 I have to say this, I'm not used to do this, so normally I would be really, my wife and my youngest son, they are here and they would tell you that I would be very, very nervous normally. And the fact that I'm not is only because of you. You are so sweet and kind and I wish to thank you for that. Thank you. Now, we are in the 22nd day of the 100-day journey through relentless rain and storm and snow, not preventing Sadhguru riding for hours at a stretch from London, cruising through the Netherlands, Germany, Prague, Vienna, Slovenia, Rome, Geneva, Paris and now Brussels. And in the same time, he's meeting up with global leaders, influencers, citizens and their elected representatives, which have hosted the Save Soil event so far. So now we'd like to share some of these moments that the Save Soil movement with Sadhguru had experienced so far. This happy, funny, dangerous journey up till now and how the world is dancing in rhythm saying Save Soil. Soil is not a separate subject. If we are interested in health, if we are interested in agriculture, if we are interested in the well-being of the citizens of today and the unborn child of tomorrow, I don't even do Soil right now. This is a must-do thing in our life. So this memorandum of understanding that we are signing, it will also bring some technical assistance to the Caribbean region. This is a historic moment because here is the first step to turn around. It's an extraordinary campaign. You know, it's shocking and unnerving. Wish you a very successful, joyful, accelerating journey. But I will take care of the acceleration and enjoy myself. What I need is, next hundred days from 21st of March, we want the whole world to talk about Soil. If you want to say, I love you to your child, you must just say Save Soil because it is a more committed way of saying I love you. You are probably one of the most famous Indians and what you're doing today is really important because people like you who have a wonderful following of millions and millions of people and what you're doing with that is so important with saving the soil. The last twenty years, over three hundred thousand farmers have committed suicide. If this doesn't wake you up, what else am I asking? What else needs to happen? Sadhguru, you have the ability to change the world for the better. There's many people, six thousand people with today's technology available, various platforms available. If you make up your mind, you yourself can reach three to four billion people. Yes or no? Will you make it happen? It's not about the journey, it's not about the song, it is about moving people on the planet. Make it happen. This is the thing I can do to help to save the soil. In your neighborhood, do a jig, initially people will think, what's wrong with her? After some time, kids will come and dance with you, tell them, just go and tell your parents they must talk about this. I'm saying go and request people, I'm saying at this time if you don't talk to people, we will be a very regretful generation, please let's not go there. I think if we all contribute, then we can, we have a really strong voice, say so. We're waiting for us to get inside. So much excitement and just to meet Sadhguru was a huge honor. It is very charismatic and he says it as it is. All graffiti artists, to whatever walls that you have, make sure that you use this. This is our time. This is our time on the planet. What we do here is our business. Let's do the right things and save soil and let's make it happen. That we in twenty-first century show that we are a mature citizens of this planet, that we want long-term well-being for ourselves and future generations. This is the opportunity. Save soil is that moment. And I'm convinced that both our Ministry of Agriculture as well as the entire ministry fully supports that trend or that direction. He's offering me much more than I came to ask him. It's our common issue together. It's not for one nation, for one person, but we as people have to unite and to solve this. Wonderful city of Vienna. Soil is a common denominator to bring all of us together. Make sure the world gets it now. Lalalalala is your mantra for now, for this ninety-three days. And above all, don't pick a fight with anybody. It doesn't matter what they're doing because we need every one of them. Yes, I know what is an important thing, but it's a such an important thing that we can do without in our lives. At least from here on, cutting-edge technology should not go into military weaponry. This you must pitch for. So, how do you feel here in Ljubljana, in Slovenia? Feeling like it's home. Reshima first. We've been part of this destruction. The only way is all of us become part of the solution also. So let's make it happen. I am a huge admirer of Rome because whoever did it, their sense of geometry is so fantastic. The former president of European Parliament is 100% with us and FAO is our partners now. And we are very happy that we are aligned in our message to hide the profile of soils. And we believe that it's very much needed. This great city which is known as the Eternal City, we must understand over 2,000 years ago this Eternal City made the mistake of over-forming the region. And the erosions that caused did tremendous damage and that was also the fall of the city at that time. So the Romans of today should never make that mistake once again. I think it's a message of urgency, but it's also a message of hope. So I'd really like to thank Saguaro for his leadership. The global movement led by him addresses the soil crisis by mobilizing people around the entire world. This massive fountain in the lake of Geneva is lit up for safe soil today. With safe soil colors of blue and green, you cannot stop this. The moment is on. It's going to be on till the policies are done. See, when people want it, it definitely will happen. There's no question about it. Tell me, will it happen? Yeah! Initiative soils for food security and climate for cooperation in achieving... So it's been a super impactful two days here. And just now we had our group of enthusiastic safe soil volunteers assemble near Eiffel Tower. It's fantastic. Brands have been great. It's getting warmer and warmer, isn't it? So, in a good way. Our honored guest today is Patricia Heidegger. She is the director of global policies and sustainability at the European Environmental Board, which is Europe's largest network, bringing together 170 civil society organizations from more than 35 European countries for sustainable development and justice. So please welcome Patricia Heidegger. And of course the transformer, the one and only Sadguru. Good evening everybody. We're very excited to meet you here in Brussels. So we've just heard about your amazing story, travel. 