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Global Community of Practice on Conservation Agriculture

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Sender:
Global Community of Practice on Conservation Agriculture <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 8 Aug 2019 12:45:47 +0100
Reply-To:
Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>
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Amir Kassam <[log in to unmask]>
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*Global CA-CoP* *CONSERVATION AGRICULTURE COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE*

*for sustainable agriculture and land management*

Dear Subscribers,

Please see herebelow a self-explanatory announcement from Did Pershouse
regarding next week's Soil Carbon Sponge Strategic Gathering with Didi
Pershouse & Walter Jehn.

Apologies for any cross-posting.

*Amir Kassam *

*Moderator*

*Global CA-CoP*

e-mail: [log in to unmask]

URL: http://www.fao.org/conservation-agriculture



*Conservation Agriculture is an ecosystem approach to regenerative
sustainable agriculture and land management based on the practical
application of context-specific and locally adapted three interlinked
principles of: (i) Continuous no or minimum mechanical soil disturbance
(no-till seeding/planting and weeding, and minimum soil disturbance with
all other farm operations including harvesting);  (ii) permanent
maintenance of soil mulch cover (crop biomass, stubble and cover crops);
and (iii) diversification of cropping system (economically, environmentally
and socially adapted rotations and/or sequences and/or associations
involving annuals and/or perennials, including legumes and cover crops),
along with other complementary good agricultural production and land
management practices. Conservation Agriculture systems are present in all
continents, involving rainfed and irrigated systems including annual
cropland systems, perennial systems, orchards and plantation systems,
agroforestry systems, crop-livestock systems, pasture and rangeland
systems, organic production systems and rice-based systems. Conservation
Tillage, Reduced Tillage and Minimum Tillage are not Conservation
Agriculture, and nor is No-Till on its own* (more at:
http://www.fao.org/conservation-agriculture).

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Didi Pershouse <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wed, 7 Aug 2019 at 19:00
Subject: Time to register for next week's Soil Carbon Sponge Strategic
Gathering with Didi Pershouse & Walter Jehne
To: Amir <[log in to unmask]>


*
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=fa140fbed1&e=7906f4d8e3>Didi
Pershouse*
*Author • Soil Sponge Strategist • Educator*
*Founder of the Land & Leadership Initiative*

*Author of The Ecology of Care
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=f21eeb8a5e&e=7906f4d8e3>
and Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=993a383dcc&e=7906f4d8e3>*
*Hello all!*
I'm writing to you from the maid's quarters at the Rockefeller's estate in
Pocantico, NY, with a view out over the Hudson River. (If I sneak down the
staircase I can peek at the Picasso's in the living room, and the
gold-rimmed dishes in the pantry.)

It's not a new career: I am here with 29 other people for a 3-day meeting
to discuss the future of cities in the face of climate change. I will
listen carefully and also share ways to *build resilience to extreme
weather events and* *quickly reverse global warming*.  It can be done. You
and your neighbors can make a community that is resilient to flooding,
wildfires, heat waves, and drought; a garden city of the future; a farming
or ranching region that provides a safe haven and a future for the children
of all species that live there.

Next week, Walter Jehne and I will follow up this meeting with our *Soil
Carbon Sponge Strategic Gathering, *to which you are invited. Details and
registration are here.
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=c51fb077a8&e=7906f4d8e3>
*Registrations
are due now. *We do have some financial assistance available.

Some of you know both of us well, but if you don't, here's a little
background on our work, as well as Cat Buxton, who is co-teaching the
pre-conference hands-on workshop: *Understanding the Soil Sponge and Green
Storm Water Infrastructure.*
Learn more and sign up.
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=a20246b2fc&e=7906f4d8e3>
*About the presenters*
*Didi Pershouse* (that's me!) is the author of *The Ecology of Care:
Medicine, Agriculture, Money, and the Quiet Power of Human and Microbial
Communities
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=dbbbcc454c&e=7906f4d8e3>*
 and *Understanding Soil Health and Watershed Function
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=488e71e701&e=7906f4d8e3>*.
She is a lead author for the "Future Directions" chapter of the *UN-FAO
Technical Manual on Soil Organic Carbon Management*, and a contributing
author for *Health in the Anthropocene*.

