III. Ecological Sustainability
H. Agriculture

Food is a necessity and a fundamental human right. All people have a right to adequate, safe, nutritional and high quality food; and those who grow it have a right to a fair return for their labor.

Our current food system is dominated by centralized agribusiness and unsustainable practices that threaten our food security, degrade the environment, destroy communities, and squeeze out family farmers. Our so-called cheap food comes at the expense of the exploitation of our farmers along with the oppression of third world peoples, inhumane treatment of animals, pollution of air and water, and degradation of our land.

The agricultural system for the 21st Century must provide a high quality of life for farmers, nutritious and safe food for consumers, and reward farming methods that enhance the quality of water, soil, and air, and the beauty of the landscape.

1. We encourage legislation that assists new farmers and ranchers, that promotes widespread ownership to small and medium-sized farms and ranches, and that revitalizes and repopulates rural communities and promotes sustainable development and stewardship.

2. We support new farming and growing opportunities and urge the inclusion of non-traditional crops and foods in farm programs.

3. We advocate regionalizing our food system and decentralizing agriculture lands, production, and distribution. We encourage public support for producer and consumer cooperatives, community kitchens, Community Supported Agriculture, urban agriculture, and community farms and gardens.

4. We advocate the creation of a Food Policy Council composed of farmers, including small farmers and consumers, to oversee the USDA and all food policies at the local, state, and national level. This council should adjudicate conflicts of interest that arise when industries police themselves.

5. We support the highest organic standards (California Organic Certification Standards, for example). We advocate shifting price supports and government subsidies to organic food products so that they will be competitive with chemically-produced food. We believe that everyone, not just the wealthy, must be able to afford safe and healthy food.

6. We urge the banning of sewage sludge or hazardous wastes as fertilizer, and of irradiation and the use of genetic engineering in all food production.`

7. We would phase-out man-made pesticides and artificial fertilizers. We support Integrated Pest Management techniques as an alternative to chemical-based agriculture.

8. Food prices ought to reflect the true cost of food, including the health effects of eating processed foods, antibiotic resistance, pesticide effects on growers and consumers, soil erosion, water pollution, pesticide drift, and air pollution. Indirect costs (loss of rural communities, a heavily subsidized transportation system, cost of the military necessary to defend cheap oil, and reduced security), though more difficult to calculate, should be factored into the cost of our highly centralized food system.

9. World hunger can best be addressed by food security - being self-sufficient for basic needs. Overpopulation is largely a consequence - not simply a cause - of poverty and environmental destruction, and all remedial actions must address living standards and food security through sustainable production.

10. Because of the tremendous amount of energy used in agriculture, we support farm subsidies to encourage the transition from dirty fuels to clean renewable energy as one of the most effective ways to move our country to a sustainable future.

11. We support legislation that provides energy and fuel conservation through rotational grazing, cover-crop rotations, nitrogen-fixing systems, and fuel-free, clean renewable energy development on the farm.

12. We encourage states to promote net-metering to make decentralized energy production economically viable.

13. Animal farming must be practiced in ethically and environmentally sustainable ways. Rapidly phase out the use of confined animal feeding operations and factory farms.

14. Applying the Precautionary Principle to genetically modified organisms (GMOs), we support a moratorium until safety can be demonstrated by independent (non-corporate funded), long-term tests for food safety, genetic drift, resistance, soil health, effects on non-target organisms, and cumulative interactions.

    Most importantly, we support the growing international demand to eliminate patent rights for genetic material, lifeforms, gene-splicing techniques, and biochemicals derived from them. This position is defined by the Treaty to Share the Genetic Commons, which is available through the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (www.iatp.org). The implications of corporate takeover and the resulting monopolization of genetic intellectual property by the bioengineering industry are immense.

15. We support mandatory, full-disclosure food and fiber labeling. A consumer has the right to know the contents in their food and fiber, how they were produced, and where they come from. Labels should address the presence of GMOs, use of irradiation, pesticide application (in production, transport, storage, and retail), and the country of origin.

III. Ecological Sustainability
H. Agriculture

Nature is our life support system. Our well-being and survival depend on our stewardship of nature in all its forms. The crops we grow or gather, the livestock we raise or hunt, and all those living things that we harvest from the seas, rivers and lakes, are our renewable resources that we bring to market for human consumption.

