During the days of Cop26, Indian activist Vandana Shiva returns to speak about regenerative agriculture and the protection of soil and biodiversity as an antidote to the climate crisis. During the days of Cop 26, Indian activist Vandana Shiva returns to speak about regenerative agriculture and the protection of biodiversity as an antidote to the climate crisis.
The intensification of photosynthesis, the protection of biodiversity, organic production: these, according to Indian activist Vandana Shiva, are the paths to follow in order to counter climate change. The president of Navdanya International discussed them during the webinar Regeneration for climate resilience that preceded Cop26, together with André Leu, director of Regeneration international and former president of Ifoam (International federation for organic agriculture movement), and with Tom Newmark, co-founder and president of The carbon underground.
For the three experts, "only an ecological and cultural regeneration based on biodiversity can build climate resilience for the future; not lab-grown foods, not biofuels, not carbon credits, because these solutions completely ignore nature and its regenerative capacities, attempting to technologically replace the natural processes they have destroyed and creating new opportunities for the fossil fuel industry to keep polluting".
The soil is the largest carbon store after the ocean, yet we cannot limit ourselves to treating it merely as an enormous sink. "The process of storing carbon in the soil does not work like filling a bathtub – explained Tom Newmark, who at his organic farm Finca Luna Nueva practises regenerative agriculture, producing nutritious food, regenerating soil and countering climate change – You need to grow new soil as a healthy living tissue, grow a lot to store a lot and do it as fast as possible. If we give Mother Nature and the soil the care and treatment they deserve, we can integrate billions of tonnes of carbon into their fabric every year".
According to Andre Leu, "it makes sense to remove CO2 from the atmosphere and transfer it to the soil, which uses it to regenerate itself". In his book Growing life: regenerating farming and ranching, Leu explores the foundations of regenerative agriculture for growing healthy food while protecting natural resources such as clean water, soil and air. "Regenerative agriculture has been successfully practised, demonstrating that the solution to climate change exists. We just need to scale it up." Rather than the term "sink" applied to soil, Vandana Shiva prefers "skin": "The soil is alive, it is the skin of Mother Nature. And carbon is the molecule of life. That is why healthy soil can be our greatest ally in healing the Planet and feeding the world".
Vandana Shiva has always championed the practice of regenerative agriculture against an unjust and unsustainable globalised industrial food system that causes world hunger and contributes to climate change: "Every living being has a metabolic regulation system. If we eat junk food, our metabolic system generates disorders such as diabetes and obesity. In the same way, I see climate change as a metabolic disorder of the Earth caused by a junk diet of fossil fuels."
"Climate engineering is not the solution, CO2 capture is insufficient," she continues. Photosynthesis, on the other hand, is nature's sophisticated carbon capture technology, which by harnessing the energy of the sun and the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere gives us food and oxygen. "We must return to the land and protect biodiversity in order to cultivate life."
