Regenerative Agriculture

PROPOSAL: Regenerative Agriculture

SPONSOR: Platform Committee

CHAIRS:
Bruce Hinkforth bhinkforth@milwpc.com, Linda Cree creelinda@hotmail.com

CONTACT:
Sidney Smith bsidneysmith@gmail.com

BACKGROUND:
The United States’ industrialized agriculture system is highly destructive of our environment, of our people’s health, and of our society’s future. Unless it changes radically, we face desertification, ecosystem collapse, mass extinctions, and starvation. Our civilization itself is threatened by the loss of the ecosystem services on which it depends for its existence. Moreover, agriculture is the high-order term in climate change, not only because of the amount of carbon it contributes to the atmosphere, but also because of the vital role it could play in sequestering carbon and restoring a healthy carbon cycle.

Currently the Green Party platform calls for localization and organic methods. However, this does not go far enough. Small farms, even those using organic methods, can fail to regenerate healthy soil, to sequester carbon, or to foster biodiversity and robust ecosystem services. Small producers are also under pressure from large corporate agricultural interests to whom they are beholden for fertilizer, seed, feed, and equipment, and whose subsidized and industrialized mono-cropping and confined-animal operations distort the market in favor of corporate profits rather than farmers’ interests or consumer health. It is notable that the rate of suicide among farmers is many times that of the general population. “Regenerative Agriculture”, also called “Agroecology,” refers to a suite of holistic principles and methods that together have the proven potential to rapidly restore our rural and natural environments to full health, sequestering vast quantities of carbon, restoring ecological balance and biodiversity, building soil, and reversing desertification, all while producing more food of a higher quality. It also has the potential to restore agricultural communities to economic independence and security.

The precise methods employed in RA vary according to the properties of the biome in which the agricultural project is located, but they generally include the following:

• No-till/minimum tillage. (Soil is never “naked” in RA.)
• Soil building through cover cropping, multi-cropping, inter-cropping, and crop and animal rotation, while avoiding all use of artificial or synthetic fertilizers.
• Restoring sub-soil biomes, starting with innoculation by composts and maintained with inter-crop plantings, managed grazing, and wild border areas.

These methods are consistent with organic principles, but are not consistent with mono-cropping or confined animal operations. They are particularly well-suited to the small family/cooperatively-owned farm. Farmers who have implemented these principles have enjoyed improved yields, a lower rate of crop failures, reduced crop loss to pests, and drastically lowered reliance on external inputs, including synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, but also lowered use of expensive, fossil-fuel- burning equipment. Their living soil stabilizes the hydrological cycle by readily absorbing and storing water, and it stores vastly greater quantities of organic carbon, reversing the contribution of their agricultural operations to climate disruption. They have also reported more stable incomes and a vastly improved degree of satisfaction in their profession.

Resources for further information on Regenerative Agriculture include:
http://regenerationinternational.org/
http://www.csuchico.edu/sustainablefuture/aginitiative/
https://www.iatp.org/blog/201309/new-un-report-calls-for-transformation-in-agriculture
https://permaculturenews.org/2014/09/26/un-small-farmers-agroecology-can-feed-world/
https://www.crs.org/our-work-overseas/program-areas/regenerative-agriculture

An excellent overview and detailed testimonial is provided by Gabe Brown, a farmer in South Dakota who now teaches internationally on RA practices.

PROPOSAL 1: Rewrite of III.A.6 (Climate Change)

CURRENT:

6. Clean, Green Agriculture

a. Convert U.S farm and ranchland to organic practices. Chemical and industrial agriculture produces 35-50% of climate destabilizing greenhouse gases.

b. Switch to local food production and distribution. Localized, organic food production and distribution reduce fossil fuel usage and enriches soil that sequesters more carbon dioxide.

c. Reduce methane, nitrous oxide and other greenhouse gases by rapidly phasing out confined animal feeding operations, and encouraging a reduction in meat consumption.

PROPOSED:

6. Regenerative Agriculture

a. End industrialized agriculture methods, including monocropping, reliance on synthetic fertilizers and pesticides, and the use of confined animal operations, all of which are high-order contributors to atmospheric greenhouse gases.

b. Convert our food producing systems to small-scale Regenerative Agriculture (Agroecology) systems to restore soil health, sequester carbon, foster biodiversity, and secure robust ecosystem services for a sustainable future.

c. Replace subsidation of industrially produced agricultural products with support for small producers employing regenerative agricultural methods. Localize food distribution systems to minimize waste, build rural communities, and eliminate reliance on fossil fuels.

