Difference between revisions of "Draft GPUS Platform Amendment Agriculture"

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'''Chapter 3: Ecological Sustainability'''
 
  
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'''H. Agriculture'''
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2010 PLATFORM - DRAFT
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CHAPTER 3: Ecological Sustainability
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H. Agriculture  
  
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'''Our position:''' Food is a necessity and a fundamental human right. All people have a right to adequate, safe, nutritious and high quality food; and those who grow it have a right to a fair return for their labor.  
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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.
  
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Our current food system is dominated by corporate agribusiness and unsustainable practices. Our so-called cheap food comes at the expense of the exploitation of our farmers along with the oppression of people in the developing worlds, inhumane treatment of animals, pollution of air, atmosphere, and water, and degradation of our land. The agricultural system must provide a high quality of life for farmers, nutritious and safe food for consumers, and reward farming methods that drastically reduce greenhouse gases, enhance biodiversity, the quality of water, soil, and air, and the beauty of the landscape. 
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Our current food system is dominated by centralized agribusiness and unsustainable practices that threaten our health, 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 and farmworkers along with the oppression of developing countries, inhumane treatment of animals, pollution of air and water, and degradation of our land.
  
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'''Greens support:'''
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There must be a paradigm shift and a reorganization of our agricultural system with a sense of real sustainability, where culture and ecology redefine the economics and where we create new opportunities by granting local access to safe and nutritious food, as well as farming methods that do not degrade the quality of water, soil, and air.
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'''Expanding organic farming and ranching'''
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Greens support:
  
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'''1.''' We support providing technical and financial assistance to small and medium-sized organic farms and ranches as well as new organic farmers and ranchers.
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Expanding organic farming
  
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'''2.''' We must phase-out the use of chemical pesticides, nitrate fertilizers and sewage sludge or hazardous waste as fertilizer.
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1. We support the highest organic standards and reject the routine use of hormones and antibiotics in animal feed.  
 +
  
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'''3.''' We support a ban on irradiation and genetic engineering in all food production.
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2. We advocate shifting price supports and government subsidies to organic food products so that they will be competitive with chemically-produced food.
  
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'''4.'''We advocate shifting price supports and government subsidies to organic and transition to organic food practices while eliminating subsidies for energy intensive, water intensive, GMO, factory farm and chemically-produced food. 
 
  
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'''Safe, honest, local and organic food for all'''
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3. We call for a phaseout of man-made pesticides and artificial fertilizers, as well as a ban on sewage sludge and hazardous wastes as fertilizers. We promote locally or regionally produced, organic composting systems.
  
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'''1.''' We advocate for the development of local food systems where local farmers and ranchers produce organic foods in sufficient quantities to supply local needs.
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4. We support education that teaches best practices and support for transition to organic farming for our farmers.
  
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'''2.'''We encourage public support for producer and consumer cooperatives, community kitchens, Community Supported Agriculture, urban agriculture, and community farms and gardens.
 
  
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'''3.''' Food prices should reflect the true cost of food, including health effects, environmental damage and indirect costs.
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Safe, local and organic food for all
  
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'''Democratic oversight and consumer power'''
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1. We advocate re-localizing our food system and decentralizing agriculture lands, production, and distribution. We support the creation of land trusts for much of our farmland and encourage public support for producer and consumer cooperatives, community kitchens, Community Supported Agriculture, urban agriculture, and community farms and gardens.
  
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'''1.''' We advocate the creation of a Food Policy Councils composed of farmers, ranchers and consumers, to oversee the USDA and all food
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2. In the interests of ecological sustainability, public health, non-violence and alleviating hunger, we promote the initiation of public education to encourage people to reduce their consumption of animal foods, including information on healthy vegetarian diets.  
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policies at the local, state, and national level. These councils should adjudicate conflicts of interest that arise when industries police
 
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themselves.
 
  
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'''2.''' We support the enforcement of strict organic standards in accordance with the USDA National Organic Program.
 
  
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'''3.''' We support mandatory, full-disclosure food and fiber labeling. A consumer has the right to know the contents in their food and fiber, Labels should indicate the presence of GMOs, grenhouse gas emissions, use of irradiation, pesticide application and the country of origin.
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Democratic oversight and consumer power
  
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'''Biodiversity'''
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1. We support the progressive elimination of all tax-funded corporate subsidies to large agribusiness conglomerates and the redirection of subsidies to small and medium-sized farms that promote local production and sustainable agricultural practices.
  
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'''1.''' We support a moratorium on genetically modified organisms (GMOs) until health and environmental safety can be demonstrated by independent, non-corporate long-term tests for food safety, genetic drift, resistance, soil health, effects on non-target organisms, and cumulative interactions.  
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2. Food prices should reflect the true cost of food production, including the health effects of eating processed foods, antibiotic resistance, pesticide effects on growers and consumers, soil erosion, water pollution, pesticide drift, air pollution and the vast inefficiency and ecological footprint involved in the production of animal foods.  
  
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'''2.''' We support the elimination of patent rights for genetic material, lifeforms, gene-splicing techniques, and biochemicals derived from them.
+
3. We support mandatory, full-disclosure of food and fiber labeling, including products stamped “inspected” by the USDA. Consumers have the right to know the contents of their food and fiber, how they were produced, and where they originated. Labels should address the presence of GMOs, use of irradiation, pesticide application (in production, transport, storage, and retail), and the country of origin.
  
