‘Ecology’ is the study of relationships between plants, animals, people and the environment, with a specific focus on how these elements work together. ‘Agroecology’, then, is the application of these ecological concepts to farming, specifically: using nature and natural relationships to boost your farm’s yields, productivity and more.
We have a lot of faith in agroecology, and there’s evidence to suggest that, by making agroecological practices more mainstream, we could make our food and farming systems more sustainable and healthy. It doesn’t have to be complicated to get involved in agroecological methods, either. In fact, agroforestry – the process of combining trees with crops or livestock – is something you can get started with straight away, according to farmer Nikki Yoxall. Nikki runs Howemill Farm and Grampian Graziers, and has been using agroforestry on her farm for over two years. We talked to her about what her experience of this nature-friendly farming practice has been like, the benefits to her cattle and more below…
https://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/bigstock-Hereford-Cattle-Cows-In-The-Fa-392950751-scaled.jpg17082560Nikki Yoxallhttps://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/RI-Logo-New.pngNikki Yoxall2021-08-20 10:04:132021-08-20 10:04:13Pairing Agroforestry with Livestock: The Major Benefits
A shift towards regenerative and more holistic grazing systems is enabling farmers to build greater resilience to fluctuations in weather patterns and market prices by working more closely with nature and reducing interventions.
Regenerative grazing involves higher-intensity, short grazing periods with long resting times in-between, using a system of paddocks.
It keeps the sward height high and encourages regrowth and development of plant and root systems, which also improves soil microbiology and function.
This type of management helps to improve soil condition, biodiversity and livestock health, and maintain steadier financial margins against the backdrop of a reduction in subsidy payments and increasing input costs.
We spoke to four farmers, including one with a consultancy role, to get advice on how to get started with regenerative grassland management.
Expert panel
Rob Havard farms at Phepson Farm and is an ecology consultant managing 404ha (1,000 acres) of rented or contract-farmed land in Worcestershire, with about 150 pedigree cattle plus followers
Russ Carrington is manager of Knepp Regenerative Farms, and former general manager of the Pasture-fed Livestock Association. He is in the first year of regenerative grazing on 63ha (156 acres), initially with 25 traditional Sussex cattle and calves, plus 50 Longhorn heifers on a B&B arrangement during the summer. Grazed area and livestock numbers are planned to increase towards full stocking potential
Wojtek Behnke manages Aqualate Estate in Shropshire. Lleyn sheep and Northern Dairy Shorthorn cattle are mob-grazed on 80ha (200 acres) with horses, occasionally.
Richard Tustian has been a shepherd in Oxfordshire managing 1,500 breeding ewes, about to return to family partnership on mixed arable, beef and sheep farm totalling 200ha (494 acres) on the Northamptonshire border. Of this, 40ha (99 acres) is permanent pasture and 10ha (25 acres) is herbal leys, currently running 250 breeding ewes and 25 suckler cows
https://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/jonathan-farber-YN-zS9HR0q8-unsplash-scaled.jpg15792560Helen Brothwellhttps://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/RI-Logo-New.pngHelen Brothwell2021-08-17 10:29:452021-08-17 10:29:458 Steps to Get Started with Regen Grassland Management
Ruminant animals like cattle contribute to the maintenance of healthy soils and grasslands, and proper grazing management can reduce the industry’s carbon emissions and overall footprint, according to a Texas A&M AgriLife Research scientist.
Richard Teague, professor emeritus in the Department Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management and senior scientist of the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture and the Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Vernon, said his research, published in the Soil and Water Conservation Society’s Journal of Soil and Water Conservation, presents sustainable solutions for grazing agriculture.
Teague’s research shows appropriate grazing management practices in cattle production are among the solutions for concerns related to agriculture’s impact on the environment. His article serves as a call to action for the implementation of agricultural practices that can improve the resource base, environment, productivity and economic returns.
Land degradation is impacting farmlands worldwide, affecting almost 40% of the world’s population. Reversing that process and restoring these croplands and pastures to full productivity is a huge challenge facing humanity — especially as climate change-induced drought takes greater hold on arid and semiarid lands.
In Mexico, a university-educated, small-scale peasant farmer came up with an untried innovative solution that not only restores degraded land to productivity, but also greatly enhances soil carbon storage, provides a valuable new crop, and even offers a hopeful diet for diabetics.
The process utilizes two plants commonly found on semiarid lands that grow well under drought conditions: agave and mesquite. The two are intercropped and then the agave is fermented and mixed with the mesquite to produce an excellent, inexpensive, and very marketable fodder for grazing animals.
