In addition to highlighting positive solutions, it is important to keep in mind that people’s situations and perspectives are different. We all have different passions or priorities. One size or one approach does not fit all. Therefore, we need to integrate our green justice and Regeneration messages with the specific issues and concerns that are most important to grassroots constituencies, and then lay out, in everyday language, a strategy that makes people understand that we can actually solve the problems they care about the most, while also solving a host of other pressing problems at the same time. Only by starting from where people are at, and then connecting the dots, can we capture the attention and imagination of a critical mass of the global grassroots and get them to start thinking about how they can participate in our new Movement and new economy.

Objective and subjective conditions for change are different in every country in the world, and to some extent differ as well in the sub-regions and local communities of these 195 countries. Everyday people everywhere, including the most impoverished and vulnerable communities, have their burning issues as well as their secondary issues, and an inherent desire to alleviate and, if possible, solve the problems that are pressing down on them, in many cases threatening their very survival. In the activist community, major focus areas, in most cases reflecting the concerns of everyday people, include inflation and the high cost of living, freedom of choice and Constitutional liberties, climate change, environmental pollution, health, social justice, jobs and economic justice, peace, and democracy. Unfortunately, campaigners, both on the local and national/international levels, often work in isolation from other sectors, each in their own separate silos. This perpetuates tunnel vision in the body politic, parochial or sectarian attitudes, political polarization, and an overall weakness in global civil society.

Regenerators, young and old, given our current situation, need to operate on the old adage that “the darkest hour is right before the dawn.” Instead of just dwelling on the negative, on the things that divide or frighten us, we need to search out and highlight today’s positive trends, best practices, and solutions. For the OCA and Regeneration International community this means not just focusing on the latest corruption and criminality of the ruling class and the technocrats, not just the delusions and self-destructive behavior of those brainwashed by the Establishment narrative, but on finding, highlighting, and scaling up real life regenerative alternatives.

As we inform ourselves and resist the Great Reset, the Big Pharma power grab, Silicon Valley programming and censorship, the Ukraine war and endless conflict, the reckless science, the pollution of our food, the destruction of the environment and climate, and the mass confusion, fear, and psychosis that has debilitated much of the body politic; we must also search out and highlight the positive trends in grassroots insurgency and creativity. We must seek out, highlight, and participate in the best practices of organic and regenerative food, farming, and land use, as well as the holistic natural health practices, food and dietary changes, and lifestyle transformations that are regenerating people’s health, mental and physical. For a full dose of positive information, go to the internal search engine on the upper right hand side of the OCA homepage and type in the words Regenerative Food and Farming.

Unfortunately, both Democratic and Republican politicians in the U.S. appear to have lost touch with reality and the needs of everyday working class, middle class, low-income, and rural communities. America’s political duopoly appears hell-bent on demonizing “the other party” for partisan gain meanwhile working full-time for their respective donors in the billionaire class, with their primary paymasters coming from corporate agribusiness, Big Pharma, Silicon Valley, Wall Street, the fossil fuels industry, and the military-industrial complex.

With Establishment Democrats and Republicans continuing to discredit themselves, Trumpers and Progressives alike, it’s time for a new grassroots rising. It’s time for a game-changing grassroots-powered politics based upon Regeneration, rather than “business as usual” and “politics as usual.”

OCA and our allies believe that a global awakening and Grassroots Rising, based upon the principles and practices of regenerative food, farming, and land-use, has the awesome potential to inspire and provoke a multi-partisan, multinational, populist Movement—Democrat, Independent, and Republican; liberal, radical, conservative, and libertarian; rancher, farmer, and indigenous; urban and rural; consumer and farmer; North and South.