Republicans are very skilled at ringing bells to elicit response in their supporters without overtly crossing the boundaries of decency.
Conditioned responses are powerful tools for manipulation. We laugh when the current White House resident mentions Hilary Clinton long after the 2016 election; however, he knows that her name is a bell which when rung gives his supporters a place for their rage. They love him for that.
In a similar fashion, the words ‘Climate Change’ elicit a conditioned response. The fossil fuel industry spent big to foster doubt about the science, punch down any media that dared to tie extreme weather to climate change, and demand that they present “both sides”. Climate Change was weaponized as a partisan belief. “Climate Change” was a hoax.
However now that the truth of our altered climate turns corn fields into lakes, it is hard to continue to deny that the predictable weather we have grown crops by is gone. We have crossed a line into a time of “extreme weather”.
The video below is a CBSN documentary by Adam Yamaguchi which features two Nebraskan farmers with deep attachments to their land who have taken different approaches in order to preserve their generational legacies during this time of extreme weather. (It is about 24 minutes long and is very well done, giving you a good sense of how things stand in our croplands and the impact on farming families.)
A Climate Reckoning in the Heartland
When bad things happen to people, it is never a good time to say I-told-you-so. Conditioned emotional responses are difficult enough to overcome without someone mocking you. In this video, the first farmer makes this statement about the series of extreme weather the region has faced this past Spring:
I think there is something changing, whether it’s warming or what that is, I don’t know.
~ Brett Adams, fifth generation Nebraskan farmer
The 2,341 mile Missouri River flowing through Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri overcame levees which had held for seventy years. Brett Adams estimates that 3,200 acres on his 4,000 acre farm remain under water. Farming has always been risky; however, dependable weather patterns that made it a workable bet are gone. He has difficulty even estimating how big his loss is in the face of future uncertainty.
Farmers describe themselves in this video as having their ‘backs against the wall’. Like Brett Adams, they may hesitate to call it “climate change”; however, farmers deal in the real world and know that they must change. They do not need I-told-you-so. They need help.
Now can be a very good time to present plans to realistically help these farmers while the current White House regime sacrifices them on the altar of international tariffs and climate incompetence. Democrats can offer more than welfare handouts; Democrats can offer actual help in plans that are workable.
When Governor Jay Inslee withdrew from the presidential campaign, he left behind his governance plans for anyone to adopt. Below is my truncated summary of one section out of four in Inslee’s Growing Rural Prosperity plan.
Governor Inslee’s plan calls for creating new revenue streams to compensate producers for building ecosystems services, especially in the removal of carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in soil and forests. These investments in rural communities and a healthy climate create both economic opportunity and environmental protection through:
- increasing crop productivity, drought and flood resilience, stormwater retention, water filtration, air quality, and preservation of pollinators, and other biodiversity.
- Creating new markets for products including: sequestered carbon, manure, municipal food waste, methane capture, low-carbon biofuels, and other bio-based materials for buildings.
These initiatives will need to be scaled up rapidly by using successful existing federal programs in addition to new investments and programs such as:
In Iowa, the state Department of Agriculture & Land Stewardship offers cost-sharing and discounted crop insurance for farmers who adopt no-till, strip-till, and nitrogen inhibitor farming practices, and deploy the use of cover crops;
In New Mexico, Nebraska, and New York, educational and grant programs are being used to enhance existing Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) soil conservation practices; and;
Public policies are enhancing support for on-farm fertility through compost production, reintroduction of animals in crop systems, and rotational grazing in rangeland systems. Successful state programs need to be adopted nationally to support agriculture and defeat climate change.
Carbon Farming: Paying farmers for environmental services
Treat sequestered carbon as a new and profitable crop, and reward farmers (large and small) who choose to support photosynthetic soil carbon capture and storage, or “carbon farming.”
