Compost supplemented with rock dust is assisting the sustainability of Sinaloa’s farmers after last year’s cold snap. Last February a cold snap that lasted one week destroyed 90% of the corn crop in the Mexican State of Sinaloa in what many have been described as the worst disaster in Sinaloa’s history. Other crops such as tomatoes, chickpeas, green beans, squash, and chilli peppers were also devastated. Thousands of farmers were affected with the overall cost estimated at $23 billion.

April 2011 marks the modest beginnings of a new era of sustainable development in Cameroon. A two-day workshop beginning April 1^st, sponsored by Remineralize the Earth (RTE) and organized by Dr. Gilbert Kuepouo, introduced the principles and practices of remineralization in the context of a new agriculture for Cameroon. This small country in central Africa is a place of natural diversity and rich agricultural traditions, but in recent years, industrialized farming has taken a heavy toll on the health of the environment and the integrity of rural communities.

Gilbert Kuepouo, Remineralize the Earth (RTE) coordinator for Cameroon, will be leading a remineralization workshop—scheduled for April 1–2, 2011, in the capital city of Yaoundé—that will gather together the people, organizations, and communities interested in using rock-based fertilizers in Cameroon. This is the first such gathering in this beautiful and diverse sub-Saharan African nation.

After the success of last year's course, Dan Kittredge will be presenting another series of workshops for the 2010-2011 growing season. The goal is to engage and build on what you already know and are doing.

On June 4, RTE Mexico coordinator Jorge Vilaseñor recently gave an educational workshop to children in Zapopan, Jalisco and Mexico.

CETEM, the mineral industry association in Brazil, is following up on another symposium on March 12th in Rio de Janeiro with workshops on agrominerals for biofuels.

Barre, MA – When more than 100 farmers converge this February in Barre for a 3 day seminar, they'll be focusing on a topic of serious concern to a growing number of consumers: the nutrition and taste of our food. The Northeast Organic Farming Association, Massachusetts Chapter has arranged for the worldwide farmer consultant, Dr. Arden Andersen, to give this intensive seminar to farmers on how they can increase the nutrient density, taste, and yield of their crops.

Int'l Coordinators Taking Leaps and Bounds

Within the next month at our website, our International Coordinators will have their own blogs in their languages as well as English and will be complete with lots of photos and video clips.

As a preview, have a look at the following updates, photos and videos from our International Coordinators: 

Timo Ter Voort, our coordinator in Holland, has a stunning video in English about the product he has created in Holland called Living Foods’ Sea Minerals (Zeemineralen).

Living Foods grows remineralized foods such as the wheatgrass shown in these photos.

Niklas Fred from Finland has recently sent an initiative to the Helsinki University faculty of Forestry and Agriculture to do a Finnish research project on the effects and use of rockdust.  He shared, "The initial answer was very positive" and that he is waiting to hear back "with a very positive feeling."  For now he says that he is "just waiting for the upcoming season to see the changes...[from] the rockdust...[he] applied last year."

Alberto Machado of Brazil has a wonderfully informative video in Portuguese about the application of rock dust and the results there.  This is worth a look even if you don’t understand Portuguese for the beautiful images of rock dust applications and results.

These photos display a Brazilian landscape before, during and after remineralization.

In Mexico, Ing Bernardo Castro is co-facilitating the III Taller Internacional de Agricultura Organica, or the 3rd International Conference on Organic Agriculture, where people from various countries will gather to learn about using accessible, low-tech solutions for healthy, organic agriculture practices. Ing. Bernardo Castro will be leading several workshops on rockdust as a highly viable alternative to chemical fertilizers highlighting its effective applications to increase soil fertility and vibrancy.

The seminar took place in the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Aas, Norway on March 13th, 2006. The gathering included people from many different institutions and industries to discuss different aspects of rock powder application in agriculture. A report on this conference by Michael Heim can be found in the Forum. Many questions were explored and issues addressed that are relevant to practical application of rock dust worldwide. The Norwegian University of Life Sciences is a leading international centre of knowledge, focused on higher education and research within environmental- and biosciences. UMB focuses specifically on biology, food, environment, land use and natural resource management.