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PROPOSAL 2: Changes to III.I Agriculture

CURRENT:

Food is a necessity and a fundamental human right. All people have a right to adequate, safe, nutritional and high quality food; and those who grow it have a right to a fair return for their labor.

Our current food system is dominated by centralized agribusiness and unsustainable practices that threaten our food security, degrade the environment, destroy communities, and squeeze out family farmers. Our so-called cheap food comes at the expense of the exploitation of our farmers along with the oppression of third world peoples, inhumane treatment of animals, pollution of air and water, and degradation of our land.

The agricultural system for the 21st Century must provide a high quality of life for farmers, nutritious and safe food for consumers, and reward farming methods that enhance the quality of water, soil, and air, and the beauty of the landscape.

According to the 2006 United Nations “Livestock’s Long Shadow” report and the World Watch Institute’s 2009 article “Livestock and Climate Change” the livestock sector is one of the most significant contributors to our most serious environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.

1. We encourage legislation that assists new farmers and ranchers, that promotes widespread ownership to small and medium-sized farms and ranches, and that revitalizes and repopulates rural communities and promotes sustainable development and stewardship.

2. We support new farming and growing opportunities and urge the inclusion of non-traditional crops and foods in farm programs.

3. We advocate regionalizing our food system and decentralizing agriculture lands, production, and distribution. We encourage public support for producer and consumer cooperatives, community kitchens, Community Supported Agriculture, urban agriculture, and community farms and gardens.

4. We advocate the creation of a Food Policy Council composed of farmers, including small farmers and consumers, to oversee the USDA and all food policies at the local, state, and national level. This council should adjudicate conflicts of interest that arise when industries police themselves.

5. We support the highest organic standards (California Organic Certification Standards, for example). We advocate shifting price supports and government subsidies to organic food products so that they will be competitive with chemically produced food. We believe that everyone, not just the wealthy, must be able to afford safe and healthy food.

6. We urge the banning of sewage sludge or hazardous wastes as fertilizer, and of irradiation and the use of genetic engineering in all food production.

7. We would phase-out man-made pesticides and artificial fertilizers. We support Integrated Pest Management techniques as an alternative to chemical-based agriculture.

8. Food prices ought to reflect the true cost of food, including the health effects of eating processed foods, antibiotic resistance, pesticide effects on growers and consumers, soil erosion, water pollution, pesticide drift, and air pollution. Indirect costs (loss of rural communities, a heavily subsidized transportation system, cost of the military necessary to defend cheap oil, and reduced security), though more difficult to calculate, should be factored into the cost of our highly centralized food system.

9. World hunger can best be addressed by food security—being self-sufficient for basic needs. Overpopulation is largely a consequence, not simply a cause, of poverty and environmental destruction, and all remedial actions must address living standards and food security through sustainable production.

10. Because of the tremendous amount of energy used in agriculture, we support farm subsidies to encourage the transition from dirty fuels to clean renewable energy as one of the most effective ways to move our country to a sustainable future.

11. We support legislation that provides energy and fuel conservation through rotational grazing, cover-crop rotations, nitrogen-fixing systems, and fuel-free, clean renewable energy development on the farm.

12. We encourage states to promote net-metering to make decentralized energy production economically viable.

13. Animal farming must be practiced in ethically and environmentally sustainable ways. We support a rapid phase out of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) not only because of their adverse impact on the environment, but also on food safety (e.g. disease epidemics), public health, and animal protection.

14. Applying the Precautionary Principle to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we support a moratorium until safety can be demonstrated by independent (non-corporate funded), long-term tests for food safety, genetic drift, resistance, soil health, effects on non-target organisms, and cumulative interactions.

Most importantly, we support the growing international demand to eliminate patent rights for genetic material, life forms, gene-splicing techniques, and bio-chemicals derived from them. This position is defined by the Treaty to Share the Genetic Commons, which is available through the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The implications of corporate takeover and the resulting monopolization of genetic intellectual property by the bioengineering industry are immense.

15. We support mandatory, full-disclosure food and fiber labeling. A consumer has the right to know the contents in their food and fiber, how they were produced, and where they come from. Labels should address the presence of GMOs, use of irradiation, pesticide application (in production, transport, storage, and retail), and the country of origin.