The development of machinery, technology and science has created a great distance between the production of food and the people who consume it. Food production is largely taken over by corporate agribusiness that puts profit over preservation of nature’s resources and consumer health and safety.

We need a new regulatory and oversight agency with adjudicative powers mandated to inspect, and control all food production from seed to harvest to processing to labeling and distribution

We support the following:

1. subsidies that encourage more small farms, family farms, producer and consumer cooperatives and community kitchens.
2. End the subsidies of agribusiness like Monsanto and Cargill.
3. Shift price supports to organically grown food rather than to chemically produced food grown with artificial fertilizers and pesticides.
4. Phase out the use of fertilizer made of sewage sludge or hazardous wastes, and irradiation in food production.
5. Phase out “factory” farms - growing animals in confined spaces with confined feeding operations.
6. Mandatory, full-disclosure of food and fiber labeling. Labels must identify GMO, use of irradiation and pesticides, and country of origin.
7. We support rotational gazing, cover-crop rotations, nitrogen-fixing systems and the replacement of fossil fuel by renewable energy as it is developed.
8. We oppose the forced distribution of GM (genetically modified) seeds and growth of GM crops. The consequences of their use has not yet been adequately researched to prove their advantage over natural/diverse crops.
9. We support the seeding, growing, harvesting and marketing of Hemp. Hemp has no drug or medicinal use; it is easy to cultivate, fast growing and has many commercial uses - none of them harmful in any way.
10. We support true cost pricing in food production. Damage to health and the cost of pesticides, antibiotics, soil erosion from over cultivation, water pollution from drainage of factory farms and long distance travel to bring food to market, all comprise the true cost price of food production.. Locally grown food that is organic, non-factory and not genetically-modified gives us better food and costs less than highly processed food.

Forests are indispensable to humans and animal life and must be protected. Vast forests once covered most land, moderating the Earth's climate and providing habitats for myriad species of wildlife. The Earth's remaining forests are a critical resource in that useful products, especially medicines, originate in the forest. Today's global market economy, in the hands of multi-national corporations, irresponsibly uses and often destroys this valuable and irreplaceable resource.

The governments of many countries are selling off their rain forest land to cattle growers for the production of cheap beef, most of which is exported to first-world countries such as the U.S. Unsuitable rain forest land is also given to subsistence farmers who ruin the soil in a few seasons. In the meantime, landowners hoard prime agricultural land for speculation. On both state and federal lands, trees are harvested and the raw logs are exported, causing jobs to be exported.

The Green Party calls for actions to protect our forests:

1. Overhaul state and U.S. Forest Service rules to protect our forests and use them wisely.

2. Review, reform and restructure all federal and state land-use policies so that our practices become environmentally sustainable, and so that forests provide a continuing supply of high quality wood products.

3. Stop building logging roads in national forests at taxpayers' expense. These roads not only cost more than the revenue from timber sales that they expedite, but they also contribute to soil erosion and silting of streams, which ruin fish habitats.

4. Ban the harvest of Ancient Forests.

5. Ban the export of raw logs and other minimally processed forest products (pulp, chips, carts, slabs, etc.), which causes American job loss.

6. Offer subsidies to local watershed-based mills. This will maximize employment opportunities through value-added processing, and promote sustainability and worker control.

7. Use work projects, goats, and other sustainable methods to control undergrowth rather than spraying herbicides, especially near communities.

8. Grow and use hemp as a plentiful and renewable resource for the manufacture of paper and other forest products.

9. Protect significant archaeological, historical and cultural sites.

10. Support the rights of people indigenous to the rain forest, and their ecologically sound use of the forest - such as rubber extraction, nut gathering, and collecting medicinal herbs. End the importation of rain forest beef.

11. Forgive the debts of Third World countries that need help in halting the destruction of their rain forest lands.

12. Develop labels that identify ecologically sound forest products. This would help consumers to support ecologically sound forestry.

13. Protect of wildlife habitats, fisheries, biodiversity, scenery, and recreation. We must accept responsibility for the affect local actions have on the global economy and ecology.

Nature’s green cover is essential to sustaining life on the planet. Part of our stewardship of Nature is protection and sustaining the world’s forests.

The cutting of rain forests for lumber and clearing forests for agriculture in many parts of the world threatens the climate and environmental health the planet. Multi-national corporations have little or no regard for their stewardship obligation.

