Dear Regenerator,
The Green New Deal was the first U.S. Congressional climate change proposal to include food and farming.
The resolution calls for “working collaboratively with farmers and ranchers in the United States to remove pollution and greenhouse gas emissions from the agricultural sector as much as is technologically feasible, including—(i) by supporting family farming; (ii) by investing in sustainable farming and land use practices that increase soil health; and (iii) by building a more sustainable food system that ensures universal access to healthy food.”
What do U.S. farmers and ranchers think of the Green New Deal? That's what we’ve been asking them in our new Farmers & Ranchers for the Green New Deal Podcast, and in videos broadcast live on the Regeneration International Facebook page.
Here are a few excerpts from recent podcasts:
Julie Davenson, Stonewall Farm (Keene, N.H.):
“I think farming is a potential, important and powerful solution to climate change, but it’s often overlooked and overshadowed with renewable energy. I find most people don’t even know that it is a potential and powerful solution. That’s why I’m so excited about the Green New Deal, because it has a focus on regenerative agriculture and agriculture as a whole. I don’t think we can achieve the changes that we need with renewable energy and technology alone. I think we need biological solutions and that’s what regenerative agriculture is.”
Francis Thicke, Radiance Dairy (Fairfield, Iowa):
“We need to make agriculture profitable for farmers. We need to break up the large monopolized agribusinesses. I don’t think we can really fix our environmental problems if we don’t fix it holistically. One thing I like about the Green New Deal is that it looks holistically at it, by supporting family farmers, investing in regenerative agriculture and so on.”
Seth Watkins, Pinhook Farm (Clarinda, Iowa):
“My first step in the Green New Deal comes to how we care for our soil and our natural resources and the practices that are carbon friendly that get that carbon out of the atmosphere and into the soil. I don’t want to pick on Third World countries, but we’re having Third World country problems in rural America because of perceived efficiencies in our agriculture system that are really false efficiencies, and what I’m seeing is that when we go back to these ecological solutions of better crop rotation, of the principles of conservation agriculture, keeping our ground covered, reintegrating livestock in a smart way, in a way that honors the rights of the animals, as well, I see it making rural America a better place to live.
Chris Petersen, (Clear Lake, Iowa):
“The Green New Deal is the best deal since the deal that F.D.R. put out, the New Deal, to save the family farm. That’s the first thing. Number two, it’s about time all of agriculture joined in, in a solution to the problem. You know, overall, we’re not the best actors in the world of trying to stem greenhouse gases. Regenerative agriculture. Sustainability. I practice it. It’s the wave of the future, if we’re going to retain the ability to feed ourselves.”
Now, more than ever, consumers and policymakers need to hear directly from organic and regenerative farmers and ranchers.
We invite all U.S. farmers and ranchers, and the organizations that represent them, to join Farmers & Ranchers for the Green New Deal and pick a time to be interviewed for the podcast.
Thank you!
Alexis, for the Regeneration International Team
Dirt matters.
P.S. Regeneration International needs your help! Please support our work by making a generous donation today. Thank you!