Promote Sustainable Farming, Fishing, & Ranching

In today’s agricultural system, grass-based livestock operations are giving way to confinements, while small and midsize diversified crop operations are losing ground to monocropped mega-farms.

A similar phenomenon is happening on the oceans, with independent boats being replaced by industrial trawlers. We must stop this life destroying, dangerous trend.

We need the dominant food production practices to be of net benefit to the environment – to increase topsoil and protect estuaries, store more carbon, and enhance biodiversity.

To accomplish this, the policy infrastructure that supports food production, from research to technical assistance to insurance and credit, must primarily encourage the integration of the best of cutting edge agroecological science with the best of time-honored indigenous wisdom and agricultural and fishing traditions.

Supporting this shift both domestically and internationally is necessary for the world to feed itself. Policymakers must recognize the impacts of other industrial activities, like deforestation, mining, and fracking, on fish populations and ecosystem management.

The protection and development of sustainable farming, ranching, and fishing systems will support ecological and public health, with safer environments for farmers and workers, and more diverse, nutrient-rich diets for everyone.

• Restore classical and farmer participatory plant and animal breeding communities of practice with breeding objectives designed for sustainable systems
• Strengthen and then expand USDA conservation programs, with prioritization for BIPOC producers
• Establish new funding for the return of stolen land to Indigenous groups and tribes, reparations to those who lost land due to discriminatory lending practices, and the transfer of ownership of land to BIPOC producers
• Strengthen the regulation and prevention of agriculture-related environmental degradation from pesticides, toxic runoff, and carbon emissions
• Reform the federal crop insurance program to reward stewardship practices, and make real, measurable conservation a condition of eligibility for premium subsidies
• Expand technical and financial assistance for producers transitioning to diversified organic, regenerative, and agroecological production, including reduction of barriers to achieving and maintaining organic certification
• Revise USDA and NOAA research priorities to align with sustainability and climate change resiliency Increase overall funding for agroecological research and extension, especially through on-farm, producer-led research, and in land-grant universities
• Revise national fish management programs, such as the Catch Share program, that consolidate fishery ownership and produce negative ecological impacts

Food is one of the most powerful connectors between people, cultures, and our environments. Through food, we sustain ourselves and our communities, as well as our relationships with other species, land, and water. For thousands of years, people around the world have used traditional and cultural practices to grow food in sustainable ways.

White supremacy, colonialism, and corporate greed have disrupted these relationships. Today, destructive agricultural practices in our farms and seas are replacing traditional food production methods to mass produce cash crops, producing a lot of waste in the process.  

Future generations deserve to be able to grow and eat nutritious, plentiful, and culturally relevant  food. They deserve to live and work in healthy, thriving environments. To get there, we must invest in regenerative, ecological agriculture, while removing extensive financial support for industrial forms of food production. 

Extractive Food Systems

Across land and sea, corporations are replacing traditional ranching, farming, and fishing practices with industrial models. These models treat working people, land, water, wildlife, and surrounding communities as disposable.

Globally, industrial agriculture produces around 40 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. It is also the single largest cause of biodiversity loss, contributing to the extinction of many plant and animal species (including many important insects).

In the US, government policies enrich a handful of corporations and large-scale landowners, while pushing out smaller independent growers, including land stewards of color who have long maintained sustainable relationships with land and water.

In spite of producing massive amounts of food, the US food system fails to deliver plentiful, affordable, and nutritious food to all of us.

Our survival, and that of many other species, depends on us shifting these practices. Instead of an extractive, industrial food system, we must move toward regenerative and reciprocal relationships with the land and each other.

We must ensure that our food production practices benefit people and wildlife, restore land and ecosystems, store carbon, enhance biodiversity, and ensure that future generations can thrive.

Sustainable Agriculture

Sustainable traditions of cultivating and procuring food pre-date the founding of this country and today’s extractive food system. Sustainable, regenerative agriculture is rooted in the traditional ecological knowledge of people indigenous to this land, and by land stewards who have brought their traditions with them.

Although there are many terms that people use to describe sustainable agriculture, true solutions all honor current and future generations of humans and ecosystems. And they steward land and water in non-extractive and reciprocal ways. 

Land stewards of color and some small-scale food growers have long been leaders in using sustainable practices. People using these practices grow different crops together that nourish each other, the soil, and the ecosystem as a whole. They use cultural and biological methods (rather than toxic chemicals) to deter unwanted insects, weeds, and plant diseases. They treat farm animals with respect and care, and they preserve critical fish habitats.

For thousands of years, herders have used integrated systems of animal husbandry and crop cultivation that work in harmony with ecological processes. Today, many small-scale ranchers continue these and other practices, like rotational grazing.

Meanwhile, fishers using sustainable methods respect the ocean, fishing with the rhythms of the seasons and allowing fish populations to reproduce and flourish. Many of our member organizations are practicing and promoting these kinds of sustainable solutions – learn more about their work on our member stories page!