22 days already you've been traveling through our continent and you've seen very different parts of our region already. So maybe to start with, can you tell us one encounter, one impression that you had seeing our region all the different landscapes, the different ways people have been working with soil, different traditions, but also a continent which has been profoundly transformed in the last 50, 60 years by urban development, infrastructure development, intensive agriculture. So is there something that has struck you, something that has been a strong impression? Mr. Karam, good evening to everyone. Say agriculture is not new to Europe. Particularly in southern Europe, agriculture has been a very active part of it, like countries like Italy, very much strong agricultural nations. What has happened is after World War II, this post-World War II anxiety of wanting to meet the food requirement for the people where there was a real issue, the genuine issue out there. So these emergency measures that they took to cross that moment, unfortunately we did not see it as a bridge to cross over and then get back to normal. We stayed on the bridge for too long. The same emergency measures continued. Agricultural policies and agricultural tradition itself completely transformed itself into an emergency mode. See, in our lives when there is an emergency, we may do certain things to ward off that particular danger that we have. We cannot be in that mode for always. That is the mistake that's happened when I really see it. So yeah, well as we've heard, it's also here in Europe, we are facing soil degradation at a very large scale, at a boring pace. Urban development, infrastructure development, ceiling of soils is increasing. Agricultural intensification is making our soils more prone to erosion. Chemical pesticides use has not been going down despite all of our knowledge and development of pesticides that require less smaller doses. We have millions of contaminated sites around our region and several European countries already suffer now from desertification. A few months ago, last November, the European Commission for the European Union presented a new soil strategy and we now have a political target that by 2050 we want to restore the health of our soils. What do you think, what is the role that agriculture needs to play? What is the role for acroecological farming and forestry practices to restore our soils and to provide us with healthy and nutritious food? See, when it comes to urban infrastructure, just now I was coming to this auditorium, well, our GPS led us somewhere else to a totally different place. And then we were trying to race here somehow and get here on time. What I see is this is the fact in most cities in the world, not just in Europe. Both sides of the traffic are busy, both sides of the road. What does this mean? People who live here work there. People who live there work here. What's wrong with us? We just like to be on the road, it looks like that. For fun if you're on the road, there must be another road where we can go and have fun. But right now people are going to work, neither are they enjoying their drive. Unnecessarily they're spending so much of their productive time on the street, in every city in the world. You will see both sides of the traffic busy means something wrong, the way we're designing our cities. Well, a large part of the city might have happened long time ago. We might not have much choice about that. But at least the newer part of the city are we looking like that? We are not. Generally in the world nobody is looking at that. So we build unnecessary infrastructure. Infrastructure is very needed. But how much infrastructure for what purpose is something we could look at? About industrial scale of agriculture. As I said, that scale of agriculture was needed because at that time there were famine situations in the world. This happened everywhere in the world, not just in Europe. I'm not very certain about the date. Probably it was 2012, if I'm right. In 2012 we produced enough food for eighteen billion people. We did not have eighteen billion people, nor do we still have fortunately. We still don't have eighteen billion people. I hope we won't go there. But we produced eighteen... food for eighteen billion people. Still nearly two billion people were hungry. So where is this going? So from the store to the stove, from the stove to the plate, from the plate to the stomach, there is a huge loss. I do not know the statistics in Europe. In United States they say only one-third of the food that comes on the plate goes to the stomach, rest goes somewhere. So this lack of regard for that which makes our life is a serious issue. But a time has come now that trying to transform the people large scale and then fixing the problem, we are not in such times. We need to fix the problem whether people transform themselves or not. We must fix the problem with the right kind of policy. When I look at the policy, I'm not an expert on this, you should know more about this than me. But what I see is we are making too complex a policy, which is very hard to implement. See, among the various conventions that have happened in the world regarding environment and other things, the only convention which we successfully completed is the ozone fixing... you know, ozone hole fixing convention. We were successful because it was a one-point agenda. We need to do the same with soil. Too many things are involved. Right now you spoke about pesticide, fertilizer, this, that. All that is a reunion problem. I'm not saying no, there are significant problems. But the most important problem is the soil is dying. Soil is dying. Definitely pesticide, fertilizer, weedicide, herbicide, all these sides are enhancing the speed of destruction. But the most important thing is there is no organic material. Why there is no organic material? Because there are only two sources of organic material, plant life and animal life. Plant life went out of it because of our wanting to produce more. We removed all the trees and other plants from the farms. And animal life went out of it because of the machines. Machines came, it became easier to work. So we pulled out the animals. So where is the organic content? Organic content means food for the microbes. Microbes means they are the source of our life. It's because of them that we are here. Even in terms of evolutionary terms, it is important, it's not only today's ecology, in terms of evolutionary terms, it is only because of them we have happened. That complex life system, most important thing that needs to happen is in the last two years I've been shocked to see in most nations in the world, soil is being still addressed as an inert substance. That you can fix by adding a chemical or removing a chemical. Soil is the largest living system, not just on this planet. In the known universe it is the largest living system with zillions of life forms, millions of species, which are being lost at the rate of approximately 27,000 species per year. So the most important thing is first keep the soil alive. Other problems, please address it. I'm saying no, but first keep it alive. I'm saying I'm a human being, so one doctor may say my liver is not okay, another may say my kidney is not okay, another may say my brain is definitely not okay, otherwise why would I take this job? So all this is fine. You can address all my liver, kidney, brain because I'm alive. If I'm dead, which one will you attend to, I'm asking? And what does it matter? That's called as, you know, post-modern stuff. That's of no use. So right now keeping the soil alive is the most expressed need. People like you are under whom many, many organizations are there. If the focus shifts to soil, after that I'm not saying give up