Reads like a PR campaign from the Israeli ministry for agriculture. Endorses the 'make deserts bloom' mythology, ignoring the depletion/theft of deep water aquifers and occupation of the the best Palestinian farmland that made it possible. Waxes lyrical about advances in agrotechnology which are guaranteed to turn into a failed nightmare. Only talks about arable land without discussing pastoralism, historically very important to Palestinians, including nomadic herders who lived in the 'desert' before it was occupied and subjected to this short-sighted experimentation, boosting productivity for international markets and the cancerous growth of the settler state.

To his credit he did at least visit Palestine, not specifying where (and pronouncing it incorrectly, unless Indians have a different way of pronouncing it), apparently spending 8 hours getting over the border and managing to find a date orchard to make a 3 minute video:





A brief discussion of how there used to be more Palestinians engaged in agriculture but no explanation of why there are now so few, no attempt to engage with the geopolitical situation except hand-waving platitudes about leaving behind the 'bitterness' and 'injustices of the past'. Er, I think you'll find there's plenty of that in the present too, gobshite. Only found one decent critical comment on his twitter post:

Sadhguru @SadhguruJV
Israel- an outstanding example of commitment & vision. As fertile soils turn into sand in the rest of the world, Israel is turning sand into fertile soil, producing 99% of its own food & leading innovation in agriculture technology. May Israel inspire the world. -Sg #SaveSoil

Earthling on Stolen Land🌎 @Lallis_Lola
Please don’t greenwash Israel when they burn ancient olive trees in Palestine 😢 - https://twitter.com/SadhguruJV/status/1523920780983246848

No doubt there is more propaganda and idiocy if you click around the youtube channel to see vids from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Dubai etc, I might report back if I can bear to look at more: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9WwGTaKB0h1pkUZAVwVC1A/videos

He finally came out with some policy proposals for his Save Soil movement which boil down to better subsidies to incentivise farmers to increase the organic matter in their soil, a streamlined carbon credit system (ie: off-sets) and different labeling in supermarkets. Wow, inspirational... and not at all open to abuse by multinational corporations:

*****

https://isha.sadhguru.org/uk/en/wisdom/article/cop15-save-soil-address-sadhguru

The gathering of all the countries of the world at the COP15 summit in Cote d’Ivoire is a key opportunity to redouble governmental policy efforts aimed at reversing the degradation of agricultural land all around the world, and in so doing bring humanity back from the very brink of Soil extinction.


To Save Soil at large scale we need to shape a deep-rooted People’s movement. Notwithstanding the complex nature of the ecological problem facing us, a successful People’s movement can be created only if we can distill the remedial action into just one single-minded focus that is articulated in a succinct and simple way. Our history of ecological effort shows very few unequivocal successes - largely because we failed to convert complex scientific arguments into easy to understand simple actions. The Montreal protocol of 1987 is often hailed as the single most successful international agreement to date - and that happened because there was a singular focus on doing just one thing - halting the depletion of the ozone layer.


In much the same way, there are many scientific nuances on how to handle the problem of land degradation in different types of soil conditions, in various agro-climatic zones, and in the differing contexts of cultural and economic traditions. It is nevertheless possible to distill out one overarching objective - which is to ensure that there is a minimum of 3-6% organic content in agricultural Soil. This would make our Soil vibrantly living, and sustainably thriving across all agricultural lands.

This overarching objective of ensuring a minimum 3-6% of organic content for agricultural Soil can in turn be achieved with a pragmatic three-pronged strategy:

1. We need to make it aspirational for farmers to achieve the minimum threshold of 
3-6% organic content by providing attractive incentives for getting to this threshold. Such incentives would create an aspirational race amongst farmers. It should be noted that there should be a phased program of implementation over a number of years – with the first phase being that of providing inspiration, followed by a second phase of providing incentives, and eventually having a third phase with some appropriate disincentives.

2. We need to facilitate carbon credit incentives for farmers. The current processes for farmers to avail of carbon credit benefits are far too complex - and therefore need significant simplification. 


3. We need to develop a mark of superior quality for food grown from Soils that have the target 3-6% organic content level. Alongside doing this, we should also clearly articulate the various health, nutritional, and preventive health benefits of consuming such foods. As a result of this initiative, people would be more healthy, more productive, and more resilient – thereby leading to gains in man-days, and a lower stress on our health care systems. It is therefore evident that such a mark of superior quality food would have far more meaning than the current system of just trying to distinguish between so called ‘organic’ produce from ‘non-organic’ one.


Time is running out. But fortunately we know what to do. With the development of appropriate Government policies, we can turn the clock back on the impending extinction of Soil. To facilitate this task of rapid Government policy evolution across the world, the Save Soil Movement is creating a handbook of recommendations for every one of the 193 countries. More details can be obtained from the movement’s website at Savesoil.org.


Let us make it happen!

*****

Bleh, what a waste of time...
I