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Sail into a riveting talk by Dario Fornara on the urgent need for sustainable agroecosystems. Discover alarming statistics on soil degradation and biodiversity loss. Find out more about the linkages between soil, plant, and human health. Learn about the transformative power of regenerative organic agriculture and how it can revolutionize the way we grow our food. Explore practical solutions and witness a real-life example—the European Regenerative Organic Center (EROC) in Parma, Italy. Uncover the groundbreaking partnership between a cosmetics company and a non-profit agricultural organization, showcasing how healthy soils can lead to healthier plants and, ultimately, higher-quality organic products. Learn how creating synergies among farmers, industries, and non-profits can revolutionize our approach to food, fiber, and organic active ingredient production
Tuffati in un coinvolgente talk di Dario Fornara sulla necessità urgente di ecosistemi agricoli sostenibili. Scopri statistiche allarmanti sulla degradazione del suolo e la perdita di biodiversità. Scopri di più sui legami tra suolo, piante e salute umana. Apprendi il potere trasformativo dell’agricoltura organica rigenerativa e come possa rivoluzionare il modo in cui coltiviamo il cibo. Esplora soluzioni pratiche e assisti a un esempio concreto: il Centro Europeo per l’Agricoltura Rigenerativa (EROC) a Parma, Italia. Scopri la partnership innovativa tra un’azienda cosmetica e un’organizzazione agricola non profit, che dimostra come suoli sani possano portare a piante più sane e, alla fine, a prodotti biologici di alta qualità. Apprendi come creare sinergie tra agricoltori, industrie e organizzazioni non profit possa rivoluzionare il nostro approccio alla produzione alimentare, tessile e di principi attivi biologici.
Dario Fornara is Research Director of the Davines Group – Rodale Institute European Regenerative Organic Center (EROC) in Parma, Italy. Between 2014 and 2022 he worked in the Agri-Food Biosciences Institute (AFBI), Belfast, UK, as project leader of the Terrestrial Ecology and Soil Biogeochemistry research programme. Dario has been involved in research, education, and dissemination activities to demonstrate the multiple beneficial effects of biodiversity and regenerative practices on soil health. He authored and co-authored +90 scientific publications and has been involved in Networks of Excellence including the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) on Soil Carbon Stock Changes of the Livestock Environmental Assessment and Performance (LEAP) Partnership promoted by FAO, the Working Group of the Global Soil Partnership (GSP) on Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) management, and the Integrative Research Group of the Global Research Alliance. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx
Food production is one of the most important Services provided by Agro ecosystems worldwide yet intensive food production systems are not sustainable they have so many negative impacts on biodiversity on human health on ecosystem functioning um and that’s why I’m here today to to give you a very
Simple message we really need to create more sustainable biodiverse and resilient Agro ecosystems in the face of climate change and we need to do it now because we don’t have a choice the adoption of chemical intensive production systems in the 1900s has started a um negative Trend a drastic
Declines in biodiversity in human health and wellbeing in soil Health Quality um and in the ability to deliver different ecosystem Services um just to give you a few numbers 33% of Earth’s soils are now degraded and more than 90% could become degraded by 2050 um since the onset of agriculture
And 8,000 years ago it has been estimated that we lost 140 billion tons of carbon through cultivation the global food production system is the key driver of biodiversity loss and agriculture alone is threatening 86% of species at risk of Extinction and also 22% of global greenhouse gas emissions come come from agriculture
Forestry and land use change there is another very good reason why we need to promote healthy soils and it is associated with the concept of one Health which is the recognition that human health and well-being is highly interconnected with environmental health so this picture simply tells us that we are actually
What we eat we are um what our microbiome eats and the quality of this food it’s um highly dependent on the biodiversity of the soil microbiome so if you look at this picture the right side the blue side the good health side it suggests that healthy soils um host a more biodiverse
Microbiome which contributes to provide plants with with key nutrients vitamins and organic compounds which are beneficial to human health um so the question is how are we going to create more sustainable biodiverse and resilient Agri ecosystems in the face of climate change it’s very simple we need to work with nature
Rather than against it and regenerative organic agriculture provides the tools and the guidelines to do it I borrow this picture original painting from Kiss the ground which is a nonprofit organization promoting regenerative organic agriculture kiss the ground is also a movie which was released 3 years ago and
I advise you to watch it if you didn’t yet likewise the new Common Ground movie which is being released now in the United States um both films are and will be influen ential in supporting the regenerative organic movement well looking at this picture is easy to
