Hope for the Future: How Farmers Can Reverse Climate Change¹

1 This is an edited and revised transcript of the author's presentation to the Center for Global Justice, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, on March 30, 2016.

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Notes

1 This is an edited and revised transcript of the author's presentation to the Center for Global Justice, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, on March 30, 2016.

2 See http://www.globaljusticecenter.org/

3 Defined below.

4 For more information on agricultural emissions and sinks, including US-specific data, please see: https://www3.epa.gov/climatechange/ghgemissions/sources/agriculture.html

5 Regeneration International (RI), founded in June 2015, is an online and grassroots non-profit organization working to educate, unify and mobilize the food, farm, climate, natural health, environment, and economic justice movements around agriculture-based solutions to the world's climate, hunger and environmental crises. Through our global network, we are connected to 3.5 million consumers, farmers, activists, scientists and policy makers in over 60 countries. Our mission is to build a global network of farmers, scientists, businesses, activists, educators, journalists, policymakers and consumers who will promote and put into practice regenerative agriculture and land-use practices that: provide abundant, nutritious food; revitalize local economies; regenerate soil fertility and water-retention capacity; nurture biodiversity; and restore climate stability by reducing agricultural greenhouse gas emissions while at the same time drawing down excess atmospheric carbon and sequestering it in the soil.

6 Jack Kitteridge, “Soil Carbon Restoration: Can Biology do the Job?” Northeast Organic Farming Association (2105): http://www.nofamass.org/sites/default/files/2015_White_Paper_web.pdf

7 On Industrial vs. Regenerative Agriculture see: http://blogs.worldwatch.org/nourishingtheplanet/feeding-the-world-sustainably-agroecology-vs-industrial-agriculture/; also Kristin Ohlson, The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet (2014): http://www.kristinohlson.com/books/soil-will-save-us

8 On the relative productivity of organic systems, see the Rodale Institute's Farming Systems Trial (FST)®; it is America's longest running, side-by-side comparison of organic and chemical agriculture. http://rodaleinstitute.org/the-strength-to-feed-the-world/.

9 See the Institute's website: https://landinstitute.org

10 See the Marin Carbon Project, http://www.marincarbonproject.org/science/land-management-carbon-sequestration

11 Courtney White, “On pasture cropping, Pasture Cropping: A Regenerative Solution from Down Under,” in Solutions. 4:1, February 2013: http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/node/1261

12 Laura Lengnick, Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate. (Gabriola Island, British Columbia: New Society Publishers, 2015).

13 For more information on the initiative, see its website, http://4p1000.org/understand.

14 According to an argument advanced by the Heritage Foundation and other critics of the farm bill, US farm policy “is based on the premise that a surplus of crops has lowered crop prices too far and farmers need subsidies to recover lost income. However, the federal government's remedy is to offer subsidies that increase as a farmer plants more crops. This creates greater crop surpluses, driving prices down even further and spurring demands for even greater subsidies.” See Brian M. Riedl, “Top 10 Reasons to Veto the Farm Bill” Heritage Foundation, 2002: http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2002/04/top-10-reasons-to-veto-the-farm-bill. Farm policy that encourages overproduction has the effect of increasing total use of pesticides and fertilizers and contributes to declines in grassland ecosystems and many bird and other wildlife species that depend on them. See Organic Consumers Association, “About Current Farm Subsidies.” https://www.organicconsumers.org/old_articles/ofgu/subsidies.htm.

15 Here are the Regeneration International internet-based presences – Website: http://regenerationinternational.org/about/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/regenerationinternational/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/regeneration_in YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCajLWugPaJVzqnfC87tXHYg

16 The radio program can be found online at: http://viaorganica.org/radio/