We support the following:

1. Overhaul state and US Forest Service to empower them to protect and use our forests to ensure their sustainability. Forests are a renewable resource that will not be renewable if not properly protected.
2. Prohibit logging roads, paid for by taxpayers, in forests that have been declared wilderness.
3. Ban any harvesting of Ancient Forests.
4. Tax the sale of raw wood, pulp, chips, carts, slabs abroad to restore the making of wood products here in America. and restore the jobs to make them.
5. Subsidize local watershed-based mills.
6. Use goat or sheep grazing to control undergrowth, rather than herbicides.
7. Legalize the growing, harvesting and marketing of Hemp and all its products.
8. Support indigenous forest people and protect their gathering practices for food and medicine.
9. Halt the destruction of rain forests in third world countries and forgive the debts of those countries. .
10. Require labeling that identifies the nature of and origin of lumber products.

Cruelty to animals is repugnant and criminal. The mark of a humane and civilized society lies in how we treat the least protected among us. To extend rights to other sentient, living beings is our responsibility and a mark of our place among all creation. We call for an intelligent, compassionate approach to the treatment of animals.

We reject the belief that our species is the center of creation, and that other life forms exist only for our use and enjoyment. Our species does not have the right to exploit and inflict violence on other creatures simply because we have the desire and power to do so. Our ethic upholds not only the value of biological diversity and the integrity and continuity of species, but also the value of individual lives and the interest of individual animals.

The Green Party advocates humane treatment of animals with the following policies:

1. Redirect the funds that are disbursed annually by the National Institutes of Health away from animal experiments and more towards direct health care, preventive medicine, and biomedical research using non-animal procedures such as clinical, epidemiological, and cell culture research.

2. Phase-out the use of animals for consumer product testing, tobacco and alcohol testing, psychological testing, classroom demonstrations and dissections, weapons development and other military programs.

3. Mandate clear labeling of products to tell whether or not they have been tested on animals and if they contain any animal products or by-products.

4. Establish procedures to develop greater public scrutiny of all animal research. These should include the welfare of laboratory animals, and a halt to wasteful public funding of unnecessary research such as duplicative experiments.

5. End the abuse of animals, including farm animals, and strengthen our enforcement of existing laws.

6. Ban the use of goods produced from exotic or endangered animals.

7. Prohibit large scale commercial breeding facilities, such as "puppy mills," because of the massive suffering, overpopulation, and ill health such facilities produce.

8. Subsidize spay and neuter clinics to combat the ever-worsening pet overpopulation problem that results in the killing of millions of animals every year. Where unwanted companion animals are being killed in shelters, we advocate mandatory spay and neuter laws.

9. Ban the exploitation of animals in violent entertainment and sports.

It is our moral obligation to treat wild and domestic animals that we hunt, use for research, use for testing, or grow to eat with care and non-cruel operations. Exploitation and affliction of animals defies our stewardship obligation to care for nature’s resources - animal and vegetable.

1. The National Institutes of Health that does research on preventive medicine and biomedical research should use its funds on clinical, epidemiological and cell culture research, not on live animals.
2. Phase out use of animals for consumer product testing; psychological testing, dissections, weapons development and any military programs.
3. The Endangered Species act should be expanded to protect wild species such as wild horses, and to prevent cock fights and puppy mills, and to strengthen the prohibition on import of exotic animals.
4. States and cities should subsidize spay and neuter clinics.

Our oceans, with their enormous diversity of life and function, are essential to life on Earth and must be preserved. Today, the oceans are threatened by both governments and businesses who exploit ocean resources without considering the consequences. Exploitation of undersea mineral wealth is often done without regard for the environmental damage to land and sea. Greed and indiscriminate harvesting techniques lead to needless devastation of marine species.

Ocean vessels contaminate the sea through leaks large and small, and by dumping their refuse with impunity. Whole oceans are threatened with radioactive contamination by ships transporting weapons-grade plutonium, and by oceanic testing of nuclear weapons. The oceans are further contaminated by heavily polluted streams and rivers, and by undersea toxic dump sites with secret contents.

We favor accelerating research on the nature of the oceans that cover most of our planet. It is essential that we learn as much as possible about the effects of global warming, destruction of coral reefs, and depletion of fish populations upon the oceans.

The Green Party supports the following ocean protection measures:

1. Urge the U.S. government to sign the Laws of the Sea Treaty that establishes the global sharing of ocean resources.

2. Support the National Oceans Protection Act which bans offshore drilling to a distance of 50 to 175 miles from U.S. shores.