the other things. Other things are equally important, but first thing is to keep it alive. When I say keep it alive, see in northern Europe which is a temperate climate, here you have 1.48% organic content. This is dangerous. In southern Europe you have 1.1%. In Africa on an average you have 0.3%. In India on an average you have 0.68%. In United States and North America you have approximately 1.25 to 1.3%. This is a dangerous level because we are heading towards desertification in the last 25 years. Ten percent of the earth's land has turned into a desert. Ten percent in 25 years. Where are we going? Well, you've already mentioned the question of kind of food security and how kind of the fear not to have enough food has driven very fundamental changes in the way we've been producing food. You've mentioned the fact that we are producing more food than we need and we have more people who are actually overfed but still having millions that go hungry. Well, I wasn't particularly looking at you. Well, obviously there's an imbalance in the system. So when we kind of, you know, promote more acroecological practices what we often hear from the, say, food and agricultural lobby, the intensive agriculture is that, well, if you change acroecological practices you will lower productivity, you will have less income. Now, research has shown that this is not necessarily the case and we came across some recent research from your home country in India from Andhra Pradesh where we understand a quite large share of the agricultural production is under acroecological practices and where research has shown that once you transition from, let's say, conventional or intensive agriculture to more acroecological practices you might have a stagnation of production and of income but on the long run you will actually see an increase in productivity, you will even see an increase in farm income. So, what? Can I say something on that? See, in southern India we have this project going as Project Green Hands for the last nearly twenty-seven, twenty-eight years now and then we came up with the Rally for Reverse Rally calling. What this is is largely the kind of agriculture which has a minimum of ten percent of the land has the necessary organic content for the remaining ninety percent. This is in the form of trees, in the form of fruit trees, in the form of timber trees, variety of things. I will not go into the detail of how it is done but the income of the farmers has gone up in seven to eight years time anywhere between three hundred to eight hundred percent. The soil content the soil quality has improved significantly. Water tables have come up. Nutritional value in the food has gone up. In the marketplace it is sought after this particular produce that comes from this. Variety of crops, not any one crop but doesn't matter what kind of industrial farming you do or dastardly farming you do but will rich soil assist you or will it be against you? That is a simple question. This is why I said we should not complicate this with too much talk about fertilizer, this one, that one. See how much fertilizer or how much pesticide gets into the food that you're eating depends on variety of factors not just in the volume applied. On a given day when you apply what stage of development is the crop in at that time? Is it flowering? Is it pre-flowering? Has the fruit of vegetable already come in? What is it? Apart from that, what is the humidity conditions on that day? We did it rain, did it snow. What happened on that day? What is the temperature? Accordingly that much of it gets into the food nobody can one hundred percent gauge it how much. But we are talking about destruction of the soil. Destruction of the soil definitely is happening because of these applications. Why are these inputs going up on a yearly basis? Because the soil is getting weaker the farmer is trying to compensate by putting more and more fertilizer and whatever else. Does any farmer, any industry industrial farming companies, individual farmers small, big, whatever will they disagree that if you make your land rich minimum three percent organic content if you bring we will give you an incentive. Will anybody be against it? Nobody will be against it. Last two years what I am seeing is I have been talking to a whole lot of people around the world various agriculture ministries ministers, heads of state variety of people. What I see is everybody in responsible positions every one of them knows what is the nature of the problem what is the nature of the solution. They may not know the detail but they know the nature of the solution. I've been wondering what is this everybody knows the problem everybody knows the solution it looks like they were just waiting for an idiot to bell the cat. Here I am because it's always in the villages it's always the village idiot who bells the cat. This is like that I'm saying the most important thing right now because you are in touch with all these groups who have taken different positions this is one thing we need to do that is we this problem has happened not because of any one evil force there is no one evil person designing having a design how to destroy this planet there is no such thing it's just all of us it's all of us ignorance and apathy has caused this and above all every one of us are partners in this destruction the only way is to get everybody out on the side of the solution now if you separate fertilizer country I mean fertilizer company pesticide company against yourself it's not going to work because they are big businesses and after all they have to thrive and also to give them the necessary credit if today if all the fertilizer and pesticide and whatever other chemicals disappear our food production will come down to 25% of what it is right now it will be a massive disaster we cannot afford that if you increase the organic content the fertilizer you reach naturally starts sliding down we have demonstrated this and no demonstration is needed actually if the soil is rich you use less salts it's a known thing if you are eating nutritious food you will take less vitamins and other stuff those who are eating bad food are taking a whole bunch of vitamins and stuff so it's just like that I am saying this the problem is not fertilizer problem is not pesticide it's just being used blatantly irresponsible usage because there is no doctored usage of these things but right now instead of trying to control that if you enhance the organic content those things will come down I am not at all saying it's not a concern it is a serious concern but all this will be useful all this will be worthwhile only if the soil stays alive because for the first time we are talking about soil extinction and we don't have too much time so what we have seen here in our region is that despite it's a better knowledge and despite better technology we haven't seen the amount of pesticides being used coming down or the amount of synthetic fertilizers coming down rather the opposite now we have an agreed target now that we want to reduce the use of hazardous pesticides by 50% that's a agreed political target but the argument that we kind of need that high input of chemical pesticides of synthetic fertilizers that argument has been used based on that fear