This Plan will build upon and expand existing programs and initiatives that fairly compensate farmers for advanced soil and farming conservation practices and the ecosystem services they provide, including:
- conservation tillage, diverse cover crops, and crop and grazing rotations — proven to increase soil-carbon from 1-2% to 5-8% over 5-10 years, allowing for the drawdown of as much as 25-60 tons of carbon emissions per acre;
- preservation of marginal cropland as grass- and forest-lands;
- action on other agricultural emissions – notably nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas 250 times more potent than carbon, which accounts for more than 50% of U.S. cropland greenhouse gas emissions;
- promote policies that reduce the use of petrochemical fertilizers and pesticides, and protect pollinators – which are crucial to sustaining and rebuilding healthy soils and ecosystems;
- take a holistic approach to environmental services, including water quality management throughout river basins, and appropriate payments for on-farm nutrient and waste management; and
- restore data and science within the USDA to arm farmers with baseline data on life-cycle carbon impacts and environmental impacts from different crops and cropping techniques, as well as best-practices, and access to necessary technologies.
This plan supports a number of initiatives to support carbon removal and ecosystem services:
- Paying farmers for carbon farming, with performance-based payments for on-farm carbon removal.
- developing metrics to certify the increase in soil carbon resulting from different carbon farming practices, by swiftly expanding, accelerating, and implementing Soil Health Demonstration Projects authorized in the 2018 Farm Bill, and
- utilizing data from successful initiatives like the California Low-Carbon Fuel Standard and the USDA COMET-Farm program. Then by determining the appropriate conservation practices and their climate benefit-value, and establishing payment systems and programs that reward producers who are storing carbon in their landscapes; and
- include tapping into existing USDA programs such as the Commodity Credit Corporation and those of the Farm Service Agency (FSA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and in the establishment of a permanent, sustained source of revenue for America’s farmers growing climate solutions.
- Ensuring a climate-smart crop insurance program, which currently backs more than 80% of all major U.S. field crops, at a price tag of $9 billion annually, but does not account for the largest risk to America’s working lands: climate change.
- Key reforms are needed to protect farms, taxpayers, and the climate:
- the USDA Risk Management Agency, which runs the crop insurance program, will form new partnerships with regional USDA climate hubs, state universities, and land-grant colleges to implement reforms to account for climate risk in its actuarial tables, thereby incentivizing soil health and other conservation practices and guarding America’s farmers and its food supplies against future floods, drought, and extreme weather events;
- for those producers who are implementing conservation practices on their land, the cost of crop insurance will be discounted because their risk is lower. By accurately accounting for climate change in the crop insurance programs and rewarding producers who are working to decrease their risk through building soil health and storing more carbon in the land, taxpayers will save money over the long term as more producers are incentivized to harness the power of their land as a natural defense system against the worst impacts of climate change.
- Tripling funding for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP),
- Increase to $3 billion per year, and building upon the 2018 Farm Bill which for the first time provided a general directive for the CSP to focus on soil health, and authorized soil planning and climate mitigation as activities eligible for payments from the program.
- The 2018 Farm Bill also increased incentives for crop rotation, cover cropping, and rotational grazing – all crucial strategies for soil health, carbon removal, and environmental conservation. (Both the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bills cut funding for the CSP, which must be restored and then significantly increased.)
- Expanding other successful USDA conservation programs,
- Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) provides investment in farm conservation, including in preservation of marginal agricultural land as forests and habitat, and it should extend payments to cover preservation of marginal pasture land and the deployment of forested buffers separating livestock and streams, as well as ensure full consideration of climate benefits in providing adequate payments to farmers.
- the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) The 2018 Farm Bill empowered the EQIP to invest in soil health testing and demonstration projects, and
- Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), and increasing their focus on climate-smart agricultural and land-use practices.
- Extending USDA conservation compliance measures to cover soil health improvements.
- expand Farm Services Agency (FSA) and Natural Resources Conservation Service (NCRS) programs that work to prevent soil erosion and promote wetland protection, to ensure that they also support on-farm improvements for soil health and water quality in farms’ conservation plans.
- Agricultural producers currently adhere to certain conservation compliance measures as part of programs that invest over $20 billion annually into America’s working lands. This program change will further promote carbon sequestration and healthy soils.
- Launching a targeted new Nitrous Oxide Management Strategy for nutrient management, starting with at least 5 million new acres of cropland each year, and increasing over time.
