon after the oceans. The soil holds almost three times as much carbon as the atmosphere, forests, and ecosystems combined. Degenerative land use is oxidizing this organic carbon into CO2. The loss of soil carbon through degenerative farming practices has been underestimated in its contribution to atmospheric GHGs. Oxidation of soil carbon is caused by excessive tillage, bare soil, and erosion. Synthetic nitrogen fertilizers stimulate the types of microbes that consume soil carbon and turn it into CO2. Research shows that it is a considerable contributor to the CO2 in the atmosphere.

A recent study analyzing the change in the proportions of Carbon 14 (C14) in the atmosphere raised severe doubt that the increase in CO2 mainly came from fossil fuels. C14 is created in the upper atmosphere from cosmic rays.  They bombard nitrogen, turning it into radioactive C14. It is unstable and slowly decays back into nitrogen over thousands of years. This decay rate can be measured and used to determine the age of artifacts derived from living organisms. When they are alive, they absorb carbon, and this includes C14. Over time, as the C14 decays, its proportion decreases, which is used as an accepted scientific method for dating the age of archeological and historical artifacts.

Fossil fuels are so old that all the C14 has decayed to nitrogen. They have none. Scientists used this fact to analyze the percentage of the total CO2 due to the use of fossil fuels from 1750 to 2018

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

This study, naturally, is very contentious; however, it is an essential part of the debate on how we manage the causes of climate change. The current focus is mainly on reducing fossil fuel use, methane production from ruminants, and scaling up renewable energy. The research shows this approach is highly problematic in stopping the projected temperature rises and changing climate.

The research shows that a high percentage of the increase in CO2 in the atmosphere since 1750, from 280 ppm to over 400 ppm, comes from living carbon sources. These sources are obviously from clearing forests and the loss of soil carbon. The 1.5 billion hectares of forests (4.5 billion acres) cleared since 1750, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, an area 1.5 times the size of the United States, is a significant contributor to CO2 in the atmosphere.

This loss of forests has made, and continues to make, a massive contribution to the current CO2 levels. Previously, they were essential in removing CO2 through photosynthesis and stabilizing Earth’s weather and rainfall. Not only has this removal capacity been lost, but the billions of tons of biomass have degraded into CO2 and released billions of tons into the atmosphere and oceans.

Climate change will continue to worsen unless we stop all deforestation and regenerate ecosystems so that instead of emitting CO2, they remove it via photosynthesis, storing it in plant biomass and as soil organic matter. There is an urgent need to transition industrial agriculture, a massive contributor to climate change, to best-practice regenerative agricultural systems that can remove CO2 and cool the climate.

Carbon Dioxide Removal is Essential to Cool the Climate

The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) states that keeping global warming to 1.5°C  can only be achieved through carbon dioxide removal. 

“All pathways that limit global warming to 1.5°C with limited or no overshoot project the use of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) on the order of 100–1000 Gt CO2 over the 21st century. CDR would be used to compensate for residual emissions and, in most cases, achieve net negative emissions to return global warming to 1.5°C following a peak (high confidence).” (IPCC 2018)

Regenerating natural ecosystems and soil carbon sequestration are two carbon dioxide removal technologies recommended by the IPCC to achieve this goal.

Cooling the Climate

The climate news isn’t good now, with devastating storms, droughts, floods, and fires everywhere.

The facts are that solar/planetary cycles, greenhouse gases, and forest/vegetation cover have roles in climate forcing and contribute to the changing climate. While we cannot change the solar/planetary cycles, we can change the level of greenhouse gases and regenerate ecosystems to cool the planet and restore the hydrology and climate.

We have enough evidence based on current best practices that scaling up a percentage of best practice regenerative agriculture systems can remove more than the current emissions of CO2 to reduce the levels in the atmosphere and oceans. The scaling up of these systems by regenerating a high biodiversity of plants and animals in agroecosystems will cool the planet.

The following articles in this series will detail how we can do this. The good news is that we can turn it around by regenerating our planet. We know how to do it – it isn’t rocket science. Many of us are doing this now. We need many others to join us. Together, we can give ourselves, our children, and all the living species we share our planet with a great future.

Ronnie Cummins, one of our founders, wrote: “Never underestimate the power of one individual: yourself. But please understand, at the same time, that what we do as individuals will never be enough. Weve got to get organized, and weve got to help others in our region, our nation, and everywhere build a mighty Green Regeneration Movement. The time to begin is now.”

Please support our mission to regenerate our climate, people, and planet.

Monthly Newsletter – Vía Orgánica

Soil Conservation

Via Organica’s Agroecology Park in Jalpa has become a demonstrative and experimental space. It’s been more than 11 years since the transformation of each of the areas began and here we will share with you how the changes have been. The areas have been gradually transformed thanks to teamwork, agroecological and regenerative techniques and, above all, the favorable response of nature when treated with conviction and respect.

