Vapor Pressure Deficits – Regenerating the Local Climate

Avoiding bare ground by maximizing vegetation cover is crucial for reducing VPDs and increasing SOM. SOM enhances the soil's ability to capture and retain rainfall, improve fertility, and prevent the erosion of fertile topsoil during heavy rain events. Adopting these regenerative organic practices is essential for reversing the trend of increasing adverse weather events and ensuring a productive future for our farming and ranching systems, as well as providing our civilization with healthy, nutritious, poison-free food. We can avoid repeating the past's failures.

The post Vapor Pressure Deficits –

Carrying Regenerative Voices to Central Asia: Reflections from Uzbekistan

Last month, I had the privilege of representing Regeneration International at the Uzbek-German Expert Dialogue on Agroecology in Uzbekistan, alongside my dear friend and colleague André Leu, Director of Regeneration International. It was an incredible experience to bring our global network’s voice to this important conversation on transitioning Uzbekistan’s agriculture toward sustainability and climate resilience. André shared powerful global insights on regenerative agriculture, drawing on decades of experience worldwide. He emphasized how practices like soil regeneration, biodiversity enhancement, and ecological balance can restore degraded lands, improve farmer livelihoods, and strengthen food security.

Plant Sentience Changes Everything

I have always had a love and fascination for plants. I began growing them as a young boy at the start of grade school. I spent my childhood in the forest, learning the names of the plants and animals and understanding how they functioned as an ecosystem. I was destined to be a farmer because growing plants is fundamental to our work. Now, in my 70s, I continue to farm because my passion for growing plants and raising animals remains strong, and I will never quit. Two events profoundly influenced my approach to agriculture. In 1973, Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird published " The Secret Life of Plants," which confirmed what I had known as a child: plants are sentient beings that communicate.

The Fourth Regeneration International Certificate Course in Partnership with The South Seas University

The Regeneration International Academy, in collaboration with South Seas University, has conducted its fourth online certificate course in regenerative agriculture, agroecology, and organic farming. Integrating the three major global nature-based agricultural movements—agroecology, regenerative agriculture, and organic farming—is essential as complementary systems.

Guidance Document for Certifying and Operating to The Regeneration International Standard

This Guidance Document is written to assist certifiers and operators in understanding how to comply with the standard. The Regeneration International Standard has been crafted in a format that is more accessible for farmers, rather than adopting a regulatory standard format. The standard is mainly informative rather than normative. It includes the Definition, General Principles, Guidance, and clear Prohibitions.

The Regeneration International Standard

Agriculture must change from chemically intensive degenerative industrial systems to regenerative, biological, biodiverse, nature-based ones to regenerate our ecosystems, climate, health, and communities. Such systems improve resources, reduce, and ultimately avoid synthetic chemicals. It is not based on animal or plant cruelty. Instead, its foundations are biodiversity, plant biology, living soil science, and humane livestock systems.

Cultivating Hope: Wrapping Up 2024

We are deeply grateful for your support of Regeneration International. As consumers, activists, organizers, farmers, and scientists, you are helping build the international movement to regenerate the Earth and reverse climate change. The road ahead is challenging, but we are not alone—and with each passing day, we are growing stronger. The image at the top of this message—our Planting Peace banner—symbolizes this call to action. Now more than ever, we must plant the seeds of international peace and cooperation. The future of our planet depends on us working together to co-create a world where humanity thrives in harmony with nature.