16. We support the restoration of farmlands to black families who have been discriminated against and who have lost, or are about to lose, their farms as a result. Greens will work for a meaningful remedy to restore black farmers' unencumbered ownership of their land.

WITH PROPOSED CHANGES: [deletions in brackets] ADDITIONS IN CAPS

Food is a necessity and a fundamental human right. All people have a right to adequate, safe, nutritional and high quality food; and those who grow it have a right to a fair return for their labor.

THE UNITED STATES' INDUSTRIALIZED AGRICULTURE SYSTEM IS HIGHLY DESTRUCTIVE OF OUR ENVIRONMENT, OF OUR PEOPLE'S HEALTH, AND OF OUR SOCIETY’S FUTURE. UNLESS IT CHANGES RADICALLY, WE FACE DESERTIFICATION, ECOSYSTEM COLLAPSE, MASS EXTINCTIONS, AND STARVATION. OUR CIVILIZATION ITSELF IS THREATENED BY THE LOSS OF THE ECOSYSTEM SERVICES ON WHICH IT DEPENDS FOR ITS EXISTENCE. MOREOVER, AGRICULTURE IS THE HIGH-ORDER TERM IN CLIMATE CHANGE, NOT ONLY BECAUSE OF THE AMOUNT OF CARBON IT CONTRIBUTES TO THE ATMOSPHERE, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY BECAUSE OF THE VITAL ROLE IT COULD PLAY IN SEQUESTERING CARBON AND RESTORING A HEALTHY CARBON CYCLE. [Our current food system is dominated by centralized agribusiness and unsustainable practices that threaten our food security, degrade the environment, destroy communities, and squeeze out family farmers. Our so-called cheap food comes at the expense of the exploitation of our farmers along with the oppression of third world peoples, inhumane treatment of animals, pollution of air and water, and degradation of our land.]

“REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE,” ALSO CALLED “AGROECOLOGY” REFERS TO A SUITE OF HOLISTIC PRINCIPLES AND METHODS THAT TOGETHER HAVE THE PROVEN POTENTIAL TO RAPIDLY RESTORE OUR RURAL AND NATURAL ENVIRONMENTS TO FULL HEALTH, SEQUESTERING VAST QUANTITIES OF CARBON, RESTORING ECOLOGICAL BALANCE AND BIODIVERSITY, BUILDING SOIL, AND REVERSING DESERTIFICATION, ALL WHILE PRODUCING MORE FOOD OF A HIGHER QUALITY. IT ALSO HAS THE POTENTIAL TO RESTORE AGRICULTURAL COMMUNITIES TO ECONOMIC INDEPENDENCE AND SECURITY. [The agricultural system for the 21st Century must provide a high quality of life for farmers, nutritious and safe food for consumers, and reward farming methods that enhance the quality of water, soil, and air, and the beauty of the landscape.]

THE PRINCIPLES OF REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE ARE PROMOTED BY THE UNITED NATIONS FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION (UN FAO) AND BY AN INCREASING NUMBER OF ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS INVOLVED IN AGRICULTURAL AND SUSTAINABILITY RESEARCH. IN ADDITION TO ITS POSITIVE ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS, THE ADOPTION OF REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE THROUGHOUT THE FOOD SYSTEM WILL PUT A STOP TO UNETHICAL CONFINED ANIMAL OPERATIONS, IMPROVE THE DIVERSITY AND NUTRITIONAL CONTENT OF OUR FOOD, AND RATIONALIZE THE PRICING AND DISTRIBUTION OF FOOD.[According to the 2006 United Nations “Livestock’s Long Shadow” report and the World Watch Institute’s 2009 article “Livestock and Climate Change” the livestock sector is one of the most significant contributors to our most serious environmental problems, including global warming, land degradation, air and water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.]

1. [We encourage] WE CALL FOR legislation that assists new AND EXISTING farmers and ranchers TO CONVERT THEIR OPERATIONS TO REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURAL METHODS that promote widespread ownership [to] OF small and medium-sized farms and ranches, and that revitalizes and repopulates rural communities and promotes sustainable development and stewardship.