that we need that to kind of sustain ourselves to produce enough food even though the very input is degrading our soils which on the long run might actually What will be the consequence if I use more pesticides is there a punitive action for that? Sorry? What will be the consequence suppose I am a farmer and I use much more pesticides than what you asked me to do is there punitive action for that? Well I mean there's certain pesticides that can be used and it cannot be used and now we have targets to reduce the use of pesticides but the one problem is that this argument that we need that high input is needed to produce the amount of food that we need even though we know on the long run it's actually undermining our ability to produce enough food on the long run so what you said you're advocating for higher organic material percentage in the ground so can you say a bit more about how your campaign will for instance support and work with farmers to kind of also increase their knowledge and their capacity for instance to use natural pest control and what needs to be done to to control the amount of input See in India for example there is a company with whom we have been working which is one of the largest companies which is making bio how do you say this bio pesticides you know like which is organic kind of pesticides one of the things that they're doing is they are taking neem seed you've heard of the neem tree the neem seed oil and using that it is quite effective but they've been collecting neem seeds all over the country but they don't have enough neem seed in the entire country even if they gather it from everywhere it's simply not enough and it doesn't even fulfill two percent of the requirement pesticide requirement in the country so we want to grow the neem seeds they are asking people to grow but nobody wants to dedicate land to neem trees because a neem tree takes minimum twenty-twenty-five years before it becomes reasonable size it's a very slow growing tree so people came up with hybridized neem trees those neem trees don't have the same bitterness in their seeds so it doesn't work so I'm saying there are many complex issues even if you intend a lot of things cannot be done overnight but one thing we can definitely do is enhance the organic content if you enhance the organic content need for fertilizer will definitely start sliding down pesticide I feel the simplest way to do this is if you convert the entire region into a certain kind of farming now I am doing organic farming you are doing regular farming and we are neighbors once you spray all your insects don't die they all come to me this is what is happening because we are not converting an entire region if an entire region gets converted there are ways to do it but when individual farmers go for it they pay a huge price and above all farm economy is such a fragile thing if you mess with it a little bit the whole thing will collapse for the farmer the highest number of suicides in the world is among the farming community both in India, in United States people were saying even in Europe in some of the countries it is the highest for all the other professions so this is happening because we are not understanding how hard and fragile it is to be on the farm we need to address that that's why I am saying there must be incentives if you raise the organic content there must be incentive let's say you raise it to 3% see right now in the marketplace they are saying this apple is organic what is the other one? is it inorganic? is there something like that? is it the same apple that Adam ate that things went bad for him? so the important thing is if you say this is organic what is it you are trying to say you are trying to say either no pesticide and no fertilizer has been used which I doubt most of the time but if it is so it's great but that is going to be very limited produce it's not going to serve the world it is only going to serve 1% of the elite in the world it will not serve the larger requirement but instead of branding it as organic or inorganic if you brand it as let's say my field has 3% organic content if I say this apple comes from a field which has 3% organic content there is enough science to tell you for 3% organic content field what are all the extra micronutrients that will be there in that and there is enough science to tell you because of this extra micronutrients what are all the benefits that you have in terms of health in terms of preventive health in terms of psychological health what are the benefits suppose my field is 6% organic content what are the benefits there is enough science so first thing is to give an incentive for farmer to raise this and make the incentive attractive enough so that farmers will voluntarily go for that next thing is the industry and business should come in to make sure the farmer who raises the organic content gets the carbon credit and extra income happens and the next thing is in the market place it will find its own level and it must be valued by the people now if you buy a 6% organic content field if you buy the apple it may be 5-10% more expensive but instead of eating 5 apples one apple will do because you will get the same nutrients that's what they told you one apple could keep the doctor away not 8 you have mentioned the suffering that farmers have experienced due to their dependence on buying and paying for things like pesticides and fertilizers that cost is going up year by year and the cost is going up and people getting into a spiral of debt and dependence on these materials and their investment in that and if their crops go wrong they get stuck in their debts so do you not believe that there is a responsibility for those companies producing pesticides and fertilizers and especially in this region where we have stricter laws on what kind of pesticides for instance we can use but we still produce and export those that are banned here because they are very hazardous to countries in the global south where people the farm workers the farmers the people working in the field are exposed to the health hazards so what do you think is the responsibility here? This has always been the case with pesticides or pharmaceuticals whatever what's banned here is sold everywhere else in the world it's an unfortunate reality Right now I am on a safe soil mission I don't want even a single human being against it so I will skip that one So my last question would be around land as a resource so land is a finite resource it's subject to increasing pressure around the world and we've talked about it urbanization infrastructure development but also increased food feed fiber production fuel production so here in our region every year we lose around 500 square kilometers of agricultural land which is transformed converted into artificial areas and this is of course a global problem not just a European problem because the demand of course for areas to settle to grow food to grow biomass is rising around the world so here from the European region we are of course also contributing to pressure on land and other parts of the world because we're net importers we're net importers of things like agricultural commodities feedstock for our farm animals biofuels etc so what do you think are some of the big