Tag Archive for: Regenerative Agriculture

Main Street Project Chief Strategy Officer Releases New Book: In the Shadow of Green Man

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Author: Christine Lekatz | Published on: December 12, 2016

Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin’s new book offers an inside look into how his vision of regenerative agriculture was formed.

Main Street Project’s Chief Strategy Officer Reginaldo Haslett-Marroquin’s new book, In the Shadow of Green Man, is now available for purchase at https://www.acresusa.com/store and on Amazon.com. The book, published by Acres USA, chronicles Haslett-Marroquin’s upbringing in revolution-torn Guatemala and how he built his vision to develop a regenerative farming model that uplifts individuals and communities. Throughout the book, he also shares the fable of the Green Man, a tiny and wise Guatemalan folk character whose stories teach the importance of respecting the natural world.

In the Shadow of Green Man tells the story of how after witnessing firsthand the human suffering caused by unjust and environmentally destructive farming practices, Haslett-Marroquin set on a path of helping people lift themselves up through poultry-centered regenerative agriculture. He later applied these indigenous practices to the innovative model that is now the heart of Main Street Project’s work.

“In The Shadow of Green Man is a story telling project … a book about my life,” explains Haslett-Marroquin. “I hope this book will serve as a platform to embark on a conversation about hope and power in a new way, one that emerges from each of us and empowers us to take action to do good even in the midst of so much evil happening around the world.”

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Regenerative Grazing Improves Soil Health and Plant Biodiversity

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Published on: November 28, 2016

Regenerative practices improve soil quality and pasture diversity, as the European LIFE Regen Farming project, due to end this year, has shown. The last few decades have seen the gradual abandoning of grazing practices in many livestock systems, as the problems of sustainability have become increasingly clear. Likewise, the growing environmental concern and the need to produce quality food in a sustainable, environmentally friendly way are shaping the agri-food sector as a key sector. The LIFE Regen Farming project, developed under these premises, seeks to determine the viability of regenerative practices as an alternative for the sustainability of livestock farms.

The regenerative management put into practice in the three areas in the study—on NEIKER land in Arkaute, INTIA land in Roncesvalles (Navarre), and in Orduña, on commercial farms with pastures used by beef cattle—was based on direct sowing using perennial and leguminous species, organic fertiliser from the farm itself and grazing schemes adapted to each farm.

These pasture management techniques produced 10 to 15 percent more grass. The production of more grass reduces the need to purchase fodder and highlights the technical and economic effectiveness of regenerative management. Furthermore, the sheep managed under regenerative grazing have the same milk yields and composition, so the flock’s production parameters were not altered.

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Dicaprio’s Before the Flood: Powerful, yet Misses on Soils and the Carbon Cycle

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Author: John Roulac | Published: November 18, 2016

The new Leonardo DiCaprio documentary Before the Flood can now be seen on National Geographic.

The actor is a longtime advocate of environmental causes, and his film is surely helping to increase awareness of global warming and the challenges we face with climate chaos. In it, DiCaprio journeys from the remote melting regions of Greenland to the burning forests of Sumatra to the halls of the Vatican, exploring the devastating impact of climate change on the planet.

Before the Flood discusses how climate change is moving us rapidly into an era in which life on Earth might be much, much different. It does a great job describing the pressing problems we face. Yet, sadly, the film has a serious omission. It makes only passing mention of the food issue and almost no mention of soils or ocean acidification.

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Regeneration International and Open Team Announce Micro-Grant Competition in Conjunction with Launch of Online Platform to Connect Regeneration Movement Stakeholders

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Regeneration International Will Award Five Micro-Grants to Innovative Regeneration Projects

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 15, 2016

Contact:
U.S.: Katherine Paul, katherine@organicconsumers.org, 207-653-3090
Mexico, Latin America: Ercilia Sahores, ercilia@regenerationinternational.org, (55) 6257 7901

MARRAKESH–Regeneration International (RI) and Open Team, in partnership with 17 organizations, today launched The Regeneration Hub (RHub) at the COP22 Climate Summit. RHub is an interactive online platform that connects project holders, individuals, funders and communities focused on regenerative agriculture and land-use projects and other related concepts that address multiple global challenges, including climate change and food security.

In conjunction with the RHub launch, RI and Open Team announced a competition for five micro-grants of US$1000 each to be awarded to five innovative regeneration projects. RI, a project of the US-based Organic Consumers Association, will fund the micro-grants.  The RI Steering Committee will evaluate the projects and announce the winners in January 2017.

