随着民主党领导人和拜登运动在今年八月的大会之前最终确定政策平台时，我们正在为拜登政府如何解决农业和气候变化关键问题的范围。与特朗普政府形成鲜明对比的是，民主党国家委员会（DNC）平台和拜登农村计划认识到气候行动的紧迫性以及农业在打击气候危机中必须发挥的关键作用。
Thanks in large part toDNC Climate Council倡导者，最终的DNC平台草案包括“做出公平份额并领导世界，以保持全球变暖至1.5摄氏度”的承诺。Biden活动和DNC平台还提出了一个积极的农业净零排放目标。
While many of the strategies outlined in the DNC Platform and Biden’s policy plans are on the mark, others run counter to the just transformation of our industrial food system that is necessary to reach these climate goals. And some core strategies to achieve a just transition are entirely ignored.
例如，民主党关于农业的计划甚至没有提及监管行动或动物农业，尽管我们知道regulating emissions and other pollutionfrom large-scale meat and dairy operations is key to reducing agriculture’s impact on climate, air and water resources. Reducing factory farm pollution is also vital to improving life in many rural areas, particularly low-wealth and black and brown communities that are often located near factory farms.
Maintaining today’s status quo is not an option. Just ten years from now, “if the livestock sector were to continue with business as usual, this sector alone would account for 49% of the global emissions budget for 1.5°C by 2030,” scientists concluded in a 2019 Lancetarticle。As a2018年报告谷物和农业和贸易政策研究所记录了“即使其他部门积极削减排放”，到2050年，如果当前状况持续存在，牲畜部门“也可以在短短32年内吞噬允许温室气体预算的80％”。
Democratic plans lay the groundwork for resilient regenerative farming systems
越来越多的身体science证明多元化，有机和再生的农业方法在应对威胁未来粮食安全的气候和其他环境挑战方面最有效。与占主导地位的美国农场的化学依赖性，消耗土壤的单一培养系统相比research显示有机的和regenerative practices –– such as cover cropping, crop rotation, composting, perennial planting, and managed grazing –– increase soil health and carbon sequestration, foster biodiversity, and expand water holding capacity of soils.
The DNC Platform and Vice President Biden’s plans on清洁能源和美国农村rightly expand support for overburdened voluntary conservation programs that help farmers implement these regenerative agricultural practices. Both plans emphasize supporting farmers of color and farmworkers; they also would strengthen regional food systems and create new markets by linking farmers with large public institutions like schools, hospitals and Department of Defense cafeterias.
DNC平台比Biden的计划更远，通过资助“低碳作物和有机农业实践”的研究，并呼吁“减少使用农药和化肥的使用”，包括禁止对毒藻的禁令。在DNC气候委员会和八个501C（4）非营利组织的推动下，包括这些规定food and agriculture groups这向平台委员会提出了建议。在倡导者的另一场胜利中，DNC平台要求补贴改革将纳税人资金集中在中小型农民上。
至关重要的是，DNC平台解决了市场集中度，要求公共公司的排放报告，并认识到对农场工人（主要是有色人种和移民）的更强大的保护和权利，这些人被排除在联邦最低工资和其他劳动法中，以及其他奴隶制的遗迹。
All of these strategies are foundational to creating a more resilient, equitable and economically thriving food system. However, voluntary measures are not enough. For example, unless Democrats expandconservation compliance programs为了在所有补贴的农田上需要健康的土壤实践，农业部门将永远不会达到零排放。要求补贴接受者实施健康的土壤实践是我们可以做的最重要的事情之一，使农业成为气候变化解决方案。支持区域农民的公共采购计划也很重要，但是除非对实施气候友好的有机农业实践的农民有优先权，而不是支持DNC平台中规定的“传统”农民，他们将无济于事化学密集型，消耗土壤的农业系统。
玉米乙醇和甲烷消化器是虚假的气候解决方案
A cornerstone of the Democratic Platform strategy — echoed in Biden’s Clean Energy Plan — is to generate new “revenue streams for farmers in energy and waste products and grow bio-based manufacturing jobs.” In practice, this would serve to help big, polluting, GHG-intensive factory farms grow larger andbecome even more profitable通过将其大量和不可持续的废物转变为通过甲烷消化器变成沼气。这是一个错误的解决方案和a step backward toward a clean energy future.
支撑工厂农场不成比例地损害低收入rural communities and people of color。根据加利福尼亚中央山谷的说法Leadership Council for Justice and Accountability“消化者通过鼓励增加的牛群大小从能源生产中产生更大的收入，并激励在能源基础设施周围增加乳制品的浓度，从而对附近社区和当地环境产生有害影响。集中奶牛及其废物只会加强这些农场产生的氨，NOx排放和水污染的数量。”
Equally problematic is the DNC and Biden’s focus on expanding existing biofuels, particularly corn ethanol. We need to transition away from this错误的气候解决方案that relies on pesticide-intensive monocropping systems that degrade soil and water resources, harm pollinators, and remove valuable farmland from food production.
支持公正的过渡并停止旋转门
If Biden and the Democratic Party are serious about rapidly reducing climate-harming emissions, revitalizing rural America, and making food production sustainable, they must loosen Big Agriculture’s grip on the farm economy and policy and create a level playing field for all farmers. They can start by endorsing Senator Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren’s农场制度改革法案（农场）这将禁止建造新的和不断扩大的工厂农场，持有大型肉类公司，负责CAFO造成的污染和其他危害成本，并为合同种植者提供资金，以过渡到更可持续的生产系统。他们还应该吸引对农业综合企业没有既得利益的农业顾问。仅以一个例子 - DNC平台的负责人AG政策，前农业部长汤姆·维尔萨克（Tom Vilsack）。
As reported by在这些时期，维尔萨克（Vilsack）与工业农业综合企业的利益有着紧密的联系，这些农业综合企业利益促进了错误的解决方案并坚决反对监管改革。在离开担任农业秘书的几天后，Vilsack穿过美国乳品出口委员会的旋转门，现在他赚钱nearly US$1 millionas the top executive at its parent organization, Dairy Management Inc.” With corporate leadership like this, it’s no wonder that the industrial meat and dairy industries are so far left untouched by the Democrats’ plans.
拜登仍然有时间采用大胆的策略，这些策略与他在农业中达到零排放并满足全球气候目标的积极目标更加一致。在美国农村和城市中，不断增长的运动准备支持从高度集中的工厂农业和农药密集型单一养殖到更加多样化，再生，健康和公正的食品系统的正义过渡。迫切需要改变，对农民和工人生计，我们的气候，自然资源和公共卫生的好处是巨大的。
Photo courtesy of Unsplash, Rosan Harmens
