Regenerative Agriculture: Empowering Farmers for a Sustainable Future with Tania Roa Welcome to another episode of our sustainability series where our podcast host, Sharon Idahosa had a seat with Tania Roa of Sustainable Harvest International to discuss how they are empowering farmers to transition into regenerative agriculture practices. Transcript [00:00:00] Sharon Idahosa: Hello, beautiful people. Welcome to another episode of the Sustainability Series brought to you by Let's Talk Agriculture. So we are an industry specific public relations and communications firm specializing in agriculture. So just in case you haven't explored our website to see what we have in store for you, quickly visit letstalkagriculture.com for more information. [00:00:25] Sharon Idahosa: So our previous sustainability series featured a phenomenal woman who joined us to, you know, how she's leading the change in the Cassava Valley chain and the industry at large. Today we want to dive into another interesting episode, digging deep into regenerative agriculture. [00:00:44] Sharon Idahosa: Now the question, how can we empower farmers for a sustainable future? So, join me, welcome Tania Roa, the climate justice and wildlife advocate at Sustainable Harvest International. Hello, Tanya. How are you doing today? Thank you so much for joining the show. [00:01:01] Tania Roa: Great. Thank you so much. I'm so glad I get to talk today about Sustainable Harvest International's work. [00:01:07] Tania Roa: Um, it's going to be really exciting. I'm just glad to be here. [00:01:10] Sharon Idahosa: Great. Hopefully just relax. I mean, it's It's not just gonna be a stressful thing to just relax and let's just try to enjoy ourselves basically. So I'd like to know a little bit about you because I haven't really seen so much about you. So maybe you can tell us just a little bit about you, what you experience as a climate justice and wildlife advocate. [00:01:32] Tania Roa: Sure. So right now, I'm the communications and outreach coordinator at Sustainable Harvest International. And with Sustainable Harvest International, we're working with family farmers in Central America, um, who are transitioning to regenerative agriculture. A lot of them grew up learning conventional agriculture. [00:01:51] Tania Roa: It's just the default practice that they learned, which includes burning forests and then growing crops, um, in that burned land, but that just leads to a lot of health effects, uh, for them and for the planet. Of course, we don't want to burn forests. And so, What we do is just help them learn a new way of agriculture; regenerative agriculture that we'll be talking about. [00:02:14] Tania Roa: And so my part in that role is just sharing their stories as a communications coordinator. And it's just really exciting to see how they can really transform their lives with just a new, what seems very simple, a new practice, um, but really a profound and transformational way to better their lives and better. [00:02:38] Tania Roa: the environment that they live in. [00:02:40] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you for sharing that. So, I think it's really important that we try to create awareness around, um, climate change because so many people are still focused on burning and I really don't know who gave them the idea. I mean, I see this often. I just can't help but wonder why are you burning? [00:03:00] Sharon Idahosa: And the most annoying part of it is, yeah, it's annoying to me really because they do this during the dry season when everywhere is dry and then you start burning. What are you burning really? What? You see dust flying everywhere. And it's, it's just, it just makes the whole environment messy. And I mean, you can't really breathe in such air or something. [00:03:25] Sharon Idahosa: So, I think it's really amazing. Um, what you're doing and also helping them to, you know, change the way they have been operating over time. Hopefully we can get more people to do this because people just have a particular mindset already that this is how it should be done. And I really don't know who said we should be gone and done. [00:03:46] Sharon Idahosa: But, I mean, I think everybody just grew up with that mindset or something because it's still happening even when we continue preaching about climate change and the rest. So it's really important that we [00:04:00] come out and start at, um, advocating and pushing out for this so people know that there is really no need for us to be doing the whole burning thing. [00:04:08] Sharon Idahosa: So good work that you're doing, communicating what you guys are doing at Sustainable Harvest. So well done. [00:04:15] Tania Roa: Thank you so much. Yeah, I totally agree. It's tragic and it's ironic that That's the practice a lot of people learned because it really doesn't work for anyone. I mean, conventional agriculture, because you're burning the land, eventually, you're just going to strip the soil away from everything you need to grow crops. [00:04:34] Tania Roa: So it's just ironic because they're learning a practice that isn't sustainable. It isn't going to last very long. They can't pass it down to their kids. And then that's why people have to go burn more forests eventually when the soil isn't producing food. So it's really horrible because it's a cycle that