Pershouse is a skilled facilitator, who brings conservatives and liberals
together into effective working groups with common goals: improving soil
health, public health, water security, and regional resilience through
simple changes in land management. Both online and in-person, her
participatory workshops engage farmers and ranchers, policymakers,
investors, and scientists in systems thinking and deep listening, to allow
for emergent strategies. She was one of five speakers at the United
Nations-FAO World Soil Day
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=61d76f632d&e=7906f4d8e3>
in
2017.

At the Center for Sustainable Medicine, she developed a practice and
theoretical framework for systems-based ecological medicine—to restore
health to people as well as the environmental and social systems around
them. After 22 years of clinical work with patients, Pershouse now travels
widely in North America and Europe as a speaker, teacher, and strategic
consultant.

In 2018, she founded the Land and Leadership Initiative
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=12537101ae&e=7906f4d8e3>.
She is the board chair of the Soil Carbon Coalition
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=d7b1a89efc&e=7906f4d8e3>,
and a co-founder of Regenerate Earth and the "Can we Rehydrate California?"
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=cf5cf4045a&e=7906f4d8e3>
 Initiative.

She is currently working on projects with the UN-FAO Farmer Field School
program; the Climate Resilient Zero Budget Natural Farming Initiative in
Andhra Pradesh, India; the 4p1000 Initiative, and the Northeast (US)
Healthy Soils Policy Group. You can learn more about her work at
www.didipershouse.com
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=a1ac63b906&e=7906f4d8e3>.

*Walter Jehne *is an internationally recognized soil microbiologist,
climate scientist, and innovation strategist with a focus on rehydration
and regeneration of degraded lands, using nature’s own processes.

Jehne was an early researcher on soil carbon formation, glomalin, and
mycorrhizal fungi, including the functions of microbial ecologies in
forests and agricultural soils; the role of soil microbes’ symbiotic
processes in plant health; nutrient and waste cycling in landscapes; and
the regeneration of bio-systems.

He has become a leading voice on biology's enormous influences in
hydrological cycles, weather patterns, regional and global cooling, and
cloud formation and rain precipitation. His work shows how we can safely
cool the climate by repairing our disrupted hydrological cycles. He has a
remarkable ability to explain complex science through diagrams and stories.

He was a research scientist at CSIRO from 1970 to 1983, worked on food
security issues in Europe and Asia, then became Director of Innovation
Development at the Australian Department of Industry, Technology and
Commerce from 1985 to 2005. He is the Founding Director of Healthy Soils
Australia and Regenerate Earth, and Co-Founder of the Rehydrate California
Initiative.

In 2017, he participated in an invitation-only United Nations Food and
Agriculture Organization conference in Paris aimed at bringing soil into
the next Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report. As a
research scientist at CSIRO (Australia’s scientific research organization),
Jehne investigated the potential of mycorrhizal fungi to recolonize toxic,
degraded soils and to rebuild productive biosystems.

He travels widely to work with farmers and policymakers to share his
understanding of biology's role in restoring a healthy climate.

*Cat Buxton *is a busy cross-pollinator from in Sharon, VT focused on
ecosystem resilience. Her business, Grow More, Waste Less
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=cc21b3a804&e=7906f4d8e3>,
is empowering and connecting communities to affect positive change from the
ground up.

She leads Land Listener workshops with the Soil Carbon Coalition
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=8a9c92ac75&e=7906f4d8e3>,
and organizes the Upper Valley Apple Corps
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=39ad5c964b&e=7906f4d8e3>
and
a host of other projects including the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=fdfad75f9c&e=7906f4d8e3>.
A self-described microbe geek, Cat loves to talk about bugs, soil,
gardening, and composting, pretty much wherever she goes.

She manages the edible schoolyard at Thetford Elementary School, weaving it
into K-6 project-based learning, and is a technical guide for school
compost systems. She consults, teaches, and presents about soil and
ecosystem health to individuals of all ages and groups of all sizes.
*About the gathering*

At our annual gathering at Lake Morey for the past three years, we have
been building a cohort of engaged farmers, policymakers, educators, and
community members. Projects that have come out of our past gatherings
include the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=4a0a3bbe5b&e=7906f4d8e3>,
the Can We Rehydrate California? Initiative
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=b1e682ece3&e=7906f4d8e3>,
major shifts in soil health policy, many hands-on workshops, talks,
curriculum, online courses, and more.

