We will work to build a stronger rural and agricultural economy. Democrats will increasefunding to support the next generation of farmers and ranchers, with particular attention given topromoting environmentally sustainable agricultural practices. We will encourage programs toprotect and enhance family farms, a cherished way of life for millions of Americans. We willexpand local food markets and regional food systems and provide a focused safety net to assistfamily operations that need support during challenging times. And we will promote clean energyleadership and collaborative stewardship of our natural resources, while expanding opportunitiesin rural communities across America. While the EPA’s new Agricultural Worker ProtectionStandard goes a long way to protect farmworkers from harmful pesticides and herbicides, werecognize there is a lot more we can do. The Democratic Party supports stronger agriculturalworker protections including regulation of work hours, elimination of child labor, ensuringadequate housing for migrant workers, and sanitary facilities in the field.

Democrats will spur investment to power the rural economy. We support strengthening ruralwater, sewer, and broadband infrastructure to make rural businesses more competitive. We willexpand access to equity capital for businesses and expand the New Markets Tax Credit to betterserve rural small businesses. We will promote collaborative stewardship of our natural resources,while developing clean fuels that will grow our economy, lower our energy bills, combat climatechange, and make America the clean energy superpower of the 21st century. We will provideassistance to producers who conserve and improve natural resources on their farms and doubleloan guarantees that support the bio-based economy’s dynamic growth.^[9]

The digital revolution has transformed how we work, learn, sell, shop, socialize — in short, how we live.

...

Government must keep pace with the technologydeployed in the private sector. There is an urgentneed to modernize the federal government’slegacy systems and to recruit the skilled technicalpersonnel who can advance the adoption of innovationin the public sector. At the cost of billions, thecurrent Administration has done little to advanceour goal of universal broadband coverage. Thathurts rural America, where farmers, ranchers, andsmall business people need connectivity to operatein real time with the world’s producers. Almost tenmillion Americans have given up wired broadbandconnections in just the last two years alone, and millionsmore have never been connected in the firstplace.

We encourage public-private partnerships toprovide predictable support for connecting rural areas so that every American can fully participatein the global economy.^[9]

OUR POSITION

Land use policies must promote sustainable development and respect ecology.

Unlimited growth on a finite planet cannot be sustained.

There is a fundamental difference between growth and development and between quantity and quality. Rather than exploiting the Earth for short-term gain, Greens believe in living in sustainable balance with it. Land use practices must be founded on stewardship of the Earth, to honor the interconnected and interdependent nature of all life, to respect ecosystems and other species, while at the same time providing for human needs in a responsible and sustainable way.

Only an economics that is based upon environmental health is sustainable.

GREEN SOLUTIONS

Land ownership and property rights

1. Insist that every property right has an implied responsibility to provide for the common good of people, places and the planet.

2. Encourage the formation and operation of cooperatives, non-profits, land trusts, co-housing, and other forms of communal and public interest management of land and resources.

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Rural land use

8. Preserve and expand rural land use patterns that promote open space, healthy ecosystems, wildlife corridors and the ecologically sustainable agriculture. Protect and expand large continuous tracts of public and private land for wildlife habitat and biological diversity, to permit healthy, self-managing wildlife populations to exist in a natural state, and to promote complete ecosystems.

9. Promote livable rural communities to minimize urban migration.

10. Transition rural communities into sustainable relationships with ranching, agriculture, forestry and mining.

11. Reward farmers and ranchers for the ecosystem services they provide on private and public lands. Favor policies that promote mall-scale farmers and ranchers over large-scale corporate agriculture and ranching.

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I. 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 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 along with the oppression of third world peoples, inhumane treatment of animals, pollution of air and water, and degradation of our land.

The agricultural system for the 21st Century must provide a high quality of life for farmers, nutritious and safe food for consumers, and reward farming methods that enhance the quality of water, soil, and air, and the beauty of the landscape.