The new technique is achieving success in Mexico and could be applied to global degraded lands. It is, says one expert “among the most soil regenerative schemes on Earth … deployed on degraded land, basically overgrazed and unsuitable for growing crops, with no irrigation or chemical inputs required whatsoever.”
Land degradation is recognized as one of the world’s most pressing environmental problems, with about a quarter of the world’s total land area already degraded, according to the Global Environment Facility (GEF). This adverse land use change has seriously harmed the livelihoods of more than 3 billion people, almost 40% of the world’s population, while exacerbating climate change due to the release of long-sequestered soil carbon and nitrous oxide — a powerful greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere.
Worse may lie ahead. Scientists warn that 24 billion tons of fertile soil are being lost each year, largely due to unsustainable agriculture practices. If this trend continues, they say, 95% of Earth’s land area could be degraded by 2050 — a dangerously unsustainable situation.
However, practical solutions exist, according to Gary Nabhan, a professor at the University of Arizona and one of the world’s leading experts on farming on arid land. “Over the last 50 years, most top-down rural development projects, have failed terribly,” he explains. “But there are guys trying out new ideas at the margins of conventional agriculture, which is where all lasting innovations in agriculture come from. We have to listen to them.”
Troubled times are the mother of invention
One such solution is emerging in Guanajuato state in central Mexico. New ideas are certainly needed in this Latin American nation as it faces climate change-induced severe drought, which is currently affecting 85% of the country. In recent weeks, the rains brought some relief to Guanajuato, though many other parts of the country remain parched.
But even when precipitation eventually does spread to the rest of Mexico, prospects for small-scale farmers are not good. According to Rafael Sánchez, a water expert at the Autonomous University of Chapingo, aquifers are completely depleted. “I have no doubt that in 2022 there will be a crisis, a great crisis,” he warned, anticipating social unrest.
Worst hit by Mexico’s deepening droughts are peasant farm families, many of them working on communal land, known as ejidos. Most ejidos are already economically unviable, and for some, further drought could be the final straw.
More and more farmers could be forced to leave their land, with the men undertaking the dangerous journey north to the now-closed U.S. border in the hopes of earning cash to send home, while women, old people and children struggle on with failing farms. Without remittances from family in the U.S., many of these farms would have gone bankrupt long ago.
Now a new initiative offers a way forward to these families. It is the brainchild not of a high-tech company or government, but of a local farmer, José Flores Gonzalez, who, with his two brothers, runs a farm in the municipality of Luis de La Paz, which borders San Miguel de Allende. Their farm once covered 1,000 hectares (about 2,500 acres), but little by little the family was forced to sell parcels, until they were left with a tenth of its original size.
Like so many others, the three brothers sought employment away from their farm. Flores Gonzalez studied mechanical engineering and became a lecturer at a local university.
As the years passed, the land degradation and drought situation in the vast semiarid region worsened. With few options, families overgrazed their pastures, trying to squeeze out what subsistence livelihood they could — wearing out the land even more. Francisco Peyret, the San Miguel de Allende municipality environment and sustainability director, says the scale of the calamity is evident to everyone: “Some of the areas around here look as if they’re on Mars. They really have no soil.”
Growing all around: ‘The world’s cheapest fodder’
Flores Gonzalez lamented a predicament that had become desperate not only for his family but his neighbors. But he didn’t despair. Instead, he worked to take advantage of his academic training and harness the peculiar growing habits of the few hardy plants that flourish on the region’s dry, degraded lands. Eventually he found a way to restore the ecosystem and potentially revive the peasant farm community economy.
Ronnie Cummins, founder of the Organic Consumers Association — who today spends most of the year in San Miguel de Allende working with Via Orgânica, the Mexican branch of the NGO Regeneration International — remembers his sudden excitement when he realized what Flores Gonzalez had envisioned.
“We were teaching a workshop on compost” in 2019, Cummins recalls. “Afterwards a scientist, Juan Frias, came up to me and told me that three brothers had developed a revolutionary new system of intercropping agave with mesquite trees to produce ‘the world’s cheapest fodder,’” which was also able to sequester “carbon from the air.” It seemed almost too good to be true, but Flores Gonzalez had discovered something quite new.
Agave and mesquite are both common native plants to Mexico’s semiarid lands. Indigenous populations have used agave maybe for millennia, making alcoholic beverages out of it, such as tequila, pulque and mescal. Mesquite pods have traditionally been used to make atole, a beverage popular during Mexico’s Day of the Dead festivities.
The two plants survive in the desert in very different ways. Agaves, known as maguey in Mexico, have shallow root systems and draw moisture directly from the air, storing it in their thick, thorny leaves, known as pencas. Unlike a lot of plants, they absorb most of their carbon dioxide at night. This means that far less water evaporates off the leaves through transpiration, allowing the plant to produce significant amounts of biomass, even under conditions of severely restricted water availability and prolonged drought.