- The NRCS will provide technical assistance to expand implementation of its Conservation Practice Standards for Nutrient Management, in strategies that reduce use of chemical fertilizers, and in the widespread adoption of the “4Rs” for nitrogen utilization — right source, right rate, right time, and right place.
- This program will work to directly combat the dangerous and harmful algal blooms that are appearing with increasing frequency and severity along the Gulf coast and can be traced back to increased levels of agricultural runoff, specifically nitrous oxide, as more fertilizers flow from farms downstream through America’s waterways.
- Building public-private waste management partnerships for better soil. The EPA’s Sustainable Materials Management program already fosters partnership opportunities to reduce food waste in corporate supply chains as well as in federal agency operations.
- An Inslee plan EPA Climate Protection Partnerships Division will support the development of public-private partnerships to turn organic food waste into healthy soil amendments.
- Expanding the federal “sodsaver” policy to preserve grasslands nation-wide. This provision is currently implemented in the Northern Plains states to prohibit federal investment in carbon-intensive conversion of native grasslands into cropland.
- Expanding staff capacity at the NRCS by nearly 3 times, from 12,000 to over 30,000, to enhance on-the-ground support farmers and rural communities chart their own path for sustainable livelihoods and climate solutions.
- The NRCS is a successful trusted federal program that partners with farmers and conservation districts in nearly every county in America; it’s only limitation has been staff capacity.
- NRCS will work with farmers and rural communities to develop on-farm climate solutions and build local, bottom-up strategies and partnerships – including through Energy Districts proposed in Inslee’s Evergreen Economy plan – for rural prosperity in America’s clean energy economy.
Capturing animal waste for climate, farm & energy benefits
Alongside carbon removal, farmers and ranchers can provide an enormous climate benefit in capturing methane emissions from cattle, swine, and other livestock operations – and should make money in new markets in doing so.
Agricultural producers will be increasingly rewarded for their methane removal practices, as another highly valuable ecosystem service, through rotational grazing, improved management of feedstocks, animal waste, and the deployment of anaerobic digesters and other strategies.
Governor Inslee’s Evergreen Economy plan calls for supporting the deployment of biogas methane capture and utilization technology in wastewater treatment, livestock operations, and compost facilities. Governor Inslee’s plan includes:
- Rewarding the climate benefit of methane capture. Establishing payment systems through existing USDA programs that compensate farmers and ranchers for methane capture, similar to payments for carbon removal.
- Promoting multi-strategy methane capture. Providing federal support and USDA technical assistance for various methane removal and management practices, including rotational-grazing — which can reduce farm emissions by at least 19% in the first year, and more over time. Plus other strategies like conversion to dry scrape, composting digestate, innovations in animal feed, enhanced solid separation, thermochemical conversion, and more. The EQIP, Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), Agricultural Extension Services, and other USDA programs can be used to support these activities.
- Deploying anaerobic digesters. Investing directly, through these same federal programs, in the deployment of anaerobic digesters to capture methane from livestock operations, for use in on-site energy generation or in reuse as a biogas replacement for fracked gas, for energy and industry and in the production of co-products.
- direct federal agencies to work to streamline federal, state and local permitting in the deployment of these technologies.
“ARPA-Ag” & innovative agriculture
American agriculture has long been a world leader in innovating scaled efficiency in food production and this leadership is needed now more than ever in the 21st century. The treatment of lands and soils will increasingly become central to restoring a carbon balance to the planet’s atmosphere because climate stabilization requires that all carbon emissions – both natural and human-caused – are balanced by carbon storage, including through an increase in the fertility and productive capacity of both cultivated and wild lands. That places farming communities and agricultural workers at the epicenter, once again, of America’s economic promise. Under Governor Inslee’s research and development (R&D) agenda, America’s farmers will do what they have always done: provide food, fuel, and fiber to a thriving global economy.