continues, right? [00:04:51] Tania Roa: Unless we, um, intervene and use a new practice. [00:04:55] Sharon Idahosa: Indeed. I definitely agree with that. But then again, what are some of the challenges you've faced so far? I mean, in terms of promoting regenerative agriculture. Having been able to, you know, address these challenges. [00:05:09] Tania Roa: Yeah, so it's different with the different audiences that we have, with the farmers directly that we work with, uh, just teaching them a new practice. [00:05:18] Tania Roa: It requires that they are willing to learn a new practice, right? So we have to come into the community and Really set ourselves up as someone who wants to help them. They, you know, at first may be wary, like, why are you coming into my community? And we have local field trainers, but sometimes even then they're not sure, Oh, is this actually going to work? [00:05:37] Tania Roa: Of course. And they have every right to worry because they're farmers. And so their livelihoods are on the line and their families and their nutrition are on the line. So they really have to be skeptical at first. And we do have practices to help them meet other farmers who are already in the program, who have already learned regenerative agriculture, so that they can feel better of wanting to join the program. [00:06:00] Tania Roa: So at first there is a bit of, Hmm, I don't know if I should try this. I don't know if this is for me. And so we really do have to talk with them and discuss what we do. And so in that aspect, it is, It's a mindset change. If you use a new practice, you really have to be willing to do that. And, um, when it comes to consumers, uh, worldwide, our supporters worldwide, there's a different aspect that we have to address when it comes to how we promote what we do, because we want people everywhere to learn about regenerative agriculture, even if they're not in the countries that we have programs in. [00:06:34] Tania Roa: And for them, what we see is sometimes they may not Understand the connections between climate and food, and I think a lot of it is because we're just so used to going to the grocery store and in a lot of places and getting things that are prepackaged that are already cut for you. You really learn, um, or you really, yeah, lose the connection between the person buying the food and the farmer and agriculture and what did it take for that food to get to that grocery store to get to your house? [00:07:05] Tania Roa: So I think with that disconnection, it's hard to, people realize, Oh, I should care about how this food is grown because all you go to the grocery store and see, Oh, there's food like everything's fine. [00:07:15] Tania Roa: But we know that that's not true. Um, once we go out to the rural areas, So showing people actually what we do and sharing their stories, that's why I think sharing the farmer stories is so important. So, people can feel like, oh, even though I'm over here in a completely different place, maybe a different country, what these farmers are doing matters to me because I care about how food is grown everywhere. [00:07:36] Sharon Idahosa: Thank you for sharing that. I mean, I totally understand. Um, it's very difficult to, you know, try to change. the mindsets of, of farmers, of people generally, actually. I mean, because I've been, um, taught this or I've learned this, I've been doing this for, for, I mean, over the years and all of a sudden you're telling me something different, which of course I'm supposed to use this [00:08:00] to feed myself, my family and the rest. [00:08:02] Sharon Idahosa: And all of a sudden, you're telling me to change it. So, it's really, um, going to be a challenge. I mean, just take a look at some of the innovative solutions, Agri-tech solutions that are coming into, into the picture. It's very difficult for farmers to, you know, um, adopt these technologies. I mean, because this is not new to them. [00:08:26] Sharon Idahosa: So, getting them involved, creating awareness, speaking to them more about it would definitely help them to, you know, change their mindsets. It should definitely help them. And of course, I do think that, um, it's really important that we try to also know where our food is coming from. I'm really excited about, I mean, I, I think I had a particular episode on agritourism. [00:08:50] Sharon Idahosa: Uh, it helps us to, you know, learn more about where our food is coming from, help us to have that real connection with the, local farmers, the local producers. So, you doing that, I think it's really amazing. And that way we can still promote the work of local farmers in the rural communities as well. So well done with what you're doing and how you're connecting and helping farmers to spread their message. [00:09:14] Sharon Idahosa: It's really important. [00:09:16] Tania Roa: Thank you. Thank you so much. And I have to listen to that episode. Uh, I agree. That's so important that we all learn and I'm, I'm still learning. I'm, I'm guilty of it too, of sometimes forgetting all the work and care it takes to get food on my plate. It's, it is a lot of work. Um, so we have our farmers to think for. [00:09:35] Sharon Idahosa: Yes. I mean, [00:09:36] Tania Roa: our farmers worldwide, of course. [0 --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/letstalkagriculture/message