In contrast, mesquites, the common name for several plants in the genus Prosopis, have extremely long roots and seek water deep underground. As a legume, they are one of the few plants in the desert to capture nitrogen from the air, and are able as a result to replenish soil fertility.
Agaves contain highly indigestible saponins and lectins, developed by nature to protect the plants from predators, so farmers have never been able to get their animals to readily eat the pencas. At best, they have dried them, thus losing all the precious nutrients contained in the liquid in their leaves, and then mixed the remaining plant matter with other fodder.
A week after meeting Frias, Cummins and others from Via Orgânica watched a group of sheep and goats gobbling down pencas and mesquite pods at Flores Gonzalez’ farm. “They were eating it like it was candy. It was amazing!” he exclaims.
When he later visited the farm, Nabhan was just as stunned. He remembers: “Before they could even open the gates, the sheep dogs ran in and [even they] started eating the fermented agave and mesquite and, once the gates were open, there was a feeding frenzy. The livestock loved it so much!”
The explanation for the extraordinary change in eating behavior is a new use for a process nearly as ancient as agriculture. Flores Gonzalez had discovered that fermentation could turn the agave pencas into a digestible fodder. “They chop up the pencas finely and put them in sealed-up containers for a month or a month and a half. The pencas ferment and become digestible,” Cummins explains. “These farmers had figured out something that no one else had ever done, including the Indigenous.”
Flores Gonzalez’ method, which he calls the Agroforestry Zamarripa System, intercrops agave with mesquite. Cummins says the two plants grow well together: “The mesquite, or other nitrogen-fixing trees such as huizache or acacia, fix the nitrogen and nutrients into the soil and the agave draws upon them in order to grow and produce significant amounts of animal forage.”
The plants don’t even need to be irrigated, an enormous advantage. Guanajuato only gets 500 millimeters (20 inches) of precipitation in an average July-October “rainy season.” That’s followed by eight months with little or no rain. Most farmers make do with the rain they can collect and store.
The plentiful supply of basic ingredients and the simplicity of the new process makes the fodder extremely cheap, costing just 5 U.S. cents per kilogram to produce (about 2 cents per pound), far cheaper than the alfalfa or hay farmers often use for forage. Importantly, the agave-mesquite process is a big step toward making small-scale peasant farming viable again in semiarid Mexico. And as a bonus, it could reduce the exodus of climate refugees streaming to the U.S.
Local resistance to the new, then slow acceptance
Still, Flores Gonzalez has not found it easy to get traditional farmers to accept his innovation. “We’ve been energetically promoting the idea for four years but, unfortunately, without great success,” he laments.
Ercila Sahores, Latin American director for Via Orgánica, admits it’s hard to overcome entrenched attitudes: “Peasant farmers have believed for centuries that agave isn’t digestible.”
Also, the local pattern of land ownership doesn’t facilitate change: “Many peasants work on collective lands, where change has to be introduced through consensus and this takes time,” Sahores says.
Perhaps the biggest problem of all is that much of the local land is now so degraded that reforestation, even with agave and mesquite, is a slow, tortuous process.
However, over the last two years, with the growing involvement of Via Orgânica, other NGOs, and the San Miguel de Allende municipal government, implementation is happening.#
“We, the municipal government, work with communities,” Peyret explains. “We go into the ejidos, and they decide what they want to restore. They have long been aware of the urgent need to restore the land, but alone they haven’t had the resources to attempt this work.”
Once the peasant farmers communally decide which area to work on, they then commit to not grazing their animals there for several years. Peyret continues: “Agave is one of the first things we plant. It feels comfortable in the worst places and in the worst conditions, even in a bad drought, as we have had this year. If you place it on a rock where there is almost no soil, it will grow much more strongly than on arable land in a flat area. Indeed, people say ‘Make agave suffer’ for you will have a better outcome.”
The government provides the peasant farmers with enticements: temporary jobs, the chance to rebuild their vegetable gardens, the donation of native plants and trees, including agave, and the construction of water catchment systems.
The peasant farmers are also keen to grow agave, even if many of them remain skeptical of the new fermentation process, because they know that, after a decade or so of growing it, they’ll be able to produce pulque, a traditional fermented drink made by fermenting agave sap, known as aguamiel. Well before that, they can begin to experiment with the fermentation process. Acceptance is now growing.
Expanding agave–mesquite fodder production
A network of NGOs, coordinated by the municipal government, has now organized the Climate Action Plan. Together, they’re combating soil erosion and promoting the Agroforestry Zamarripa System. Peyret estimates that community farmers have already restored some 1,500 hectares (3,700 acres). But that’s just a start.