Two key initiatives will be central to this task, and were first outlined in Inslee’s Evergreen Economy plan: Advanced Research Projects Agency — Agriculture (ARPA-Ag), and the addition of innovation to the practice of Agricultural Extension Services and land-grant colleges to promote sustainable economic development in rural America through research, development and deployment in the following programs:
- Launching ARPA-Ag. Building on the success of the U.S. Department of Defense’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) – which incubated the invention of supercomputers and the internet – and the subsequent scaling of ARPA-E at the DOE, it is time to bring systematic government research and deployment to rural America by launching ARPA-Ag to promote innovation and advanced research in farming and agriculture.
- This program will research crops and farming practices that maximize the potential to provide long-term natural carbon storage that makes a lasting contribution to cleaning the atmosphere. ARPA-Ag’s mission will also include harnessing the promise of bio-energy in deployment of farm-based district energy services and new zero-net energy and zero-water waste agricultural practices. Inslee will invest in the research and development of new systems that allow these farmers, who are large consumers of energy in pumping and moving water through agricultural equipment, to become hubs of locally generated distributed energy from solar, wind, farm waste and plant matter.
- Expanding Agricultural Extension Services and land-grant colleges to further promote agricultural innovation
- At least tripling annual federal agricultural R&D investment, and directing research into sustainable, organic, and regenerative agriculture practices and crops. This includes investment in ARPA-Ag and Agricultural Extensions Services, along with investments in other USDA programs and other federal departments engaged in farm and forest research and innovation.
- Investing in science to prepare rural communities and farmers for climate change,
- directing the USDA to adopt comprehensive five- and ten-year plans focused on climate change, food supplies, and the related global challenges, and expanding investment in USDA’s regional Climate Hubs.
- increase federal support for state-led climate science and impacts research teams, often housed at state research institutions which inform service and federal policy recommendations as part of President Obama’s State, Local & Tribal Leaders Task Force on Climate Resilience & Preparedness.
- Developing markets for low-carbon, renewable bio-materials. The Inslee Administration will pursue policies, such as expanding the work of the EPA Sustainable Materials Management Program and establishing a low-carbon or renewable materials standard to create a strong market signal to trigger investment into existing technologies that convert bio-materials into modern products.
- Farms can be sources of renewable materials. In many instances, the pound for pound value of materials, such as carbon fiber, is much higher than renewable fuels, so the incremental increase of costs associated with renewable feedstocks versus fossil fuels is much more within reach.
- Industrial plastics and materials manufacturing already accounts for an estimated 3.3 billion equivalent metric tons of carbon pollution per year, and is projected to occupy up to 20% of the global carbon budget by 2050. And every year approximately 8 million tons of plastic waste are dumped into the oceans from coastal nations. Any comprehensive climate plan must reduce the use and target the decarbonization of these materials. And the good news is that American industries can build more sustainable materials, using sustainable bio-products and sequestered carbon materials, with opportunities for negative emissions while helping to grow rural and agriculture jobs.
Growing clean renewable fuels
Transportation is the largest single source of American greenhouse gas pollution. As such, each transportation fuel and mode should be scrutinized for their contribution to the climate crisis, and in the pursuit of alternatives that can help avoid climate change’s worst impacts. Governor Inslee’s 100% Clean Energy for America and Evergreen Economy plans lay out ambitious but achievable timetables for the transition to zero-emission vehicle fleets, as well as investment in public transit and other low-carbon transportation. They also lay out new requirements for cleaner fuels and investments to empower America’s farmers to help achieve the lowest-carbon alternatives — in particular for existing vehicles, heavy-duty vehicles, aviation, and more.
The next president will have significant influence over federal biofuels policy, especially as the Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) reaches a key moment in 2022 after which the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and White House assume discretion over setting the law’s volumetric requirements for different fuels.
In building America’s clean energy future, biofuels have helped drive the effort to develop alternative transportation fuels that will break Big Oil’s stranglehold on the political system, but not all biofuels have yet provided a significant climate benefit. Biofuels are clearly a part of America's clean energy future — as well as a home-grown source of fuel and job creation — and more policy action and research investment is necessary to develop their fullest potential. Governor Inslee supports the development of advanced, low-carbon biofuels that transport Americans and support farmers:
- Putting farmers over Big Oil.