Decide actually where you want to be you want to be on the right side within this human managed landscape where crops are grown for food fibers organic active ingredients following the principles of regenerative organic agriculture what are these principles uh minimum tillage crop rotations the use of cover crops which
Help to cover the soil all year round um the use of organic fertilizers like compost and manure um the avoidance of chemicals no pesticides herbicides and synthetic fertilizers and actually the promotion of crop diversity uh for instance by growing crops near to each other in in strip cropping you need to
Remember that the principles of regenerative organic agriculture are not new um they have been known for a long time but the problem is that we haven’t applied them enough especially since the adoption of 100 years ago of um chemical intensive production systems the problem is that intensive agriculture tends to
Make soils addicted to chemical it creates a vicious cycle whereby more chemical inputs are needed year after year to keep the soil performing less and less the end result is soil ecosystems which are characterized by low biological activity and are prone to erosion you see soils are complex
Ecosystems one gram only of healthy soil could contain up to 10 million microorganisms more people than there are on planet Earth and we still need to know which does what so if you keep applying herbicides and pesticides through time it’s very likely that you’re going to kill beneficial
Microorganisms um which are good for the functioning of the Sol ecosystem it’s like removing keep layers from a food team and which will start performing worse and worse so what do we do to stop these to reverse this soil degradation Trend we need to build up synergies among Farmers nonprofit
Organizations and different types of Industries Agri food um Cosmetics pharmaceutical textile which can Source food fibers and active organic ingredients from regenerative organically farmed soils and I’m also here today to give you this good example of these synergies European regenerative organic Center uh or iro based in Parma Italy is
A partnership between a private Cosmetics industry the davus group based in Italy and the um nonprofit agricultural organization The rale Institute in the United States it is an odd combination you know Cosmetics regenerative organic Agriculture and the key link is soil health healthy soils produce healthy plants which provide key
Active organic ingredients for the formulation of Cosmetics products the EO partnership is important for at least three different reasons it cont contributes to interdisciplinary research we are missing data we want to quantify and measure the potential benefits of regenerative organic agriculture on soil health and on plant nutritional quality and we’re doing this
In Parma um we develop educational programs for Farmers schools um the public to disseminate the principles of regenerative organic Agri culture and importantly we aims to support Farmers to make the Agro ecological transition to move from conventional to organic to regenerative organic agriculture the agroecological transition it is a key challenge because
It requires Farmers um to change their mindset and they are reasonably worried from from a financial point of view because they end up to grow their crops without the protection of chemical input protection of chemical inputs and that’s why we need U public and private investment in this critical transition
Stage and we we need to do that um step by step the way we’re doing it with iro is by creating a network of regenerative organic farmers which can provide organic active ingredients to the Cosmetics industry um note that the biomass provided by Farmers is often in the form
Of residues and wastes from primary production for instance in this case is from grape pomas from which active organic ingredients are then extracted but this is the key point the davus group and the Cosmetics industry in general can create or contribute by creating an additional Market to diversify um the portfolio of these
Farmers which can continue producing biomass for the Agri food industry or fibers for the textile industry and I really believe that by creating these synergies among um farmers and different types of Industries could be a game Cher it could be new business model which will have multiple benefits it will benefit
Farmers which can get access to different and parallel markets where to sell the products and commodities it will benefit agricultural soils because they will be managed according to the principles of regenerative organic agriculture it will benefit biodiversity not only within the soil but also at the landscape level it will benefit private
Industries which will be selling higher quality products and it would benefit us and and consumers of um healthy products whether this is um there is food fibers or active organic ingredients and um from this point of view I think iro sets a very good example to follow and there are many other
Wonderful initiatives at the moment from other private companies I think though that to have a larger positive impact on society and the environment synergies among U Farmers nonprofit organizations and private Industries might not be enough um we need new legislation new regulations from our governments to allow small and
Mediumsized Farmers to start and implement the agroecological transition and finally I do really believe that a combination of regenerative organic practices the use of new technology drones remote sensing uh sensors and more attention paid to reduce food waste which is 30% at the moment um all together will contribute to enhance um
Food security across um Agro ecosystems worldwide thank [Applause] you