Othon Leonardos Receives Prestigious Brazilian Award
Othon Leonardos
RTE would like to congratulate Professor Othon Henry Leonardos, for his recognition as a researcher and pioneer of remineralization in Brazil. Through Othon’s pioneering research and projects with Suzi Huff Theodoro in the Quilombola communities and his work with indigenous communities, he has been dedicated to sustainability for many decades.
Professor Suzi Huff Theodoro and Embrapa lead researcher Eder De Souza Martins who also continue to lead remineralization research and projects in Brazil, were his students.
For myself, it has been a wonder...
RTE Makes Advances at Cuba Agroecology Conference
In November of 2015, Remineralize the Earth (RTE) was invited to the 5th International Conference of Agroecology and Cooperatives, November 22-27, 2015, by Greg Watson who led the Cuban-U.S. Agroecology Network (CUSAN) delegation of the Schumacher Center for New Economics. CUSAN was launched in 2014 as an initiative for exchanging and promoting agroecology-related knowledge. While primarily focused on the information exchange between the United States and Cuba, it welcomes partners from other international communities as well.[1]
The network is being established at ...
Bill Holmberg’s profound impact on those who knew him (1928 – 2016)
Bill Holmberg with intern Laura Brenner Kimes at an ACORE event
We were incredibly privileged to have Bill Holmberg on our board of directors from the very beginning in 1995 until his passing on September 8, 2016. Bill was a major advocate and pioneer for renewable energy in Washington, D.C. In honor of Bill’s extraordinary career and contribution from war hero to environmental advocate, we would like to share reflections from those who knew and worked with him.
From former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle:
I have known Bill Holmberg ever since I came to ...
Remembering Bill Holmberg – RTE Board Director (1995-2016)
Photo portrait of Bill Holmberg.
I have been reflecting this Thanksgiving on the opportunity to express my profound gratitude for the contribution of our dear friend Bill Holmberg as a board director of Remineralize the Earth. He supported this mission and this work long before we became a nonprofit organization, already beginning in the 1980s.
Bill passed away on September 8 at the venerable age of 88. As I prepared for our next board meeting I was nevertheless stunned and shocked to know that I would not hear his inspiring voice again on the telephone. ...
Book Review – Rocks for Crops
In the book Rocks for Crops, agrogeology is defined as the “study of geological processes that influence the distribution and formation of soils and the application of geological materials in farming and forestry systems as means of maintaining and enhancing soil productivity for increased social, economic and environmental benefits,” or as Professor Peter Van Straaten aptly puts it: geology in the service of agriculture.
Professor van Straaten has been one of the leading figures in agrogeology for more than 30 years. He has carried out numerous geological studies ...
World Soil Day: December 5, 2016
Tom Goreau: Dr. Tom Goreau, keynote speaker at Tufts University's Biodiversity for a Livable Climate conference: “Restoring Ecosystems to Reverse Global Warming,” November 22nd, 2014.
In November 2016, the Commonwealth Secretariat held a conference about its Initiative on Regenerative Development to Reverse Climate Change as part of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. At that conference, Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland asserted that “our priority is to move from agreement to action,” and called for "pioneering approaches" to climate ...
Landmarks in Geotherapy
The Commonwealth at global climate talks.
Recent weeks might be seen in history as a turning point for the geotherapy movement. As Seth Itzkan of Soil4Climate explained at the Cambridge Climate Congress 2016, we now have two teams fighting global warming. They are not playing against one another, but rather attacking the problem from different angles: sources and sinks.
In blue, we have the Sources team: those trying to build a low carbon economy, promoting renewable energies, electrification of transportation, new life style and urbanism, and green ...
Agrogeology: Geology in the Service of Agriculture
Prof. William Fyfe: Photo from the Earth Science Department of University of Western Ontario.
Farmers have long recognized the importance of soil health in delivering bountiful harvests and nutritious food. A healthy soil hosts a diverse community of microorganisms and provides an array of nutrients; it requires aeration and sufficient water supply for plants.[2] Yet soils around the world are increasingly degraded by poor land management and industrial agriculture. Fortunately, solutions to this problem can be found in agrogeology.
Agrogeology is “geology ...
Growing Better Cacti with Remineralization: Ongoing Research in the Quilombola Communities of Northeast Brazil Part I
Fernanda de Paula Medeiros with a farmer of Lajedão dos Mateus.
Far out in the semi-arid region of Bahia in northeastern Brazil, several communities strive to make a livelihood out of agriculture and ranching. This is a region with fertile soils, but the ability of the communities to thrive off of this natural resource is undermined by their historical background and the dearth of another vital resource – water.
To this end, two agrogeologists joined with two nonprofit organizations and formulated a plan of action to introduce agroforestry and sustai...
Agroecology: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Sustainable Agriculture
Driving across the nation, one is frequently greeted with monotonous farmlands growing only one or two types of crops. This landscape is the product of industrial agriculture: large-scale, external input-reliant production systems favoring human-imposed control over nature. In the past few decades this type of production has taken over much of the agriculture in the United States and is also a common mode of production in many other parts of the world. It has been implicated as the driving factor of a plethora of social and environmental problems, such as eutrophication ...