One small-scale farmer, Alejandro Vasconcelos, who holds a degree in sustainable and ecological agriculture, has become a program trainer. “I have trained over 400 farmers from Guanajuato state and another 100 from other states. The vast majority are very poor with no access to irrigation.” He is very enthusiastic: “The fermentation produces fodder that costs just 1 Mexican peso per kilo. And, once the farmers realize that they can fatten their cattle in such a cheap way, they totally accept the technology.”
Cummins agrees. “Our center received the visit of 30 farmers from Tlaxcala [another central Mexican state]. As soon as they saw animals eating the chopped-up pencas, it was as if a lightbulb had been turned on. The next day they ordered five [fermentation] machines [from Flores Gonzalez]. When they realized there was going to be a delay, they ordered another machine from the tequila industry and modified the blades [for use with agave]. Then they started giving the fodder to their donkeys, sheep and goats. With great success.”
Via Orgânica expects that farmers can branch out over the long term. “Meat from animals reared on the pencas can be certified as organic and biodynamic,” Cummins explains. “Organic lamb can command a high price. And then there’s collagen, bone broth, and so on.” A bright future beckons, if the initiative can become established in this bone-dry land.
The effort brings other significant benefits, though not ones that bring such quick returns to farmers. One bonus is agave’s capacity to sequester carbon. According to Cummins, agave-based agroforestry, with 2,000 agaves per hectare, can store about 73.6 tons of carbon aboveground over a 10-year period, not counting the carbon stored by companion trees or shrubs such as mesquites and acacias.
He has made other exciting, far-reaching calculations: “This system has the capacity to sequester 100% of Mexico’s current [annual] greenhouse gas emissions (590 million tons of CO2) if deployed on approximately 1.1% or 2.2 million hectares (5.4 million acres) of the nation’s total land mass.” It is, he says, “among the most soil regenerative schemes on Earth, especially considering the fact that it can be deployed on degraded land, basically overgrazed and unsuitable for growing crops, with no irrigation or chemical inputs required whatsoever.”
Nabhan points up another benefit. “Mexico now has the highest rate of late onset diabetes of any country in the world, and childhood obesity will mean even higher rates in the future,” he says. Agave and mesquite could be part of the solution. They contain a chemical called inulin, which promotes digestive health by serving as a prebiotic that aids good gut bacteria, he says.
“You not only have a cheap and nutritious animal food, but also a way of tackling diabetes,” concludes Nabhan. This could save Mexico’s health service millions of dollars, he says.
Nabhan notes that peasant farming in Mexico has been in decline for more than a half century. “To see the chance of renewal is almost like a miracle,” he exclaims.
The potential is so great for the agave-mesquite fermentation process that it is already being transplanted into another region and nation wracked by drought: just north of the Mexico-U.S. border, in the state of Arizona. But Nabhan guesses that the scheme will advance more quickly in Mexico: “If necessity and hunger are the mother of invention, Ronnie and the Zamarippa Agave Agroforestry System have pressures working on their side. People need an alternative because they can’t farm or ranch as they did in the past. What they are proposing is really one of the only ways out of this dilemma.”
Cummins believes that Flores Gonzalez’ Agroforestry Zamarripa System could be applied in many other parts of the world. “We think agroforestry is at the cutting edge for agriculture regeneration. About 40% of the world’s terrain is arid or semiarid and different varieties of agave and nitrogen-fixing native trees are already growing in half of these areas. The possibilities are immense.” With options for combating soil degradation in short supply, many farmers and nations will be following the Guanajuato experiment with great interest.
https://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/bigstock-Amazing-View-Of-An-Blue-Agave-282501760-scaled.jpg17072560Sue Branfordhttps://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/RI-Logo-New.pngSue Branford2021-08-12 07:45:142021-08-23 12:02:20Mexico Devises Revolutionary Method to Reverse Semiarid Land Degradation
La pandemia nos ha enseñado que el medio ambiente tiene un papel fundamental en la salud mundial. La biodiversidad y el buen estado de los ecosistemas no solo son un seguro para la sostenibilidad y habitabilidad del planeta. Ambos protegen nuestra nuestra salud, poniendo barreras naturales a los virus. La agricultura es medio ambiente, forma agroecosistemas, y las prácticas sostenibles en agricultura sirven tanto a la salud de la población como a la del planeta.