According to the 2006 United Nations "Livestock's Long Shadow" report and the World Watch Institute's 2009 article "Livestock and Climate Change," 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.

1. We encourage legislation that assists new farmers and ranchers, that promotes widespread ownership to small and medium-sized farms and ranches, and that revitalizes and repopulates rural communities and promotes sustainable development and stewardship.

2. We support new farming and growing opportunities and urge the inclusion of non-traditional crops and foods in farm programs.

3. We advocate regionalizing our food system and decentralizing agriculture lands, production, and distribution. We encourage public support for producer and consumer cooperatives, community kitchens, Community Supported Agriculture, urban agriculture, and community farms and gardens.

4. We advocate the creation of a Food Policy Council composed of farmers, including small farmers and consumers, to oversee the USDA and all food policies at the local, state, and national level. This council should adjudicate conflicts of interest that arise when industries police themselves.

5. We support the highest organic standards (California Organic Certification Standards, for example). We advocate shifting price supports and government subsidies to organic food products so that they will be competitive with chemically produced food. We believe that everyone, not just the wealthy, must be able to afford safe and healthy food.

6. We urge the banning of sewage sludge or hazardous wastes as fertilizer, and of irradiation and the use of genetic engineering in all food production.

7. We would phase-out man-made pesticides and artificial fertilizers. We support Integrated Pest Management techniques as an alternative to chemical-based agriculture.

8. Food prices ought to reflect the true cost of food, including the health effects of eating processed foods, antibiotic resistance, pesticide effects on growers and consumers, soil erosion, water pollution, pesticide drift, and air pollution. Indirect costs (loss of rural communities, a heavily subsidized transportation system, cost of the military necessary to defend cheap oil, and reduced security), though more difficult to calculate, should be factored into the cost of our highly centralized food system.

9. World hunger can best be addressed by food security—being self-sufficient for basic needs. Overpopulation is largely a consequence, not simply a cause, of poverty and environmental destruction, and all remedial actions must address living standards and food security through sustainable production.

10. Because of the tremendous amount of energy used in agriculture, we support farm subsidies to encourage the transition from dirty fuels to clean renewable energy as one of the most effective ways to move our country to a sustainable future.

11. We support legislation that provides energy and fuel conservation through rotational grazing, cover-crop rotations, nitrogen-fixing systems, and fuel-free, clean renewable energy development on the farm.

12. We encourage states to promote net-metering to make decentralized energy production economically viable.

13. Animal farming must be practiced in ethically and environmentally sustainable ways. 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.

14. Applying the Precautionary Principle to 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.

15. Most importantly, we support the growing international demand to eliminate patent rights for genetic material, life forms, gene-splicing techniques, and bio-chemicals derived from them. This position is defined by the Treaty to Share the Genetic Commons, which is available through the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. The implications of corporate takeover and the resulting monopolization of genetic intellectual property by the bioengineering industry are immense.

16. We support mandatory, full-disclosure food and fiber labeling. A consumer has the right to know the contents in their food and fiber, how they were produced, and where they come from. Labels should address the presence of GMOs, use of irradiation, pesticide application (in production, transport, storage, and retail), and the country of origin.

17. We support the restoration of farmlands to black families who have been discriminated against and who have lost, or are about to lose, their farms as a result. Greens will work for a meaningful remedy to restore black farmers' unencumbered ownership of their land.^[9]

Competitive free markets and property rights stimulate the technological innovations and behavioral changes required to protect our environment and ecosystems. Private landowners and conservation groups have a vested interest in maintaining natural resources. Governments are unaccountable for damage done to our environment and have a terrible track record when it comes to environmental protection. Protecting the environment requires a clear definition and enforcement of individual rights and responsibilities regarding resources like land, water, air, and wildlife. Where damages can be proven and quantified in a court of law, restitution to the injured parties must be required.

2.3 Energy and Resources

While energy is needed to fuel a modern society, government should not be subsidizing any particular form of energy. We oppose all government control of energy pricing, allocation, and production.^[9]