From Interfaith Power and Light (http://interfaithpowerandlight.org):
Join us in urging Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to prioritize USDA resources for those farmers who need them most and can transition the quickest to climate-friendly farming.
Sign the petition at https://interfaithpowerandlight.salsalabs.org/fcawadvocacypetition21/index.html.
The way we grow our food and manage our land has a huge impact on the climate, and has the potential to be a powerful solution as well.
Modern industrial agriculture has allowed us to grow food more abundantly and cheaply than ever before, but the hidden cost is the health of our soil. Tilling and chemicals degrade the soil, inhibiting its ability to hold water and carbon. This leads to erosion and desertification, releasing carbon into the atmosphere contributing to climate change.
It’s a vicious cycle – extreme weather events due to climate change make it harder for our farmers to grow food. According to the United Nations two- thirds of the world is desertifying and the world’s remaining topsoil will be gone in 60 years unless we find a way to save our soil.
Click here to sign the petition to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack.
The good news is we have the solutions – and many smaller farmers are already using them. They are reducing the emissions from our systems to grow, process, and transport our food, and keep carbon in the soil with sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices.
While agribusiness will be important in transforming our growing practices to reduce climate emissions, it is the smaller farmers that can move more quickly to manage our land to solve the climate crisis and where public resources are best spent.
There is funding to improve agriculture and land practices in the proposed infrastructure package. Now, we need Secretary of Agriculture Vilsack to commit to prioritizing USDA resources for small to medium farmers and ranchers directly – especially those of color, who have too often been underserved – to support their efforts to innovate and act quickly to regenerative practices that keep carbon in the soil.
By supporting farmers in transitioning to regenerative agriculture and renewable energy, we will heal the planet sooner AND address food security more equitably.
In gratitude for our allies – farmers and ranchers – in healing our sacred ground.
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