Current Sustainable Agriculture Group 2010- Activism and Action

In 2009 the Sustainable Agriculture Group on Current was born. Since then we have grown to 139 members with over 1200 entries full of important iinformation on planting, permaculture, organic farming, biodynamics, government regulations and how they effect you, GMOs, food access, food sovereignty, corporate malfeasance, climate change, and ways to preserve our soil and planet for the future.

I want to thank everyone who has participated with stories, videos, and important information. I believe this group serves a vital purpose in not only making people aware but empowering them to action to make this world a better place which is actually the point of all this, or at least it should be. For me, this is the real purpose of the Internet.

That is why for 2010 the focus of the Sustainable Agriculture Group will be action. In a current thread put up by Leah Lamb, producer of Current Green she asked us what ONE green resolution we have and how we intend to see it through. Mine was to rid the world of fossil fuel, nitrogen, GMO, pesticide intensive farming to heal our Earth and mitigate climate change, along with providing food access to all. I was asked if there was a way I could be helped in this endeavor: well, this is it:

I am working on planning a meetup in Washington DC this June to lobby our government to:

1: Label all foods that contain GMOs and call for independent testing of these organisms and their potential role in exacerbating diseases and allergies.

2: Call for a moratorium on all new GMOs set to be released into our environment without our knowledge or consent.

3: Call for the USDA to issue a formal policy on sustainable agriculture that does not include subsidies to industrial agriculture. Monsanto and the like do NOT represent true sustainable agriculture and farmers should be rewarded for sequestering carbon and protecting biodiversity, not growing BT corn for gas tanks.

4: To initiate a major tree planting initiative in the United States (Plant America) to help balance out carbon emissions and to protest genetically engineered trees that are a direct threat to biodiversity.

5. To crack down on the amount of pesticides being used on our food that are contributing to disease, obesity, pollution, and dead zones that also threaten fish and other species.

6. To stop appointing Monsanto lobbyists to key agricultural positions to continue the revolving door policy that is now threatening our global economy, food supply and restricting food access to those in developing countries.

So any help Current Green could give in mobilizing people to help this become a reality would be much appreciated.

And that is really just a rough draft of grievances. We were promised "change" and to this point have not seen much save a White House organic garden. I'm no longer going to be sitting on the sidelines waiting for that change. I remember reading Silent Spring by Rachel Carson with my mother when I was 12 and it moved me. I thought surely by now we would have come full circle in never doing anything again that could put our delicate Earth balance and biodiversity at risk. To see that nothing has really changed in that regard since that book was published is simply not acceptable.

So in 2010, the Sustainable Agriculture Group on Current will become more than just a group. We will become a driving force on Current also hopefully working in tandem with other groups to call for true food democracy, which of course also relates to water justice. It is now in our hands. I really hope I can count on those on Current who truly care about this issue and crisis we face. We can make this happen, and we have to. Our future really does depend on it.

http://current.com/groups/sustainable-agriculture/

Also see:

http://current.com/groups/water-is-life/

You can follow our progress here, and please consider joining to be part of the solution.
Thank you.