turning points globally to prevent our increased need for land which is a finite resource I think the most important thing is that in our consciousness instead of referring to soil and land as resource we must refer to it as our source this is very very important all of us did were fed on our mother's breast do we call her a resource or our source she's our source so across the world in eastern societies at least even today we refer to soil as mother because the word mother does not mean biological word mother means our source we say a mothership a mother board even in electronics alright because when something is the source you refer to that as a mother I think this is the most important thing that needs to happen in our minds in our consciousness that it is our source it is not our resource it is not something to exploit it is something we must nourish because the health of the soil will determine the health of life on this planet there's simply no two ways about it so referring to it as resource itself has caused this because see this may look like very you know up in the air kind of stuff but I'm saying the way the way human beings think is the way they act isn't it the way we all think and feel is the way we act and the way we build societies around it the way we build industry the way we build everything is based on how we think and feel within ourselves so how we think and feel has to change that soil is not an inert material for us to use as a resource it is our source it is the life there which makes us the way we are today all of you know that you know nearly sixty percent of your body itself is microbial life only forty percent is your parental genetics I'm saying I was telling this little girl and this little girl coming and complaining to me Zudguru my mother is not allowing me I want to do safe soil my mother is not allowing me I said just tell her she's only twenty percent well there's definitely a very big need to raise awareness about the meaning of soil because it's definitely a topic which hasn't received enough attention even though we're losing soil at a very rapid pace so increasing the awareness about the role that soil is playing as a life support system for us as humankind and the rest of the planet is extremely important so I hope your mission will be very successful in mobilizing millions around the globe to save soil and to create more awareness of what we need to do to protect it for us and for future generations so I understand we're taking questions from the audience before that can I ask a question of course see all this variety of organizations which you represent in some way see I I hugely respect their concern but the mode I think there needs to be a little relook not for me to tell them how they should operate but there should be a little relook on how we address this because this is our last chance if you ask me in the next twenty-thirty years if we don't do some real fixing we will be very sorry as a generation as a species we will be very sorry so being in that kind of a crucial period the most important thing is there should be no human being who is against whatever campaign you're doing whether it's pesticide or this that so for this to happen we must take away this fighting mode people are saying war against climate change we don't need a... climate change is bad enough we don't need a war there is nobody who disagrees with what you're saying it is just that immediate needs express needs are making people act the way they act the more we complicate it with too many issues the more conferences we will have and less action we will have I must tell you my experience with world peace conferences at one time about two-and-a-half three years I went for all the major world peace conferences happening in the world I genuinely believed these people are working for world peace so I went there sitting in the front seats front row and trying to do this then I realized for a whole lot of them conference hopping itself is a profession it's really unfortunately it is true and I went to one particular very prominent conference where there were forty-three Nobel laureates and some former heads of state and all this stuff I thought this is it definitely they're going to work for world peace so I was speaking on day three so I did not attend the day one so I went in at day two so lots of excitement everybody lots of wonderful people then when the day three in the afternoon it came the speaker before me was a Nobel laureate and he came and stood there's no podium like this it's a very transparent podium that was a nice wooden podium like that he stood behind that opened his file he never raised his head again he went on reading I was counting the pages he read forty-two pages I am sitting here listening to every word wanting to grasp what how are they going to create world peace then I look around and see the whole hall has become really peaceful except for the security and the hotel staff just everybody uniformly have fallen asleep and the only idiot sitting here and trying to really build here and trying to really believing that there is going to be world peace then next is me speaking I went up and I asked a simple question how many of you here can put your hand on your heart and say your mind is peaceful at least they were honest people they said no, Sadhguru we are not peaceful said if you can't make your mind peaceful how the hell do you get entitled to make the world peaceful there is no peace in the world only because of the nonsense that's happening in human head if human beings are not here everything is very peaceful so without addressing the fundamental how do we create this and then I asked what is the secret that everybody uniformly fell asleep entire hall I said no, Sadhguru there was a Bacardi festival that's the last conference I went to so I am saying so many cops are happening now I am also going to this cop 15 I am saying if we reduce the tempers and the heat against each other and look for a solution make necessary compromises and at least make 5% progress rather than 100% talk 100% pitching for 100% transformation instead of that 5% a small step if we take actual step rather than really shooting for the ideal yes we don't give up the ideal but we must take one step this is one step I am asking for make soil if you see if you own an urban land here if you own 10,000 square feet you can't build 10,000 square feet but if you own 100 acres of it turn it into a desert in the next 10 years nobody will ask you why in urban land there is a law in rural land, agricultural land there is no law why can't we make a law if you own agricultural land minimum 3% organic content should be there 3% is not great 3% is starvation diet for the microbes but at least they stay alive 3% is not the ideal minimum 3% now 2 billion people are under water stress they are saying by 2032 3.5 billion people will be under water stress well if you increase the organic content to 8 to 10% your irrigation requirements will come down to 30% of what you are using right now if you are using 100 liters of water it will come down to 30 liters if you raise it to 12 to 15% it will come down to 10 to 15% we have demonstrated this 100% so if 3.5 billion people don't have drinking water on a