- Immediately halting and reversing the Trump Administration’s rampant practice of granting unwarranted Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS) waivers to oil refineries and undermining American farmers and home-grown fuels in favor of Big Oil’s profits.
- In August 2019, the Trump White House and EPA announced special exemptions from federal fuels requirements for 31 different oil refineries, which renewable fuels advocates called “devastating” for Iowa farmers.
- Creating a Clean & Renewable Fuels Standard (CRFS).
- Using existing federal authorities to transform the post-2022 RFS into a Clean & Renewable Fuels Standard (CRFS) that promotes low-carbon biofuels and more low- and zero-carbon alternative fuels, including electricity, that reduce climate pollution from vehicles in the transportation sector, providing aggressive, continuous improvement in carbon performance of covered fuels.
- Developing advanced low-carbon fuels. Investing in research, development, demonstration, and deployment of advanced, low-carbon renewable fuels, including via a new ARPA-Ag program, USDA Agricultural Extension Services, and in partnerships with the private sector and with state research institutions like Washington State University and Iowa State University.
- Using federal purchasing power for clean fuels. Directing the USDA, Department of Defense (DOD), and other federal agencies to procure increasing levels of advanced low-carbon renewable fuels, including through authorities granted to the president through the Defense Production Act.
Keeping Farmers Farming
Today the combination of economic structures built to benefit large corporations, the Trump administration’s chaotic agriculture and trade policies, and increasingly costly disasters have altogether stacked the deck against American farmers.
Trump’s trade agenda has created costs where export sales and new market opportunities once existed. The rise of enormous agribusinesses in particular, has squeezed small family farms to the point of breaking. These large businesses, which have grown in size as they have merged vertically and horizontally, can now effectively set prices and control entire swaths of America’s agriculture sector.
We must simultaneously address the fact that farmers of color have experienced a legacy of discrimination and land left. And new farmers struggle to find the capital or land to even begin. Meanwhile, many farmers and farm workers find themselves under attack from the Trump administration’s anti-immigrant policies and its racist tweets.
Last year U.S. farm income hit a 12-year low, and earlier this year farm loan delinquencies reached the highest point since the start of this decade. Governor Inslee is committed to reversing each of these troubling trends – to ending Trump’s chaos governance, to supporting farmers and farm workers, and to stopping large agribusinesses from taking advantage of America’s rural communities.
Supporting prosperity and resilience for America’s family farms
The Trump administration’s disastrous trade and agricultural agenda is squeezing farmers and rural working families in real time. Earlier this year the economic pain from these policies has already grown so severe that the Trump USDA has been forced to put together $16 billion in federal funding to bail out farmers from a trade fiasco of the administration’s own making. But farmers don’t want bailouts, they want to be able to sell their crops that feed the world, and not lose out on international market shares that they have spent decades building.
Farmers are also getting hammered by corporations: Profits from today’s agricultural industry are consolidated in large agribusinesses, which have grown their market power both horizontally and vertically, and often now act as a monopsony – meaning that they exert total control in their market by holding all of the purchasing power, in the same way that a monopoly businesses holds all of the selling power. Just 5% of U.S. agricultural operations conducted 75% of sales in 2017. This has left small family farms to pay the bills and hold all the risk. Donald Trump’s agriculture policies have strengthened big agricultural corporations and emboldened them to squeeze family farmers.
As president, Jay Inslee will reverse this trend by confronting mergers, consolidations, and practices that have led to agricultural monopsony, and instead pioneer an agriculture policy that supports the producers who have underpinned America’s food system and rural economies. He will also end Trump’s attack on the USDA, and will reinvest in the federal programs that can sustain prosperity for agricultural and rural communities. The Inslee Administration will be committed to moving the burden off America’s small farms and rebalancing the scales to build wealth in rural economies, while harnessing the power of working lands to build healthy soils and fight climate change. This includes:
- Ending Trump’s disastrous anti-agriculture trade agenda based on the president’s childlike fits and playground taunts. Rather than throwing tariffs at nations in fits of rage, the Inslee Administration will engage in thoughtful trade relationships that empower producers to sell to burgeoning overseas markets, while also getting tough with trade partners to protect American businesses – from dairy and beef, to apples, potatoes, and wine, to wheat and softwood lumber. The Inslee administration will rebuild a stable, long-term agricultural trading partners by increasing investment in the USDA Market Access Program to provide new resources to help American farmers bring their crops to market. Also, in his Global Climate Mobilization plan Governor Inslee has proposed using U.S. trade agreements and relationships to accelerate climate solutions throughout the globe – which must include more sustainable agricultural practices at home, and drive more sustainable agriculture and forestry practices abroad.