2. WE CALL FOR LEGISLATION THAT RECOGNIZES, THROUGH APPROPRIATE REGULATION, FOODS THAT ARE PRODUCED USING REGENERATIVE METHODS, INCLUDING NO-TILL/MINIMUM TILL, NATURAL SOIL BUILDING TECHNIQUES, DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL SOIL BIOMES, AND SET-ASIDES FOR WILDLIFE ALONGSIDE CULTIVATED AREAS. [We support new farming and growing opportunities and urge the inclusion of non-traditional crops and foods in farm programs.]

3. We advocate regionalizing our food system and decentralizing agriculture lands, production,and distribution. We encourage public support for producer and consumer cooperatives,community kitchens, Community Supported Agriculture, urban agriculture, and community farms and gardens.

4. We advocate the creation of a Food Policy Council composed of farmers, including small farmers and consumers, to oversee the USDA and all food policies at the local, state, and national level. This council should adjudicate conflicts of interest that arise when industries police themselves.

5. [We support the highest organic standards (California Organic Certification Standards, for example).] We advocate shifting price supports and government subsidies to [organic] REGENERATIVELY PRODUCED food products so that they will be competitive with chemically produced food. We believe that everyone, not just the wealthy, must be able to afford safe and healthy food.

6. We urge the banning of sewage sludge or hazardous wastes as fertilizer, and of irradiation and the use of genetic engineering in all food production.

7. We would phase-out man-made pesticides and artificial fertilizers IN FAVOR OF Integrated Pest Management techniques AS PART OF A REGENERATIVE APPROACH TO BIODIVERSITY IN THE RURAL ECOSYSTEM [as an alternative to chemical-basedagriculture].

8. Food prices ought to reflect the true cost of food, including the health effects of eating processed foods, antibiotic resistance, pesticide effects on growers and consumers, soil erosion, water pollution, pesticide drift, and air pollution. Indirect costs (loss of rural communities, a heavily subsidized transportation system, cost of the military necessary to defend cheap oil, and reduced security), though more difficult to calculate, should be factored into the cost of our highly centralized food system.

9. World hunger can best be addressed by food security—being self-sufficient for basic needs. Overpopulation is largely a consequence, not simply a cause, of poverty and environmental destruction, and all remedial actions must address living standards and food security through sustainable production.

10. Because of the tremendous amount of energy used in agriculture, we support farm subsidies to encourage the transition from dirty fuels to REGENERATIVE, NO-TILL PRACTICES THAT USE clean renewable energy as one of the most effective ways to move our country to a sustainable future.

[11. We support legislation that provides energy and fuel conservation through rotational grazing, cover-crop rotations, nitrogen-fixing systems, and fuel-free, clean renewable energy development on the farm.] (REDUNDANT)

12. We encourage states to promote net-metering to make decentralized energy production economically viable, WITH SUBSIDIES TO FARM OPERATIONS TRANSITIONING FROM FOSSIL FUELS TO RENEWABLE ENERGY.

13. Animal farming must be practiced in ethically and environmentally sustainable ways. We support a rapid phase out of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) AND A COMPLETE TRANSITION TO AN INTEGRATED, REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE APPROACH TO THE CULTIVATION, TREATMENT, AND USE OF LIVESTOCK, not only [because of their adverse impact on the environment] FOR ENVIRONMENTAL REASONS, but also FOR THE SAKE OF [on] food safety (e.g. disease epidemics), public health, and animal protection.

14. Applying the Precautionary Principle to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we support a moratorium until safety can be demonstrated by independent (non-corporate funded), long-term tests for food safety, genetic drift, resistance, soil health, effects on non-target organisms, and cumulative interactions.

Most importantly, we support the growing international demand to eliminate patent rights for genetic material, life forms, gene-splicing techniques, and bio-chemicals derived from them. This position is defined by the Treaty to Share the Genetic Commons, which is available through the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The implications of corporate takeover and the resulting monopolization of genetic intellectual property by the bioengineering industry are immense.

15. We support mandatory, full-disclosure food and fiber labeling. A consumer has the right to know the contents in their food and fiber, how they were produced, and where they come from.

Labels should address the presence of GMOs, use of irradiation, pesticide application (in production, transport, storage, and retail), WHETHER ORGANIC STANDARDS WERE MET, WHETHER REGENERATIVE METHODS WERE EMPLOYED IN CULTIVATION, and the country of origin.

16. We support the restoration of farmlands to black families who have been discriminated against and who have lost, or are about to lose, their farms as a result. Greens will work for a meaningful remedy to restore black farmers’ unencumbered ownership of their land.