daily basis those days are gone where they will just sit there and die of thirst now there is transportation, there is information people will come where there is water and food isn't it so it is expected by 2032 or 1 billion people will be migrating migration, forced migration unplanned migration is not a great thing because the amount of human suffering that it causes particularly to women and children is unspeakable that kind of things happen to them but this can be prevented if you enrich the soil if the soil is good why will they leave their traditional lands and try to go to some strange place they will not go there this needs to happen all the wonderful organizations whatever work they have done we deeply appreciate but if one agenda is taken and all of us push for it the chances of making that happen are so much better than taking up hundred things which are important definitely important and significant but in the order of significance keeping the soil alive should come as number one everything else as secondary now somebody has got dandruff somebody has got this one that one but the cancer should be attended to first before we fix the hairstyle I am sorry if I am little abrasive because I feel this is express this needs to happen now well I agree with you that we have to take things step by step and we also have to take people along things are not only fixed at conferences here I mean in Europe the environmental movement I mean there is millions and millions of people on the ground in all different countries and regions in rural areas and cities who are active who are making a change through their daily lives through crossroads level activities so it is not just about the high level conferences but also through people's daily actions and we definitely need to mobilize people for this very important topic and I agree with you that we have to break it down into simple steps that people can get together for while also kind of not forgetting what drivers are degrade our soils so not reducing it to kind of one issue but for example if we focus on the organic content only but we don't for instance put a framework up that prevents further sealing of soils, further loss of agricultural land then we will also not be successful with the missions I think it is all about linking the systemic issues to a strong core message that you are providing 100% I am very much with that and above all why I am little pushy on this with Europe is in many ways the world is looking at Europe as a more organic or bio-friendly part of the world you doing things quickly is very important for the rest of the world because your organic content is 0.48% but entire African region is 0.3% Europe doing the right things quickly is an inspiration for everybody else I have no doubt that all these many organizations are doing significant work I really appreciate that all I am saying is you have a responsibility not just for your land you have a responsibility for the world nobody looks at America as an inspiration for bio-related stuff everybody looks at Europe so please all of you together make that happen are we taking questions from the audience yes sir, if they have there is many so how do we go about it yeah, yeah please Namaskaram, Sadhguru I am here where are you? the other side thank you my name is Eloise and I am from so my question is how do we get people to care about soil when they are so, so busy with other things such as careers and other ambitions in life so how do we do it? thank you where is the time even I have been asking for some extra time because I always felt the twenty-four hours were never enough for me I have been petitioning for a long time to get one four hours extra per day but not been sanctioned till now so that is when I stopped saving and I got every day twenty minutes extra so this nearly two thousand people who are here you must become earth buddies what earth buddy means is you invest ten to fifteen minutes a day and in your hands you have a smart phone or a dumb phone what do you have all of you have smart phones so if you are calling something smart it must be smarter than you hey you call somebody smart only if they are smarter than us isn't it so if you have such a smart phone don't waste your time just sending silly messages on that one you can also do that little bit that's your life but at least ten fifteen minutes a day if you invest I am telling you just this two thousand people can move those three to four billion people I am talking about because what you have in your hand is a powerhouse never before in the history of humanity was there ever a possibility that we could sit here and talk to the world never before so when there is a technology like this when there is a means like this in your hands you saying I don't have time to even twiddle my thumbs what is that so that means you don't realize the seriousness of the situation we are facing let us not be that generation which walks into your calamity and then grieves over it unfortunately too many generations have done that in terms of famines in terms of wars in terms of other kinds of disasters that human beings have caused to themselves let us not be that generation which falls over into your disaster and then cries over it let us be that generation which turn back from the brink of a disaster let us be that generation the disadvantage is nobody will know that you actually fix the problem because you fixed it before it happened this is what you should be hello everybody is telling me Sadhguru let's go to the schools all the children we must wake them up we must make them angry, fight no children till they are fifteen years of age let them grow up without any concern about anything let them eat well, play well, learn well let them grow up without concern this is most important infusing injecting injecting poisons of anger and hatred and resentment into a child's mind is a very horrible thing to do because how a child processes these emotions is very different from how an adult would and their entire life could get poisoned because of this so let children grow up I am saying we must fix the world in this way children never realized they were on the brink of something isn't this the way any responsible parent does their life hello so do I have an earth buddy in you where is that girl only one hello say I am addressing the cop fifteen in the month of May one hundred and seventy nations are to be represented there by government ministers and a few probably heads of state if you have over three billion people saying something about soil in some social media we know how to aggregate these numbers if we have that number we have a solid case to give confidence to the governments to take the needed steps because you must understand in a democracy governments are not elected to do something fantastic they are elected to fulfill people's mandate I am asking you in which nation on this planet has it happened sixty percent of the population has stood up and said we are concerned about long-term well-being of our nation of our biodiversity of our children's lives we are concerned in which nation have they expressed this only in some tea party or maybe in a group of concerned people or wherever they are talking where has sixty percent of