Here's what Dave Chapman, Founder of Long Wind Farm
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=daa74c8c07&e=7906f4d8e3>
and
the Real Organic Project
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=72691f7af7&e=7906f4d8e3>
 said:

*"The workshop that Didi facilitated this weekend with Walter Jehne was
stellar. I count it as one of the best educational experiences of my life.
The intimacy and community-building of the three days at Lake Morey Resort
was a significant part of the experience."*

This year we are taking it to a new level. We will focus on *emergent
strategies*: aims and adaptive actions that unfold and become clear as a
result of ongoing learning, listening, and observation within a community.
Here are some examples:

   -

   Emergent strategy is the basis of the incredibly high gains in soil
   carbon at farms in Saskatchewan, where the farmers gather every month to
   discuss strategies, failures, successes, and immediate challenges in their
   land and relationships.
   -

   Emergent strategy is the basis of the New Mexico Soil Health Bill that
   passed with a landslide of support from both Republicans and Democrats.
   -

   In Andhra Pradesh, through emergent strategy in women's support groups
   and farmer-to-farmer peer learning groups, half a million farmers have
   adopted Zero Budget Natural Farming
   <https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=2ba61c1773&e=7906f4d8e3>--and
   are on target to turn the entire state into a natural farming region.
   -

   Plants, fungi, microbes, and animals (and sometimes humans) manage
   landscapes through emergent strategies, they sense changes, adapt, move,
   and learn together as a community. The new film *The Biggest Little Farm*
   <https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=21ac68c55f&e=7906f4d8e3>
shows
   many beautiful examples of this.

What can we learn from these, and other examples?

*At this gathering, we will share our stories, our projects (both
successful and not-so-successful), our fears, hopes, and plans, and allow
space for new emergent strategies to develop.*

Since it's well known that our minds work best when we can relax together,
as well as work together, we will spend our mornings and evenings learning
and working together, and the afternoons will be devoted to relaxed
conversation and simply “being” together as we grow our community—with a
big buffet lunch and time for sitting by the water, walks, swimming,
boating, (even a round of golf if that appeals to anyone!).

*We are also offering a hands-on, experiential learning pre-conference
event with Didi Pershouse, Walter Jehne, and Cat Buxton at a local farm on
Wednesday afternoon, from 1pm to 5pm called "Understanding the Soil Sponge
and Green Stormwater Infrastructure."*

*Lodging:* Lake Morey Resort is mostly booked, due to it being summer, but
we have five rooms available to share right at the resort, (with space for
two to five people to bunk together in each room.) and will be also
offering rooms and space for camping in the surrounding communities. If
you'd like to share a room at the Lake Morey Resort, or share a local
AirBnB, contact Cat Buxton at [log in to unmask]
*Pricing & Payment*

   - Hands-on Pre-Conference Workshop: "Understanding the Soil Sponge and
   Green Stormwater Infrastructure" (Wednesday, August 14, 2019, from 1pm to
   5pm): $75
   - 4-Day Strategy Session Registration (includes buffet lunch): $395
   (Thursday, August 15th-Sunday August 18th)
   - Thursday & Friday only (includes buffet lunch): $225
   - Saturday and Sunday only (includes buffet lunch): $225
   - Donation towards someone else attending the event: choose your own
   price

You can save yourself from paying hefty ticket processing fees on
Eventbrite by sending me an email to let us know you are coming
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=928d27b38f&e=7906f4d8e3>
and
then mailing your check, plus your phone and email contact information,
directly to: Didi Pershouse, PO Box 277, Thetford Center, VT 05075.
Learn more & sign up.
<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=e38ca38318&e=7906f4d8e3>
I hope you'll join me for this knowledge-sharing, community-building
weekend of strategic sessions and Vermont summer magic.
Warmly,
*Didi*

<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=f01bc8b7ad&e=7906f4d8e3>

<https://didipershouse.us6.list-manage.com/track/click?u=6075151f49894b2c63289a22a&id=52e37f36d6&e=7906f4d8e3>
*Gmail Users: To make sure my newsletters don't end up in your Promotions
folder (where you might never see them!), right-click (on the newsletter)
when it shows up in Gmail and select Move to Tab > Primary.*
*Copyright © 2019 Didi Pershouse, Author and Educator, All rights reserved.*
You are receiving this email because you subscribed at www.didipershouse.com
or www.sustainablemedicine.com, you signed up at a conference or event, or
because I added you after a personal conversation we had. Please send me an
email if you have a question or request, or you can simply hit
"unsubscribe."

*Our mailing address is:*
Didi Pershouse, Author and Educator
PO Box 277
Thetford Center, VT 05075

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