- Protecting against agribusiness consolidation, by appointing Federal Trade Commission (FTC) commissioners who will aggressively enforce America’s antitrust laws and use them to protect family farms against irresponsible vertical and horizontal integration in the agriculture industry. Inslee will further work with Congress to update antitrust laws, and empower the Department of Justice (DOJ) to better protect against anti-competitive behavior in agricultural industries.
- Reinvesting in farm, climate, and weather data and planning, by repairing the significant damage that the Trump White House has done to USDA programs, such as his efforts to “cut and relocate and eviscerate” the Economic Research Service, and by reinvigorating and expanding regional Climate Hubs state and local agricultural data and planning programs.
- Investing in Americans food security and supporting family growers, through existing federal programs like those supporting specialty crops and precision agriculture, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which helps more than 45 million low-income Americans with monthly benefits that can be used to purchase most foods and beverages — dollars that flow into supporting America’s farming communities in all 50 states.
- Helping farmers grow climate-smart products, by instructing USDA’s Food and Nutrition Service to update the 5-year Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the MyPlate Plan to include the carbon footprint of recommended foods and food groups. In the same way American’s are conscious of the caloric value of the food they put into their bodies, they should also be aware of the environmental impact of their consumption. Producers who employ conservation practices on their land will see the carbon footprint of their products decrease, which will be reflected in USDA Food and Nutrition Services materials.
- Building drought-resilient agricultural economies, by expanding investment in and focused White House coordination of the National Drought Resilience Partnership and related federal agency programs — including those at the EPA, Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS). These agencies host programs focused on water use efficiency, aquifer recharging, water reuse, community response and recovery, and related drought-resilience initiatives.
- Giving farmers the Right to Repair their own on-farm equipment. Corporations currently force farmers to use authorized agents to repair machinery and other equipment on their own farms. The Inslee administration will support action at the FTC to ensure farmers have control, and easily accessible know-how, to swiftly and cost-effectively repair their own equipment.
Protecting farm workers’ rights & health from climate change
A robust agricultural economy must include new policies to support farm workers. For decades, farm workers have been left vulnerable – they have no right to join a union and few worker protections despite the fact they work long hours, doing physically demanding work, in extreme conditions. As temperatures around the globe rise, climate change adds new threats to the health of the farm workers who spend long days outside in hot, humid conditions.
President Trump’s attacks on immigrants and America’s immigration system threaten the livelihoods of farmers across the country. The rural economy depends on an immigration system that is safe, fair, transparent, and reliable.
Actions needed:
- Protecting farm workers from the impacts of climate change. Agriculture, fishing, forestry, and hunting sectors accounted for nearly 20% of all heat-related deaths reported to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) – a number that has risen over time and will only continue to rise as extreme heat becomes more common. The next president needs to direct the OSHA to be responsive to a petition for the “first federal standard that would protect outdoor and indoor U.S. workers from occupational exposure to excessive heat.” Governor Inslee will also work with Congress to pass the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act, introduced by U.S. Reps. Judy Chu and Raul Grijalva, to make sure workers are trained to deal with heat exposure, have access to safe water and can take breaks to protect themselves.
- Leading immigration reforms to support farm workers. Rejecting the racist, anti-immigrant policies of the Trump administration and working with agricultural leaders to develop strong systems for safe and respectful agricultural immigration, including:
- undoing Trump’s proposed changes to the H2-A Visa,
- lifting caps on immigration, and repealing his discriminatory Public Charge rule. Governor Inslee’s America’s Promise plan outlines his commitment to just, efficient and humane immigration reform, including
- reforming the visa system so that it is sustainable and predictable;
- puts into place flexible caps based on labor market conditions,
- reduces or eliminates backlogs;
- strengthens the family visa system and diversity visa lottery to promote family reunification as well as
- visa systems for victims of trafficking and violence.
