Want to know what all the #GreenNewDeal (GND) buzz is about?

Want to know why we’re mobilizing the food and farming movement to support the GND—and how you can help?

Find out by watching the GND livestream on February 5, and by reading my message below.

Leaders of the Sunrise Movement are asking people to attend or host a livestream watch party on February 5. OCA staff members have all signed up—and we hope you will, too!

Sign up to attend a watch party.

Sign up to host a watch party. It’s easy to do. There’s even a step-by-step guide. You can choose to make your party public so others can join, or private with just your friends.

Let us know if you plan to host or attend a watch party. We’ll email you additional materials about why the GND matters to the food & farming movement.

What to expect on February 5

On February 5, leaders of the Sunrise Movement will share the in-depth details of their 2019 campaign to make the GND a reality. They’ll share lots of resources to help you explain the GND to your family and friends, and how it could transform our economy and our lives.

What exactly is the GND? Right now, it’s a set of ambitious goals aimed at addressing global warming and income inequality, in part by rapidly transitioning to a fossil fuel-free economy while at the same time guaranteeing everyone who wants one a job and a living wage.

Proponents of the GND envision 2019 as a year of building public and political support for the GND’s goals, while also bringing together experts in science, technology, policy and economics to design a broad range of policies and programs to implement those goals.

In 2020, Congress would turn those policies and programs into legislation.

Why do we want you, a food activist, to get involved?

We’re totally on board with the GND’s goal of shifting the U.S. to 100% renewable energy as soon as possible, and achieving net zero emissions by 2030.

But here’s the thing. We believe the only way to actually achieve net zero emissions by 2030 is to both reduce emissions and draw down the CO2 already in the atmosphere. And the best way to draw down and sequester carbon? Organic and regenerative farming and land-use practices.

Right now, the media and many of the GND’s most enthusiastic supporters are focusing almost exclusively on the power of transitioning to renewable energy to address global warming.

We need your help to change that—by getting more GND supporters to start talking about food and farming.

Our job—and we need your help!—is to make sure that the final version of the GND includes policies and programs designed to scale up organic regenerative farming, in addition to policies and programs geared toward alternative energy solutions.

If we succeed, not only will we help the GND achieve its net zero emissions goal, but we’ll also help grow the organic regenerative food system.

The GND’s guaranteed jobs and $15 dollar/hour minimum wage proposals would mean more income for farmworkers and more money in consumers’ pockets.

Consumers would be able to buy more locally produced, nutrient-dense organic food. This in turn would generate more income for local farmers and food producers, who under current economic conditions increasingly are being forced into bankruptcy, or having to sell out to big corporations with vast financial resources economies-of-scale advantages.

Let’s face it. Right now, the deck is stacked against small, local, independent farmers and food producers. U.S. Farm Bill policies provide billions in subsidies to big industrial farms that grow GMO crops and operate giant factory farms.

We can keep trying to chip away at the policies that make it almost impossible for “good” farmers to succeed.

Or, we can make sure that the architects of the GND recognize regenerative agriculture as a powerful solution to global warming—and take action by including policies and programs that will scale up that solution, fast!

For the first time in decades I see a real, viable, hopeful way forward for rapidly scaling up the organic regenerative food and farming movement, and for addressing our most urgent crisis—global warming.

That’s why I’m asking you to join us in building support for the GND, and especially for making sure that we—the food & farming movement—don’t get left behind.

Please start by hosting or joining a GND livestream watch party on February 5.

Sign up to attend a watch party.

Sign up to host a watch party. It’s easy to do. There’s even a step-by-step guide. You can choose to make your party public so others can join, or private with just your friends.

Let us know if you plan to host or attend a watch party. We’ll email you additional materials about why the GND matters to the food & farming movement.