Los agroecosistemas producen mucho más que alimentos. Cuando están bien mantenidos y en armonía con la naturaleza, sus diversas funciones sirven al bienestar humano, generan servicios ecosistémicos. Por ejemplo:
filtran el agua en los suelos y fijan el propio suelo en su lugar,
disminuyen inundaciones y coladas de barro,
atraen polinizadores,
retienen carbono en suelos y vegetación, que no se incorpora a la atmósfera disminuyendo los gases de efecto invernadero,
y albergan paisajes que son herencias culturales de territorios, preservando su memoria colectiva.
Para poder realizar esta transición hacia una agricultura más verde y sostenible, en un plazo de tiempo corto, se ha diseñado dentro del Pacto Verde la estrategia “De la granja a la mesa”. Se trata de una amplia declaración de intenciones que abarca todo el sistema alimentario, desde la producción de alimentos, a la distribución y el consumo.
La estrategia “De la granja a la mesa” propone alcanzar un mínimo de un 25 % de agricultura ecológica en territorio europeo, reducir un 50 % el uso de pesticidas y un 20 % el uso de fertilizantes, todo ello en menos de una década (2030). Estos cambios son un importante reto para nuestra sociedad.
Pero, dada la complejidad de los sistemas de producción y distribución de alimentos y sus efectos, nos preguntamos:
¿Un sistema agrícola más ecológico producirá suficientes alimentos para dar de comer a la creciente población mundial (8 600 millones en 2030)?
Una cosa parece clara: una transición viable hacia una agricultura más verde no puede basarse solo en la producción sostenible, sino también en el consumo responsable. Los cambios, frecuentemente, no son tan fáciles y directos. Bajo la estrategia “De la granja a la mesa” subyacen una serie de desafíos invisibles:
En este contexto, la UE pretende convertir un mínimo del 25 % del terreno agrícola a agricultura ecológica, a pesar de que algunos estudios indicaron una disminución de la producción entre el 20 % y el 35 % en agricultura ecológica comparada con la agricultura convencional. La clave podría estar en combinar esta medida con otras.
¿Qué ocurre con las restricciones de fertilizantes?
Esta solución pasa necesariamente por un cambio en la dieta, reduciendo el consumo de productos animales, con implicaciones positivas para el medio ambiente y la salud de la población. Aquí desempeñan un papel importante, de nuevo, las leguminosas. Además de fijar nitrógeno en el suelo, necesario para los cultivos, el consumo de legumbres como fuente de proteínas compensaría el descenso del consumo de proteínas de origen animal.
¿Reduciremos el desperdicio alimentario?
Junto con la reducción de la ganadería y el aumento de la agricultura ecológica, la reducción del desperdicio alimentario es clave. Hay varias causas de desperdicio de alimentos: problemas de procesamiento y falta de planificación adecuada, pérdidas tras las cosechas para control de precios, y el desperdicio que hacemos en nuestras propias casas. Por ejemplo, un consumidor estadounidense medio desperdicia una cuarta parte de la comida diaria disponible para el consumo y un 7 % de la tierra de cultivo anual.
De aproximadamente un tercio de los alimentos producidos a nivel mundial que no se consumen, alrededor de un 14 % corresponde a pérdidas tras las cosechas. Esta es una práctica principalmente utilizada en países relativamente ricos para controlar los precios de mercado, evitando que los precios bajen por debajo de los costes de producción. Tiene un elevado impacto ambiental, y además consume recursos naturales que finalmente no aportan alimentos al mercado.
La estrategia deja abiertas diferentes vías para la consecución de sus objetivos, sin concretar de momento más allá. Prevé utilizar algunos instrumentos legales, entre ellos:
El Fondo Europeo Agrario de Desarrollo Rural (FEADER).
Diferentes directivas y planes de acción (Plan de Acción para la Economía Circular, Gestión Integrada de Plagas, etc.).
La Política Agraria Común (PAC) adaptada a cada estado miembro.
La estrategia da especial importancia a los derechos sociales, con foco en los trabajadores precarios, estacionales y no declarados, mano de obra demasiado frecuente en la agricultura intensiva. Y apoya el impulso de diferentes estrategias de manejo agrícola sostenible. Actualmente, conviven, y se solapan, variadas prácticas agrícolas verdes. Buscan compatibilizar la producción de alimentos, modos de vida sostenible y dignos con:
el respeto medioambiental (agricultura ecológica),
la lucha contra el cambio climático (agricultura del carbono),
el control de la degradación del suelo (agricultura de conservación),
Algunas de estas prácticas pueden ser similares, aunque con diferentes matices. Distintos sistemas agrícolas, con enfoques desde más intensivos a más extensivos. Algunos poniendo el acento en la productividad, optimizando recursos (agricultura de precisión, vertical) hasta los que tienen como finalidad dejar una herencia medioambiental y cultural limpia y en buenas condiciones a futuras generaciones (agricultura regenerativa).