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'''3.''' Animal farming must be practiced in ethically and environmentally sustainable ways. We need to rapidly phase out the use of confined animal
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4. We call for government–funded agricultural research to be redirected to plant-based practices that produce food for direct human consumption.  
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feeding operations and factory farms, which not only produce unhealthy, contaminated food, but emit tremendous mounts of methane gas, a potent
 
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climate destabilizing greenhouse gas.
 
  
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We support transitioning from chemical, water, and energy-intensive industrial agriculture practices to organic farming and ranching on the world’s 3.5 billion acres of farmland and 8.2 billion acres of pasture or rangeland can sequester 7,000 pounds per
 
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acre of climate-destabilizing CO2 every year, while nurturing healthy soils,
 
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plants, grasses, and trees that are resistant to drought, heavy rain, pests,
 
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and disease.  In 2006, U.S. carbon dioxide pollution from fossil fuels (approximately 25%
 
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of the world’s total) was estimated at nearly 6.5 billion tons. If a 7,000
 
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lb/CO2/ac/year sequestration rate were achieved on all 434 million acres of
 
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cropland in the United States, nearly 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide
 
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would be sequestered per year, mitigating close to one quarter of the
 
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country’s total fossil fuel emissions. If pastures and rangelands were
 
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similarly converted to organic practices, we would literally be well on our
 
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way to reversing global warming.
 
  
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We support legislation that sequesters greenhouse gases, provides
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Biodiversity and the Environment
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energy and fuel conservation through rotational grazing, cover-crop
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rotations, nitrogen-fixing systems, and fuel-free, clean renewable energy
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1. We promote the restoration of formerly traditional food crops, as well as innovative farm production methods, such as permaculture, polyculture and terra preta.
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development on the farm.
+
 
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2. Applying the Precautionary Principle to irradiated food and 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. We support the growing international demand to eliminate patent rights for genetic material, lifeforms, gene-splicing techniques, and biochemicals derived from them.
 +
 
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3. According to the United Nations’ Livestock’s Long Shadow report, 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. Thus, 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.
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4. We support the elimination of public subsidies to finance livestock grazing permits on public lands.
 +
 
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5. We promote the widespread growth and use of hemp for industrial purposes. Properly grown hemp has virtually no psychoactive effects when consumed. With a relatively short growth cycle, hemp is an efficient and economically sustainable crop for farmers to grow.

Revision as of 18:58, 17 March 2010

2010 PLATFORM - DRAFT CHAPTER 3: Ecological Sustainability H. Agriculture

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 health, 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 and farmworkers along with the oppression of developing countries, inhumane treatment of animals, pollution of air and water, and degradation of our land.

There must be a paradigm shift and a reorganization of our agricultural system with a sense of real sustainability, where culture and ecology redefine the economics and where we create new opportunities by granting local access to safe and nutritious food, as well as farming methods that do not degrade the quality of water, soil, and air.


Greens support:

Expanding organic farming

1. We support the highest organic standards and reject the routine use of hormones and antibiotics in animal feed.


2. We advocate shifting price supports and government subsidies to organic food products so that they will be competitive with chemically-produced food.


3. We call for a phaseout of man-made pesticides and artificial fertilizers, as well as a ban on sewage sludge and hazardous wastes as fertilizers. We promote locally or regionally produced, organic composting systems.

4. We support education that teaches best practices and support for transition to organic farming for our farmers.


Safe, local and organic food for all

1. We advocate re-localizing our food system and decentralizing agriculture lands, production, and distribution. We support the creation of land trusts for much of our farmland and encourage public support for producer and consumer cooperatives, community kitchens, Community Supported Agriculture, urban agriculture, and community farms and gardens.

2. In the interests of ecological sustainability, public health, non-violence and alleviating hunger, we promote the initiation of public education to encourage people to reduce their consumption of animal foods, including information on healthy vegetarian diets.


Democratic oversight and consumer power

1. We support the progressive elimination of all tax-funded corporate subsidies to large agribusiness conglomerates and the redirection of subsidies to small and medium-sized farms that promote local production and sustainable agricultural practices.

2. Food prices should reflect the true cost of food production, including the health effects of eating processed foods, antibiotic resistance, pesticide effects on growers and consumers, soil erosion, water pollution, pesticide drift, air pollution and the vast inefficiency and ecological footprint involved in the production of animal foods.

3. We support mandatory, full-disclosure of food and fiber labeling, including products stamped “inspected” by the USDA. Consumers have the right to know the contents of their food and fiber, how they were produced, and where they originated. Labels should address the presence of GMOs, use of irradiation, pesticide application (in production, transport, storage, and retail), and the country of origin.

4. We call for government–funded agricultural research to be redirected to plant-based practices that produce food for direct human consumption.


Biodiversity and the Environment

1. We promote the restoration of formerly traditional food crops, as well as innovative farm production methods, such as permaculture, polyculture and terra preta.

2. Applying the Precautionary Principle to irradiated food and 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. We support the growing international demand to eliminate patent rights for genetic material, lifeforms, gene-splicing techniques, and biochemicals derived from them.

3. According to the United Nations’ Livestock’s Long Shadow report, 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. Thus, 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.

4. We support the elimination of public subsidies to finance livestock grazing permits on public lands.

5. We promote the widespread growth and use of hemp for industrial purposes. Properly grown hemp has virtually no psychoactive effects when consumed. With a relatively short growth cycle, hemp is an efficient and economically sustainable crop for farmers to grow.

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