3. Establish environmental standards for ocean-going vessels.

4. Ban ocean transportation of nuclear and toxic wastes.

5. Map undersea toxic dump sites and, where possible, recover and treat the toxic wastes.

6. Ban drift-net fishing and long-line fishing, practices that indiscriminately kills marine mammals and other species not intended for the catch. Ban importing of fish and fish products from countries that use drift-nets.

7. Legislate phasing out U.S. factory trawlers while promoting sustainable, community-based fishing.

8. Ban importation of coral products and the destruction of breakwaters that are necessary to protect dying reefs.

9. Maintain the ban on international whale trade, which was debated at the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species.

Mining the ocean of its many products without limit or care is destroying the huge resource to the world that the oceans are.

We support the following:

1. US government sign the Laws of the Sea Treaty that shares ocean resources.
2. National Oceans Protection Act that bans offshore drilling from 50 up to 175 miles from US shores.
3. Ban drift-net fishing and long-line fishing and ban import of ocean fishing that uses such practices.
4. Ban ocean transportation of nuclear and toxic wastes.
5. Map undersea toxic dump sites and investigate methods for rendering them harmless.
6. Phase out US factory trawlers and subsidize community-based, sustainable fishing
7. Ban import of coral products and destruction of breakwaters.
8. Continue ban on international whale trade and all sea life threatened with extinction.

Humanity must share the planet with all other species. Our continuing destruction of animal habitats threatens an ever-growing number of species with extinction. This not only deprives these species of their existence, but will deprive future human generations of the enrichment of having these species on the Earth.

Ecological systems are diverse and interlocking, and nature's survival strategy can best be found in the adaptability that comes as a result of biological diversity. All policies concerning human settlement, food, energy, natural resources, water, coastal development, and industrialization should be formulated to prevent further disruption of the non-human ecosystems' ability to maintain themselves.

1. The Green Party supports a strengthened and enforceable Endangered Species Act.

2. The Convention on Biological Diversity, first adopted at the Earth Summit in 1992, is a primary statement of purpose regarding how we can act to preserve and sustain our common genetic resources. We protest the demands of the U.S. to amend this unprecedented international agreement on behalf of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, with their insistence on protection of their intellectual property and technology transfer rights.

3. We encourage, and support public access to, seed banks and seed collections that emphasize traditional and heirloom seeds.

4. We call for wide-spread education on the critical importance of efforts being made to replant indigenous plant life where it has dwindled or been lost.

5. We oppose monopolistic production of high-tech hybrid seeds. This is the basis of monoculture where agribusiness relies on non-sustainable methods such as single crop varieties bred with industrial traits and grown with high input of energy, chemicals, and pesticides. This has led to a massive loss of biodiversity, displacing traditional varieties and seed stocks.

6. We encourage the use of diverse natural seed varieties passed down over many generations. Crops can be grown with he best plants' seeds being saved season to season.

7. We oppose international trade agreements (NAFTA, GATT and the WTO in particular) that have precedent-setting provisions protecting transnational, corporate control of the intellectual property of genetic material, hybrid seeds, and proprietary products.

8. We support reintroducing native species to areas from which they have been eradicated, eliminating predator control on public lands, and reintroducing native predators where they would contribute to a viable ecosystem.

9. We should educate ourselves about animal behaviors to overcome our culture's irrational fear of wildlife, and learn techniques of co-existence with other species.

10. Since the efforts to clone animals - and eventually humans - has been undertaken by profit-making corporations, the purpose behind such projects is to manufacture commodities. To classify a human (or any part thereof, including human DNA and body organs) as a commodity is to turn human beings into property.

Ecological systems are interlocking and interdependent from the bottom of the food chain to the top. Nature’s survival strategy allows adaptability which itself results in biological diversity.

Our stewardship requires that we not disrupt ecological systems to the degree that they cannot renew and maintain themselves Our protection of this biological diversity, while using it requires that we not disrupt them to the degree that they cannot sustain themselves.

1. We oppose US demands at the Convention on Biological diversity (1992) to give biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries control over their intellectual property and technology transfer rights.
2. We oppose monopolistic production of high-tech hybrid seeds that take away the farmers right to grow his own crop using his own seeds and replacing diversity with monoculture.
3. We oppose international trade agreements (NAFTA, GATT, WTO) that protect corporate control of the intellectual property of genetic material, hybrid seeds and proprietary products.