“There are regenerative solutions all around us,” said Ronnie Cummins, OCA’s international director and member of the RI steering committee. “But people are working in silos. We need to map out and connect the global regeneration movement in order to accelerate the exchange of best practices and the sharing of knowledge and resources on a global scale.”

The RHub aims to accelerate adoption and development of scalable and replicable regenerative projects across the globe by inspiring and facilitating collaboration between project holders, individuals, funders and communities from the regenerative movement.

“This platform will scale the adoption of local regenerative solutions worldwide by facilitating the work of farmers and environmental entrepreneurs, in collaboration with experts, scientists, businesses, activists, educators, journalists, impact investors, policymakers and consumers, while inspiring an increasing number of individuals to join the global regenerative movement!” said Joanne Schante, co-founder of Open Team.

The RHub was conceived at the Paris Climate Summit in December 2015, where RI brought together 60 foodies, farmers, entrepreneurs, scientists and NGOs from around the world working on regeneration.

Watch this video to learn more:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyIIDYoA0jo

Sign up today: www.regenerationhub.co

Regeneration International, a project of the Organic Consumers Association, is building a global network of farmers, scientists, businesses, activists, educators, journalists, governments and consumers who will promote and put into practice regenerative agriculture and land-use practices that: provide abundant, nutritious food; revive local economies; rebuild soil fertility and biodiversity; and restore climate stability by returning carbon to the soil, through the natural process of photosynthesis.

OpenTeam manages O, a global platform that catalyzes concrete collaboration on a world scale, engaging change makers with all levels of expertise and projects to mutualize their efforts and experiences in order to develop local projects (global initiatives implemented by local stakeholders). This ScaleCamp is the first pilot of a series of forthcoming other such events which aim to continuously fuel global collaboration using O’s open source platform and ultimately shift the climate change paradigm through borderless collaboration.

Regenerative—Not ‘Climate-Smart’—Agriculture Needed to Feed the World and Cool the Planet

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 9, 2016

Regeneration International’s Ronnie Cummins Addresses ‘Climate-Smart’ Panel at COP22 Climate Summit

MARRAKECH—“World governments spend $486 billion a year to subsidize an industrial food and farming model that the United Nations estimates, contributes 43-57 percent of total man-made greenhouse gas emissions,” said Ronnie Cummins, international director of the Organic Consumers Association (OCA). “It’s time to stop subsidizing agricultural practices that contribute to global warming, and start subsidizing food, farming and land-use practices that restore the soil’s capacity to draw down and re-sequester excess carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil.”

Speaking to a panel hosted by the Social Innovation and Global Ethics Forum in conjunction with the COP22 Climate Summit, Cummins told participants that “Climate-Smart Agriculture” (CSA), is a clever term used to describe a limited approach to adapting to climate change and to addressing global food insecurity through agricultural practices that fail to meet the standard of regeneration.

“Scientists tell us that even if we achieve zero emissions tomorrow, the planet would continue to heat up for another thousand years,” Cummins said. “Our best hope to avert a climate disaster, restore public health and revitalize rural economies must include a plan that not only achieves zero emissions, but also draws down the billions of tons of excess carbon already in the atmosphere. That plan exists. It’s call regenerative agriculture, or agroecology.”

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Bank coined the term “Climate Smart Agriculture” at the 2010 Hague Conference on Food Security, Agriculture and Climate Change. The FAO floated the concept as a “triple win” for a type of agriculture that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, help crops adapt to changing climate conditions, and increase yields.

Last year, more than 350 national and international civil society groups, including OCA and Regeneration International, a project of OCA, signed a letter urging decision-makers to reject what the groups called the “growing influence and agenda of so-called ‘Climate-Smart Agriculture’ (CSA) and the Global Alliance for Climate-Smart Agriculture (GACSA).” The groups criticized the lack of criteria for deciding what can or cannot be called “Climate Smart,” and pointed to the potential for agribusiness corporations that promote synthetic fertilizers, industrial meat production and large-scale industrial agriculture—big contributors to global warming—to co-opt the term.

In the U.S., fossil-fuel-intensive agribusiness corporations like Monsanto, who are members of the North American chapter of GASCA, claim to be practitioners of CSA.

Regeneration International has organized and/or is participating in numerous events at the COP22 Climate Summit in Marrakech, with a focus on regenerative agriculture and land-use as a critical strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and draw down excess carbon from the atmosphere.

Regeneration International, a project of the Organic Consumers Association, is building a global network of farmers, scientists, businesses, activists, educators, journalists, governments and consumers who will promote and put into practice regenerative agriculture and land-use practices that: provide abundant, nutritious food; revive local economies; rebuild soil fertility and biodiversity; and restore climate stability by returning carbon to the soil, through the natural process of photosynthesis.