Generalizando, podemos agruparlos en dos grandes modelos. Ambos coinciden en algunos aspectos y discrepan en otros:
La intensificación sostenible. Se centra en optimizar la agricultura a gran escala mientras se reducen sus impactos medioambientales negativos. Su lema podría resumirse en “alimenta al mundo de forma sostenible”.
La agroecología. Aplica principios ecológicos y de sostenibilidad a todo el sistema alimentario, poniendo el foco en promover los procesos naturales del ecosistema para producir alimentos, basándose en el conocimiento tradicional y local. Busca la justicia social y la soberanía alimentaria, empoderando a los productores. Su lema podría resumirse en “ayuda al mundo a alimentarse de forma sostenible”.
La polémica y los conflictos entre enfoques están servidos, desde los que acusan al primer modelo de seguir sometido al sistema neoliberal y realizar green washing hasta los que acusan al segundo de ser poco realista y no poder aplicarse a gran escala.
El foco en la agricultura del Pacto Verde es enormemente ambicioso, pero necesario. Nos saca de la inacción. Es probablemente mejorable, pero puede significar un cambio en la concepción de los sistemas alimentarios y en la utilización de la naturaleza al servicio de la humanidad. Aprovechemos esta oportunidad, busquemos la equidad y trabajemos con la naturaleza, no contra ella.
https://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/pascal-debrunner-oxN9M1CRU-0-unsplash-scaled.jpg17072560Carolina Boixhttps://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/RI-Logo-New.pngCarolina Boix2021-08-03 07:12:532021-08-03 07:12:53Los desafíos invisibles de una agricultura verde en Europa
NORTHFIELD, Minn. — Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin crouched over a green tuft one evening in June.
He ran his fingers through a spiky strand and patted the hard dirt. Rain hadn’t fallen in weeks, and he expected to lose about 300 of his new hazelnut trees.
Still, he was upbeat.
“This,” he said, “is my first real chance.”
Haslett-Marroquin sketched his ideal farm 35 years ago, when he studied at an agricultural school in Guatemala. He wanted to build a place where animals and plants fed each other, enriched the soil and pulled carbon from the air.
He wanted to open his own school and spread his vision throughout Guatemala. He wanted small farmers to be able to rely on themselves, to be able to resist contracts with big companies. He believed laborers could earn better wages, and he believed his system would prevent anyone from feeling hungry, like he did.
The plan didn’t pan out as he expected. But Haslett-Marroquin, who immigrated to the United States in 1992, didn’t give up on the idea. In November, he bought 75 acres south of the Twin Cities and is preparing the site to become the farm he has long wanted.
https://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/chicken.jpg30244032Tyler Jetthttps://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/RI-Logo-New.pngTyler Jett2021-08-03 06:59:422021-08-03 06:59:42A Guatemalan Immigrant Takes on Big Ag, Seeks to Set Farmers Free by Starting Their Own Chicken Processing Plant in Iowa
MAGNOLIA, Ill. — Soil health is among the most important foundations for sustaining plants, humans and animals.
Only living things can have “health,” so viewing soil as a living, breathing ecosystem reflects a shift in the way soil is observed and managed.
“We’re really looking at the soil function. Those are things like nutrient cycling, water infiltration and storage, plant protection, preventing erosion and storing carbon within our soils. All of these functions are the things we look at when we talking about soil health,” said Stacy Zuber, Illinois Natural Resources Conservation Service soil health specialist. “So, how we can take advantage of that and use those functions to help us in our systems?”
Zuber was among the speakers at the Nutrient Stewardship Field Day hosted July 6 by the Marshall-Putnam Farm Bureau and partners at a cover crop demonstration site.
There are various tools recommended in the state’s Nutrient Loss Reduction Strategy that focus on preventing phosphorous and nitrogen loss into streams, rivers and eventually the Gulf of Mexico.
Pastizales muy abundantes con distintos tonos de verde. Altos, bajos y diversos, con la irregularidad propia de la naturaleza. Bastantes vacas, pero no amontonadas. Juntas —y al parecer cómodas— en la misma parcela, donde estarán varias semanas hasta pasar a otra.
Gallinas en constante movimiento y libres picoteando al sol por todo el campo, no encerradas en un granero. Abejas, gusanos y muchos insectos por todos lados. Árboles que refrescan del calor y cultivos para alimentar al ganado. También una huerta produciendo frutas y verduras sin agroquímicos.
