permaculture

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network <lakinroe@silcom.com>]

http://soilnotoilcoalition.org/2015-international-conference/about-the-conference/
 


Soil Not Oil International Conference
Friday-Saturday, Sept. 4-5, 2015, 9:00 am
Memorial Civic Center Complex, 403 Civic Center Plaza, 

Richmond, CA 94804

Focuses on Regenerative “Carbon Farming” to Mitigate Climate Change


Dr. Vandana Shiva keynote speech is on Friday, Sept. 4, 7:00 pm

International conference on agriculture and climate change, Soil Not Oil, 
Sept. 4-5, in Richmond, CA, features speakers Vandana Shiva, Fritjof Capra, 
Anna Lappé, former EPA senior scientist Ray Seidler, soil scientist Rattan 
Lal, agro-ecologist Miguel Altieri, environmental and land use attorney 
Claire Hope Cummings, and others.

Richmond, CA (July 29, 2015) ­ Getting to the root of global climate change, 
the 2015 Soil Not Oil International Conference will bring together farmers, 
ranchers, scientists, policy makers, NGOs and community leaders on Sept. 4-5, 
2015, at the Memorial Civic Center Complex in Richmond, CA, to explore how 
sustainable, regenerative agriculture practices can help mitigate the 
planet’s global warming.

 


Soil Not Oil speakers include, from left: Dr. Vandana Shiva, Fritjof Capra, 
Anna Lappé and Ronnie Cummins.

“The goal of the two-day conference is to provide practical information, 
research, and networking to help society create a more vibrant, healthy 
future via better farming practices. Along with reduced reliance on fossil 
fuels and increased availability of green energy, we need to shift to carbon 
farming to mitigate climate change,” said Miguel Robles, conference organizer 
and Director of the Biosafety Alliance.

Vandana Shiva Headlines Conference
Inspired by Dr. Vandana Shiva’s book, Soil Not Oil, the 2015 Soil Not Oil 
International Conference examines the crisis on food security while 
highlighting the role of oil-based agro-chemicals and fossil fuels in soil 
depletion and climate change. The conference will focus on practical carbon 
farming solutions including cover crops, planned grazing, compost application 
on range land, tree planting and other holistic land use practices.

The conference will feature a keynote address by Dr. Vandana Shiva on Friday, 
Sept. 4, 7:00 pm, along with presentations featuring noted soil scientist 
Rattan Lal; author Fritjof Capra; environmental and land use attorney Claire 
Hope Cummings; Earth Guardians director and youth leader Xiuhtezcatl 
Martinez; author Anna Lappé; agro-ecologist Miguel Altieri; Adelita San 
Vicente Tello, Ph.D., director of Seeds of Life; Regeneration International 
and Organic Consumers Association co-founder Ronnie Cummins; John Roulac, CEO 
and founder of Nutiva; and other international leaders, farmers, researchers, 
climate change experts, and environmental and food justice advocates.

“We are pleased to host this important gathering in the San Francisco Bay 
Area, the heart of the organic food industry,” said Richmond-based John 
Roulac, founder and CEO of organic food leader Nutiva. “To secure a livable 
planet we need to both de-carbonize energy and re-carbonize our soils via 
regenerative agriculture.“

Carbon Farming Defined
Carbon farming (also known as regenerative agriculture) is an agricultural 
system that improves the rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and 
converted to plant material and/or organic matter in the soil. Today, 
mainstream industrial food and farming and unsustainable land use generate 
the majority of all greenhouse gas emissions, with carbon that is stripped 
from the soil ending up in our atmosphere and oceans, creating acidic 
conditions that threaten plant and animal species. In removing carbon from 
the atmosphere and oceans by implementing the practices of regenerative 
organic agriculture, we can sequester carbon into the soil and expand the 
soil’s water-holding capacity.

As a 2014 Rodale Institute report states, “Organically managed soils can 
convert carbon CO2 from a greenhouse gas into a food-producing asset.” In 
fact, says Rodale after conducting more than 30 years of ongoing field 
research, regenerative, organic farming practices and improved land 
management can move agriculture from one of today’s primary sources of global 
warming and carbon pollution to a potential carbon sink powerful enough to 
sequester 100% of the world’s current annual CO2 emissions.

Or, as the Wall Street Journal reported in May 2014, “Organic practices could 
counteract the world’s yearly carbon dioxide output while producing the same 
amount of food as conventional farming…”

About the Soil Not Oil Coalition
The conference organizer, Soil Not Oil Coalition, is a cross-sector, 
multi-ethnic alliance of over 60 organizations, scientists, farmers, 
businesses and individuals coordinated by the Biosafety Alliance to promote 
research and further understanding to optimize soil carbon sequestration and 
sustainability to aid in the development of adequate food production for 
future generations and to help reverse of the effects of global warming. We 
believe that restructuring land management practices is key to combating 
climate change, restoring water cycles, reducing global environmental 
pollution, stopping ocean acidification, re-establishing biodiversity, 
improving food production and revitalizing local economies across the planet. 
For more information, registration or volunteering opportunities visit 
www.soilnotoilcoalition.org, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Soil Not Oil Conference Sponsors include Nutiva, Dr. Bronner’s, RSF Social 
Finance, Good Earth Natural Foods, Burroughs Family Farms, International 
Development Exchange, Organic Consumers Association, Regeneration 
International and Food Democracy Now.

 
- See more at: 
http://soilnotoilcoalition.org/2015-international-conference/about-the-conference/#sthash.30JwwKMm.dpuf



   
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