Soil conservation constructions such as stone terraces, contour lines and vegetation cover have allowed the restoration of several spaces on the ranch. One example was in front of the cabins where the land was previously eroded, compacted and with low fertility, now, after a little more than a decade, it has become an edible forest and one of our favorite gardens, where you will find fruit species, forest, medicinal, hill oregano and a living soil, with vegetation cover all year round.

Find out here how we take care of the soil, using agave plants

Agroforestry Space

Another restored area, is the agroforestry space where olive trees were established in association with vegetable beds. Work started with 2% organic matter and, thanks to organic fertilizers and ecological management, the organic matter has increased by 8%, which favors moisture retention and annual harvests of olives and fresh vegetables.

Find out more about our restoration programs here
Spend a weekend away at our eco cabins

Regenerative Farm

Also, of great relevance is the regenerative farm, led by a team of women from the community, this space was restored with a plantation of more than 700 species of olive trees, mulberries, cacti, agave plants and milpa with free grazing hens. A true example of a sustainable agroecological production system.

This system, thanks to restoration, vegetation cover and fertilization by the hens themselves, prevents erosion, improves soil fertility and maintains humidity.

Visit the Regenerative Chicken Field when touring the Agroecology Park
Enjoy a nice bike ride with beautiful landscapes

Billio Agave Project

Finally, with the BAP (Billio Agave Project), more than 20 hectares of degraded or eroded soils have been recovered, pastures have been recovered, generating greater biomass and grazing capacity for goats and sheep.

Currently, the Ranch-School is a toxic-free space, where you can breathe clean air, promote biodiversity and have pollinating insects in action all year round.

We’d like to extend an invitation to visit us, to get to know the space, and enjoy this wonderful agro-ecological park and its transformation.

More information about the Billion Agave Project here

Infographics
Seasonal Crops
Recipe of the Month

Tomato, Carrot and Ginger Cream Soup
Ingredients
For 4 servings

1kg Tomato
6 Carrots
4 tablespoons Strawberry or blueberry jam
Salt and pepper to taste
Ground ginger
4 Mint leaves

How to make cream of tomato, carrot and ginger soup
Difficulty: Medium
Total time 45 m
Cooking time 45 m

Wash the tomatoes and chop them into quarters. In a Wok or large frying pan, put 3 tablespoons of oil and start frying the tomatoes over low heat.

While the tomatoes release their water, peel and chop the carrots and add them to the pan to cook in the tomato water. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally for about 35 minutes until the carrots are tender and there is almost no liquid left in the pan.

Add powdered ginger and taste for seasoning. Once to our taste, we grind with a blender or blender and pass through a strainer to remove bits of skin or seeds that may remain in our cream.

Serve the tomato, carrot and ginger cream with a spoonful of blueberry jam in the center of each soup plate and decorate with some mint leaves.

Meet the Animals from the Farm

Esperanza

This newcomer to the ranch is a very intelligent, funny and sociable piglet. She lets herself be pet and responds to her name by wagging her tail happily. She was the only survivor of 6 siblings, hence her name (Hope).

She loves to go out to pasture, greet people and be very spoiled. Visit Esperanza during your tour of the ranch!

Defending Seed and Food Sovereignty

Seeds are the first link in the food chain. They embody our heritage and enfold the future evolution of life. It is our inherent duty and responsibility to protect our seeds and pass them on to future generations. The cultivation of seeds and their free exchange among farmers have been the basis for maintaining biodiversity and our food security. Today, our seed sovereignty is threatened by intellectual property rights and new GMO technologies that have transformed seeds from a commons shared by farmers, to a commodity under the control and monopoly of agribusiness corporations. To have control over seeds is to have control over our lives, our food and our freedom.

Over the last few decades, GMO crops have been imposed in countries all over the world, advertised as a solution to food insecurity and the malnutrition crisis. However, hunger, disease and malnutrition have increased, while biodiversity has declined and toxins have spread. GMO imperialism has destroyed the lives and livelihoods of small farmers and biodiversity in centers of origin. These centers of origin of biodiversity are the cradles of the world’s food supply, and the protection against plague, climate challenges, natural disasters or other hindrances to food production.

Source: Navdanya International

Next Workshops

EVERY FRIDAY WE TAKE YOU TO THE VÍA ORGÁNICA RANCH!

Includes transportation, lunch, mini tour of the garden and tamale making demonstration.

RESERVE ON THE FOLLOWING PHONES: 
Office: 44 2757 0441
Whatsapp: 41 5151 4978

DON’T FORGET TO VISIT US!

Remember that we are open from 8 am to 6 pm
Carretera México/ Querétaro, turnoff  to Jalpa, km 9
Agroecological Park Vía Orgánica.
For information on our products, seeds and harvest,
call our store at 442 757 0490.
Every Saturday and Sunday nixtamalized tortilla with Creole and local corn!
Enjoy our sweet and sour kale chips for children and not so children!

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