people stood up that's all I am asking you get sixty percent of the world's population sixty percent of the adult population to say something about soil in the next hundred days we will see how to get the policy done are we taking the next question whose turn is it you are the boss today please take the microphone whoever wants to this lady has two hands should give it to her my name is Paolo I am originally from Ukraine but now I work as a vegan chef in Stockholm and I came here from Stockholm from Sweden and I feel that cooking and eating habits strongly influence the issue we are touching today the soil issue so my question is is there any way we can change our cooking and eating habits to save soil I am also telling you if I talk about how you eat what is wrong with the way you eat and what you eat then I will alienate fifty percent of the population right now I am not willing to do that I want one hundred percent of the population with safe soil movement so we are skipping that question as many more hands who is getting the microphone with microphones yes Namaskaram Sadhguru I am here I am Haini I am from Belgium and Hungary originally so I am just here ok nice to meet you I had a question in our day to day habits what would be the most important thing to do to save soil in terms of ok I wanted to ask the same question as the previous man but is there anything else we can do if we don't have that much power of that much audience and in little things you know there are the keys for huge changements in the world so what are these little keys we have to to use to open these doors to better soil health right now I am talking about these little things because you will do a little thing and think you have done your bit this is the serious problem in the world you do your little thing and you think you have done your bit so we won't talk about those little things right now I want you to do the big thing that is to move the people oh how can I do it I don't have a following go and dance on the street people will gather what do you think I am doing I want you to understand why do you think I am doing making a fool of myself going around the world really this is not my job because I thought if we don't do it now it may be too late somebody has to do it but I want you to understand when when something very important see the problem with disease soil doesn't die bang bang like a war nothing it is dying quietly what happens quietly you always miss that's the whole problem see just 70-80 years ago in this world there were famines all over the place when famines happened for example in India in 1942 the Bengal famine took 3.2 million people in four months famine is the worst possible way for human beings to die because it's a slow fade there have been famine situations in the world where people have cut the limbs of their own children and nourish themselves but I am saying once food shortages come your civilization will evaporate in no time even your humanity will evaporate yes three days if there is no food in this city you will see there will be no human beings everybody will be behaving like beasts let's not push the world there every responsible scientist is pointing out this is the way you want to do little things this is not the time to do little things little things are important too but right now I don't want to talk about little things because I fear because I have seen people for last 40 years endlessly have been with people they are always thinking how to do the smallest thing they can do towards a solution not the biggest thing that they can do let me tell you a story this happened in Brussels in 1861 is there any historical event around 1861 in Brussels I am not even from Belgium so maybe consulting but I am sure something very significant happens no I want to choose a date where nothing happened I don't want them to link it to that so I am 1860 something okay when nothing happens on that day the people in Brussels they looked up at the moon moon has its own shades and it keeps shifting from day to day so they believe there are people on the moon and they thought we must communicate how there were no spacecrafts and nothing at that time so they decided at a given moment all of us will come in the rooftops of our buildings and homes in one voice we will ask who let's see what they say now I will say 1, 2, 3 in one voice all of you must say who 1, 2, 3 see you have become like this you are a wonderful group of people on that day everybody came on the rooftops when that moment was approaching I was also here in Brussels at that time and I thought oh my voice I am just a small voice you know even with microphone people can't hear what if I don't say who all these wonderful people are saying who so I thought this is a you know unique moment all of you saying who in one voice listen to how you say it that moment came and it passed in total silence you get it this is the problem with the world all of us are consuming when it comes to compensatory action we are wondering who should do more who should do less I appreciate the question because you really intend to do something but as I said earlier you going and fixing your garden you changing your diet all this is important all this is important when it happens on a global scale but it will be lost when you do it individually I am not saying it's not good it is very good for you and for the soil even if one person transforms but right now we are at a place where we want to push the policy because unless it's enshrined in the policy now she has some land she is doing a great job I have some land I am doing a great job where is the guarantee next generation will do the same thing unless it's in the policy unless it's enshrined in the policy there is no guarantee it will sustain so this is why it has to get into the policy right now when we are taking this step don't ask me how to take the tenth step that is why a whole lot of efforts have fallen on their face because they are trying to take the tenth step when they should take the first step you must get me three billion people you okay? do whatever you have to do don't ask me what you are much younger than me you are much younger than me and I am sure your ability to handle this technology is much better than me so you must tell me Sadhguru let's do this don't ask me what to do let's take the question from the lady here Namaskaram Sadhguru my name is Yishata and I am from Amsterdam and before I ask my question I would like to say that it has been such a delightful and wonderful evening and listening to you it's just so fantastic and I would like to thank you you are beginning to enjoy the problem well you have truly inspired me as a young person to raise my voice on saving the soil and I am so thankful that you are raising the consciousness on this planet so so to my question how can we create more awareness within our education system itself about saving the soil and also the overall well-being of a planet in a positive and progressive manner well one important thing that needs to happen is every child in the world must know that when you step out you are stepping on a living entity called soil then you would walk little more gently when you walk little more gently every other activity that you do also