Casí de paradisíaco es este campo en Maldonado, a dos horas de Montevideo, Uruguay. Pero la belleza no es lo más impactante sino lo que pasa debajo del suelo y no podemos apreciar a simple vista: un suelo lleno de minerales y de vida, algo raro de encontrar en cualquier campo de producción convencional. Un paisaje completamente distinto a las miles de hectáreas de soja transgénica y corrales de engorde de ganadería que ocupan gran parte de América Latina, con tierra forzada a trabajar sin pausa a partir de químicos y fertilizantes, a pesar de que ya no tiene vida.
https://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/cows-grazing-cattle-field-sunrise-1200x630-1170x614.jpg6141170Fermín Koophttps://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/RI-Logo-New.pngFermín Koop2021-07-13 10:37:532021-07-13 10:38:40Siga la vaca: una ganadería diferente para lograr carne sostenible
Por fin terminamos de ejecutar nuestro proyecto “Programa de Traspasos de Capacidades de Mejoramiento de Suelo y Adaptación al Cambio Climático para los Habitantes de Isla Mocha” (¡nombre largo para un proyecto largo!). Fue toda una aventura marcada por la pandemia, que nos obligó a extender este proyecto 8 meses, y un cruce épico por mar desde Tirúa con 500 árboles nativos para reforestar la Isla.
Isla Mocha es una isla mágica que queda a 30 km de la costa de Tirúa en la Región del Bio-Bio. La Isla es un ecosistema insular privilegiado, tiene en su centro a la Reserva Nacional Isla Mocha, uno de los bosques de selva valdiviana más bellos y mejor conservados del país. Olivillos, Arrayanes y Boldos abuelos son los protagonistas de este bosque encantado. Antes, el bosque cubría toda la Isla hasta el mar, sin embargo, hace aproximadamente 100 años se generaron praderas en las zonas planas de la Isla, reduciendo el bosque al “monte”, como le llaman los mochanos. Actualmente estas praderas son 32 parcelas, cuyos suelos se encuentran altamente degradados principalmente a causa de malas prácticas de deforestación y ganadería extensiva.
Los mochanos ya se han percatado que los veranos son cada vez más secos, el agua escasea y es cada día más difícil vivir del campo. Esto es en gran parte por la condición actual de los suelos de la isla, su degradación implica pérdida de fertilidad, riesgo de inundaciones o incendios, incapacidad de retener agua y además es lamentable desde el punto de vista climático por el impedimento del suelo de cumplir su rol en el ciclo del carbono. De esto se desprenden riesgos asociados a la seguridad alimentaria de la población, y vulnerabilidad ante los crecientes efectos del cambio climático en la Isla.
En el 2020, postulamos y ganamos con este proyecto (con mucho orgullo) el “Primer Concurso Comunidad Energética Acción Contra el Cambio Climático” impulsado por la Agencia de Sostenibilidad Energética. Este proyecto se convierte entonces en nuestra primera aproximación a trabajar en la regeneración de la isla de una manera comunitaria, conociendo a las organizaciones y actores involucrados en el cuidado del ecosistema de la isla, y a los agricultores/as que tienen en su poder la posibilidad de regenerar el suelo.
Lo desarrollamos junto a nuestros aliados Efecto Manada y ONG Costa Sur, expertos en pastoreo holístico y agricultura regenerativa respectivamente y con el apoyo fundamental de PRODESAL, CONAF, Fundación Reforestemos, Oikonos y Regeneration International. Junto a ellos, desarrollamos un programa de capacitación en temáticas de biodiversidad, cambio climático y agricultura y ganadería regenerativa. El programa tenía módulos teóricos y prácticos, sesiones de intercambio de conocimiento y finalizaba con una experiencia de reforestación comunitaria con especies nativas.
La situación sanitaria producto del COVID-19 y la imposibilidad de cruzar a la isla nos golpeó justo en el periodo de ejecución por lo que nos vimos obligados a adaptar nuestro programa presencial a un manual impreso, apoyado de cápsulas audiovisuales, y reforestación en formato bosquete en el predio de cada beneficiario. Los mochanos estaban particularmente entusiasmados con recibir árboles nativos (Arrayán, Maqui, Canelo y Boldo) para plantar en sus predios. Plantar nativos fue novedoso para la Isla, ya que en general solo habían plantado especies exóticas. Esto nos permitió tener buenas conversaciones sobre el valor del bosque y por qué hace sentido reforestar y sus beneficios. Agradecemos a nuestros aliados Fundación Reforestemos quienes nos apoyaron con la entrega de árboles y coordinación con los viveros.
Algo bueno que trajo la pandemia es que nos obligó a reforzar nuestros vínculos con las organizaciones locales de la Isla que trabajan en temas ambientales, así fue como nos aliamos con Oikonos, fundación dedicada a temas de conservación en la isla y armamos un equipo de trabajo mixto con miembros de CONAF, PRODESAL, Oikonos y Regenerativa. ¡Todos unos capos!
