The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) just issued its most dire report yet on global warming.
Along with the bad news, IPCC outlined a number of solutions for averting complete disaster. The most promising of those solutions? Rethink how we grow food and manage land.
The beauty of this solution is that it’s ready to go. We don’t need to wait for new technologies. We just have to adopt existing, tried-and-true agricultural practices, on a large scale—along with food and farming policies that will support farmers who want to transition to organic regenerative agriculture.
Two states—California and Hawaii—have already taken steps to implement this solution.
Now, we need the other 48 states to follow.
TAKE ACTION: Ask your state leaders to follow the example of California and Hawaii by adopting food- and agriculture-focused strategies to address climate change.
California recently signed on to the 4 per 1000 Initiative: Soils for Food Security and Climate. The 4p1000 Initiative is a bold policy initiative that has the power to restore both food and climate security.
Hawaii recently joined the 30X30 Forests, Food and Land Challenge. The 30X30 Challenge is based on the premise that food, farming and land-use goals can deliver 30 percent of the climate solutions needed by 2030 to tackle the climate crisis.
Even better? Both California and Hawaii have also committed to reducing fossil fuel emissions.
Hawaii will stop burning fossil fuels for electricity, and California will become carbon neutral by 2045.
We absolutely have to phase out fossil fuels if we want to avert a climate disaster. And California and Hawaii have committed to doing that. Both states on track to reach 100% clean electricity by 2045. Hawaii has already gone from 6% in 2008 to 25% in 2017. California is at 32%.
But transitioning to alternative renewable energy sources alone won’t get us where we need to be, fast enough. As California and Hawaii have acknowledged with their carbon-neutral commitments, we have to go fossil free and draw down the carbon already in the atmosphere.
How can governments accomplish this? By creating policies aimed at scaling up regenerative farming, grazing and land-use practices. These practices lead to an increase in photosynthesis—nature’s own system for pulling excess carbon out of the air and sequestering it in the soil. They also produce more drought-resistant and resilient crops, and more nutrient-dense food.
How can you help? Through your food choices, you can create greater demand in the market for food produced using organic regenerative practices.
And you can let your state lawmakers know that you want better food and farming policies.
TAKE ACTION: Ask your state leaders to follow the example of California and Hawaii by adopting food- and agriculture-focused strategies to address climate change.
