This is an excerpt from Food Agenda 2020: The Organic Alternative.
The future of life on this planet may depend on what we eat. Factory farmed junk food is the #1 cause of climate change, but we can save the planet by going organic.
The greenhouse gas emissions from factory farms, deforestation, industrial crop production, food processing and packaging, and long-distance distribution make the food sector the biggest cause of climate change, responsible for at least a third of worldwide greenhouse gas emissions. Factory farmed meat, dairy and eggs alone may contribute as much as 51%!
But we can change food system pollution into food system solutions. A worldwide shift to local, organic food production would drastically reduce food system emissions and turn the world's farmland into a carbon sink to capture and store 40% of global greenhouse gas pollution.
There are three food policies governments can adopt to solve the climate crisis.
First, tell consumers how food choices impact climate change!
Local & organic food is the climate-friendly choice, but consumers ought to know when what we eat is changing the climate. We should stick carbon footprint warning labels on processed foods with ingredients that were trucked thousands of miles from factory farms or were grown on plantations that used to be rain forests.
Second, spend tax dollars on solutions not pollution!
The people want a local & organic food system and they'd like to see their money put where their mouths are, but the resources needed to make the transition won't be available as long as our tax dollars are spent on industrial food and farming, fossil fuels, and war.
Third, stop the industrial food system's worst climate crimes!
Real cuts in climate pollution require phasing out greenhouse gas belching factory farms, methane generating chemical fertilizers, and the plantation agriculture that's driving deforestation.
These three proposals are fleshed out at the Organic Consumers Association's Food Agenda 2020 campaign page. Please take a look and consider signing the Food Agenda 2020 petition at our Web site and/or on Facebook.
Our goal is to collect 20,000 signatures between now and the November 2010 election to show strong support for organic solutions to the climate crisis going into the next global climate conference, November 29th to December 10th, in Cancun, Mexico, and as Congress begins work on the 2012 Farm Bill.