Climate Stewardship Act would support the transition to organic, regenerative
agriculture.‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌


[[link removed]]
[[link removed]]What Can You Do About the Looming Food Crisis? Take Action Today!



Dear Supporter,



Last week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
[[link removed]] warned of a looming food crisis.

The impact of climate change on land is “already severe,” the panel reported [[link removed]] . Unless we act fast, climate change will eventually lead to global food
shortages and higher food prices.

What can you do?

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to pass the Climate Stewardship Act!
[[link removed]]

TAKE ACTION
[[link removed]]U.S. farmers are already dealing with the impact of climate change—and it’s only
going to get worse, here and around the globe.

Heavy rain and flooding in the U.S. heartland—made worse
[[link removed]] by climate change—prevented farmers from planting more than 19 million acres
[[link removed]] of crops this year.

It was the highest total of unplanted acres ever recorded by the U.S. Department
of Agriculture (USDA).

According to last week’s IPCC report [[link removed]] , more than 500 million people worldwide today already live in areas where the
land cannot provide adequate food.

If we fail to act on climate change, the world’s food supply will only diminish.

Here’s what the IPCC says we can do to reverse these dangerous trends:

• As individuals, we can eat a climate-friendly diet:



“Balanced diets featuring plant-based foods, such as coarse grains, legumes,
fruits and vegetables, and animal-sourced food produced sustainably in low
greenhouse gas emission systems present major opportunities for adaptation to
and limiting climate change,” said Debra Roberts, Co-Chair of IPCC Working Group
II and one of the authors of the report.



• As nations, we can adopt policies that support “sustainable land management:”



The IPCC defines this as the “stewardship and use of land resources, including
soils, water, animals and plants, to meet changing human needs, while
simultaneously ensuring the long-term productive potential of these resources
and the maintenance of their environmental functions.” The report authors list
several examples, including agroecology, agroforestry, conservation agriculture,
crop diversity, crop rotations, organic farming, pollinator protection, rain
water harvesting, and range and pasture management.



These practices can “prevent and reduce land degradation, maintain land
productivity, and sometimes reverse the adverse impacts of climate change on
land degradation… Reducing and reversing land degradation, at scales from
individual farms to entire watersheds, can provide cost-effective, immediate,
and long-term benefits to communities…”



The USDA first set “land stewardship” goals in 1933, when it established the
Soil Conservation Service to address the Dust Bowl. Yet in recent decades,
federal policy has pushed farmers to rely on machinery, chemicals and plowing up
virgin land to maintain high yields—regardless of the impact on the soil or the
climate.

Farmers are interested in conservation programs, but budget cuts have forced up
to 75 percent of eligible applicants to be turned away.

The Climate Stewardship Act is the first bill since the New Deal era to propose
making a renewed commitment to soil health for food security and the climate.

TAKE ACTION: Tell Congress to pass the Climate Stewardship Act!
[[link removed]]

TAKE ACTION
[[link removed]]Thank you!



Alexis, for the OCA Team

P.S. To help support this, and other campaigns, please consider making a donation to OCA
[[link removed]] . Nearly 80 percent of our support comes in the form of small donations from
individual donors. Thank you!


[[link removed]]
[[link removed]]Organic Consumers Association is a tax-exempt, non-profit organization, under
the section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All charitable donations are
deductible to the full extent allowed by law.



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