{"id":28729,"date":"2021-02-16T00:01:06","date_gmt":"2021-02-16T04:01:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=28729"},"modified":"2021-02-16T15:49:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-16T19:49:14","slug":"a-national-shift-to-organic-farming-not-carbon-trading-is-critical-to-thwart-the-climate-crisis-and-biodiversity-collapse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2021\/02\/a-national-shift-to-organic-farming-not-carbon-trading-is-critical-to-thwart-the-climate-crisis-and-biodiversity-collapse\/","title":{"rendered":"Shift to Organic Farming, Not Carbon Trading, Is Critical to Thwart the Climate Crisis and Biodiversity Collapse"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, February 16, 2021)\u00a0The climate crisis, with unprecedented temperature shifts, storms, and wildfires, and the devastating decline in biodiversity are escalating as a result of uncontrolled and unnecessary reliance on toxic chemicals. These existential crises that threaten life, to be successfully thwarted, require a meaningful holistic strategy that commits our nation to ending our fossil fuel-based economy and use of petroleum-based materials that release harmful levels of carbon and noxious gases (including greenhouse gases\/GHG) into the environment. The proposals now in Congress and the administration require close attention and scrutiny\u00a0if we are to meet the urgency of the moment.<\/p>\r\n

The carbon market approach embodied in the Growing Climate Solutions Act<\/a> and President Biden’s Climate 21 Project<\/a> does not adequately and comprehensively respond to the current and looming interconnected threats to public health and the environment. The focus on carbon to the exclusion of a holistic approach that addresses complex life-supporting biological communities allows the continuation of disproportionate hazards to people of color and communities living adjacent to toxic sites. The mechanisms of carbon trading or the purchasing of carbon offsets under consideration do not establish an end date for admittedly unacceptable materials and practices, nor do they ensure a transition to life-sustaining practices. Just as there are proposals to end production of the combustion engine and move to electric vehicles, we must demand that agriculture\u2014across the board and on an expedited five-year schedule\u2014shift to organic practices, whose standards are already codified in federal law. Organic production and handling practices have a proven, commercially viable, track record and both sequester carbon and eliminate petroleum-based pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. And, importantly, the data shows that this sector of agriculture is now operating without sacrificing productivity or profitability. The only problem: the vested economic interests in the petroleum and chemical industry are holding on to the status-quo. The good news: there are good jobs and money to be made in a green economy.<\/p>\r\n

Tell your Congressional Representatives and Senators to support a holistic approach to the existential threats of the climate crisis and biodiversity collapse.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\r\n

Carbon trading schemes won’t work because:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n