Estamos en especial felices por el resultado de nuestro Manual de Agricultura y Ganadería Regenerativa para Isla Mocha, un documento que resume información valiosa, co-escrito con Efecto Manada, Costa Sur y que cuenta con ilustraciones y diseño de Paula Herrera.
Fue una gran experiencia conocer a los 28 beneficiarios, usuarios de PRODESAL. En solo dos generaciones, el ecosistema de la Isla cambió por completo y elles lo saben bien. De contar con una clara abundancia de recursos marinos, un bosque extenso y una tierra fértil, hoy es más difícil generar buenas cosechas, el pasto para el ganado escasea y los frutos del mar son más esquivos. Los mochanos aún recuerdan tiempos en que la tierra y el mar eran generosos y por lo mismo, la regeneración del ecosistema les hace sentido, pero requiere de un cambio profundo en cómo entendemos nuestra relación con la naturaleza. A ellos les agradecemos la acogida, buena onda y buenas conversaciones y esperamos poder seguir trabajando para continuar con acciones regenerativas en la Isla.
https://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/f79cbc_93d965d5d9cc47d0b22a591f0bcd045a_mv2.jpeg5761280Javiera Perezhttps://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/RI-Logo-New.pngJaviera Perez2021-07-12 10:11:582021-07-12 10:11:58Regenerando el suelo de Isla Mocha
CAPE CORAL, Fla. (June 24, 2021) – Leaders in natural health with a legacy rooted in sustainability, Dr. Mercola and his team promote the future of regenerative agriculture by working with biodynamic farmers to offer Demeter Certified Biodynamic® products in more categories than any other U.S. brand.
Demeter Certified Biodynamic®, the world’s oldest ecological certification, is the conscious, holistic way of farming that elevates the organic standards on regenerative agriculture by using a soil-first approach.
“Restoring our soil improves the overall quality of our food, which naturally drives progress toward biodiversity and a more regenerative future,” says Steve Rye, Mercola CEO. “Our team is dedicated to building relationships with family farmers from across the world to restore agricultural communities and environmental resilience.”
Mercola supports the success of biodynamic farms – across five continents, in eight countries – by paying farmers a premium price for their harvests.
“Through regenerative agriculture, we are able to bring excess carbon from the air and put it back into the ground where it can be utilized to grow better crops and preserve more water,” says Ryan Boland, Mercola Chief Business Officer. “The biodynamic standard of farming reduces carbon emissions, improves water quality and promotes climate health all while producing nutrient-rich foods. We can heal the planet through agriculture – it all starts with soil.”
The rich, nutritious foods harvested from these farmers make up Solspring®, Mercola’s authentic food brand that offers unique Demeter Certified Biodynamic® and organic foods – like olive oil from 100-year-old trees found in the Kalamata region of Greece, vinegars and tomato sauces sourced from 40-year-old farms in the Modena region of Italy, and more – all in a variety of fresh, full-bodied flavors. The Dr. Mercola brand also initiated the first-ever standards for Demeter Certified Biodynamic® supplements and currently has six available.
Dr. Mercola is amongst the original supporters of regenerative agriculture with his passionate dedication starting nearly a decade ago when he helped pioneer the Non-GMO movement. He assisted in funding the addition of Proposition 37 to the ballot during the 2012 California statewide election, which required the labeling of genetically engineered food. Most recently, he has funded the Billion Agave Project by Regeneration International, which is a game-changing ecosystem-regeneration strategy that combines the growing of agave plants and nitrogen-fixing companion tree species, such as mesquite, with holistic rotational grazing of livestock for a high-biomass, high forage-yielding system that works well even on degraded, semi-arid lands.
Mercola.com is a natural health website dedicated to helping nearly ten million monthly readers improve their health with research-proven nutritional, lifestyle and exercise principles. Using a holistic approach for optimal health and wellness, Dr. Mercola has been a trusted source of natural health information for more than 20 years. Together with his team, they deliver the highest quality supplements, biodynamic and organic foods, and personal care products for your health, home and pet through the online store – Mercola Market. Visit mercolamarket.com to browse more than 1,000 premium products that help Take Control of Your Health®. For the most up-to-date health news and information, visit mercola.com and subscribe to the daily newsletter.
https://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/aaron-blanco-tejedor-CNpYALGZhMo-unsplash-scaled.jpg16962560Dr Joseph Mercolahttps://regenerationinternational.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/RI-Logo-New.pngDr Joseph Mercola2021-06-25 10:10:392021-06-29 07:28:21Mercola Fights for Regenerative Agriculture by Supporting Biodynamic Farmers