you would do it little more consciously if if somebody is lying down here even by accident if you stepped on them will you just walk and go on? hello hello you are not that inhuman aren't you don't say a lot of people unfortunately there are a few people who put their humanity to sleep there are people but generally almost nobody here can do that isn't it if you as much step on somebody's foot can you simply go you cannot go this is your humanity so if children are conscious and if you are conscious you are stepping on a living entity you would walk gently we would do our industry gently we would do our agriculture gently will it happen tomorrow? no but if it if this is the way we think and feel slowly that change will happen because the problem is so massive nobody believes it will turn around tomorrow morning alright? it will not but the question is will we at least orient ourselves in the right direction? right now we are on the path of destruction shall we at least turn towards a solution we may not get there today we may not get there tomorrow we may not get there in ten years but shall we at least start walking in the right direction this must happen this must not going to be necessarily done by a government or an education system or something you must do it in everything that you do it must come out of you whoever you meet it must come out of you not giving them a lecture just the way you exist it needs to happen we will take one final question it's your one very young gentleman is a question go ahead hello my name is yoga mitran I am from India Chennai I would like to ask a question how should we help actually save the soil how should we help save soil I was talking to children at the asia homeschool in south India they are all of your age a little more than that when I told them this they took this up upon themselves and they said they are going to inspire ten million children in India to write to the prime minister right now we have not reached ten million a few hundred thousand letters have been written by children prime minister's office is being created with children's paintings children's safe soil messages they are requesting us make it digital please these physical letters are becoming too many so somebody was telling me they have written all kinds of addresses the children and it's all over deli in post offices because children didn't get the right address I am saying even if a million letters go to the prime minister from children you think anybody is going to ignore that so you must get your school and every other school that you can possibly to write this all of you get this going at least a million children in belgium should write to your prime minister this needs to happen get five million children across Europe and this needs to happen see the governments must know to what extent people are concerned otherwise why will they act just a handful of activists wasting their lives going on doing this for their entire life if everybody stands up it will happen very quickly isn't it they are spending their life to give you an example you know in twenty nine days of rally for rivers to Himalayas I drove through sixteen states nearly nine thousand three hundred kilometers and we gathered hundred and sixty two million people supporting us once there was that kind of a number the policy document that we wrote which was seven and sixty page document about how to manage tropical rivers in India became the official policy recommended to all the twenty eight states within three and a half months today it is the official policy implementation is low six states went for it proactive others usually wait for a disaster to happen that is a mode unfortunately then to create a certain express need we started what is called as Kaveri calling that one river basin we took up which is eighty three thousand square kilometers and five point two million farmers live and work here the success of that five UN agencies joined up with us because of the success there is there is no other project of that scale happening anywhere in the world and looking at the success of that the central government made a similar replica projects for thirteen river basins which account for sixty seven percent of India's land now we were been pushing this this already been five years now just about eight days ago or nine days ago government of India announced a budget of two point three billion dollars for this thirteen river basins this is just the beginning so in all this the most important role is that of the people because of the size of support that is there government cannot ignore it no democratic government will ever ignore the numbers because numbers are the basic currency in a democracy if you raise the numbers to three to four billion people in the world everybody will sit up and listen if I can say something one second everybody is asking how to do it how to do it one thing is follow the journey on safe soil I want you to understand this is not about you supporting me I don't need that what you need to do is you and whoever else in the world talk something about soil for next hundred days you don't have to link it to this moment you do your own campaign but say something about soil everybody speak something about soil it doesn't matter in what form this will become a reality it may happen in considering all the realities that you are talking about or it may happen taking just a few of them but let at least one step move in the direction of keeping soils alive if they can take everything and make it happen fantastic but I doubt whether they will take such a strong step because they have many industries and others that are fighting forces out there the simplest thing where there is no fight let's take that step after that where there is fight we will go little more slowly because economic interests are there in this nobody is going to give it up just like that so share safesoil.org website with as many people as you can make safesoil song everywhere can download it from the website your children write a letter to the prime minister or president of your country can find on website put up safesoil stickers on your cars display placards wherever you can if you don't have a car if you don't have anything stick it on your clothes let's make it happen thank you, thank you Satguru for sharing their insights and perspectives with us today thank you, thank you so much and of course we are immensely grateful to Mahambi and the talented ensemble today for their wonderful performance I also want to thank all the Isha volunteers and all those that made this event possible and finally a special thanks to all of you who followed us give a big hand to the musicians Satguru would you like to share some final remarks with us I think I've said enough you have said enough okay then let's sing a song a song of peace a song of love here's presenting to you the soil song which has created soil waves across the world a dance for earth let's talk soil sing soil, breathe soil and live soil thank you so much this very body is soil my body, your body everybody is just soil body dick of soil soils will not quench the fire of hunger unquenched hunger can burn the very world this is a generational responsibility save soil let's make it happen