- convene a task force of all parties impacted by the H-2A guest worker visa program, led by representatives of agriculture workers and industry, to design reforms that meet the needs of both growers and farmers as well as the immigrant workers deserving of fair wages and strong labor protections.
- Expanded funding and visas approvals would be conditioned upon strong certification of compliance with requirements to verify an absence of qualified domestic labor or evasion of labor and wage law.
- Protecting farm workers’ rights and allowing farm workers to organize and join a union.
- prioritize the protection of farmworkers’ rights, including the addition of farm workers to the National Labor Relations (NLRA) so that they have the right to join a union and organize for pay benefits and federal labor protections.
- heavily restrict “no-poach” and “no-compete” agreements that limit a worker’s ability to move across jobs and seek better wages.
- Committing federal resources and strengthening laws to stop wage theft. Wage theft runs rampant in the industries that employ many immigrants.
- invest new funding in wage theft enforcement, incentivize co-enforcement with labor unions and community organizations, and
- prevent employers from receiving federal contracts and federal procurement if they have unresolved cases or aggravated histories of wage theft.
- work with Congress to:
- mandate pay transparency so workers can calculate their own pay;
- lift the statute of limitations on recovering stolen pay;
- protect wage theft whistleblowers from retaliation; and
- create stiff new penalties for employers who repeatedly violate the law.
Helping diverse, beginning, women & young farmers succeed
Although America continues to become a more racially diverse nation, its agricultural sector is overwhelmingly white – in fact more so than at past times in history. It has been documented that farmers of color have less access to federal agricultural programs – due in part to structural discrimination. Farmers of color have been subjected to a history of land-theft and displacement. Between 1910 and 1997, an estimated America’s Black farmers lost about 90 percent of their farmland, worth hundreds of billions of dollars. We cannot strengthen the agricultural sector without confronting this legacy, because a food and agricultural system that is not equitable, just, and inclusive by definition is not sustainable.
Two-thirds of all U.S. farmland, over 570 million acres, will need a new farmer in the next 20 years, as older farmers retire. In 2019, America needs a new generation of farmers who will work with their hands to feed the nation, contribute to the economy, and also help feed the world. But making a living on the land is as hard as it's ever been, and new and young farmers are having a hard time getting started. Finding affordable land is regularly cited as the biggest challenge for new and young farmers – as well as the main reason why farmers quit, and why aspiring farmers haven’t yet started. Student loan debt is a significant barrier to success for young farmers; farming and ranching are capital intensive businesses, and when combined with thousands of dollars of student debt, many young farmers are denied the loans they need to start a successful business.
- Leveling the farming field in racial equity. In confronting a legacy of past injustice in rural communities of color, an Inslee administration will work to address institutional discrimination within federal programs, and prioritize the protection farmers’ legal rights.
- Significantly increase USDA outreach and financing programs for underserved communities, including those that support land access, debt relief and refinancing, business planning, and climate resilience.
- These efforts will be informed by Equity Impact Mapping initiative proposed by Gov. Inslee in his Community Climate Justice plan, examining community disparities in economic investment and poverty, pollution, and climate change impacts.
- Breaking down barriers for land access.
- Work with Congress to expand funding for the Beginning Farmer & Rancher Development Program, which funds land-grant colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions and other organizations in providing education, training, outreach and mentoring programs for new farmers and ranchers.
- Recognizing the public service of farming
- Supporting women farmers. Women now make up 36% of American farmers — a percentage that is growing rapidly, and should be supported in federal policy as a crucial part of building the 21st century U.S. agricultural economy.
Blogathon
September 20-27 on DK
September 20 is the launch of an entire week of global climate action. From Friday September 20 to September 27, people of all generations all over the world will be mobilizing.
Here are the dates for the climate strike
https://globalclimatestrike.net/
It has sign ups for strikes all over the world.
