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Green Party Committees: Platform

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PLATFORM COMM

ARCHIVE

THE GP PLATFORM

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.

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.
We support new farming and growing opportunities and urge the inclusion of non-traditional crops and foods in farm programs.
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.
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.
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.
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.`
We would phase-out man-made pesticides and artificial fertilizers. We support Integrated Pest Management techniques as an alternative to chemical-based agriculture.
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.
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.
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.
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.
We encourage states to promote net-metering to make decentralized energy production economically viable.
Animal farming must be practiced in ethically and environmentally sustainable ways. Rapidly phase out the use of confined animal feeding operations and factory farms.
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.
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.

I. Biological Diversity

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.

The Green Party supports a strengthened and enforceable Endangered Species Act.
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.
We encourage, and support public access to, seed banks and seed collections that emphasize traditional and heirloom seeds.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.

J. Ethical Treatment of Animals

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:

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.
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.
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.
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.
End the abuse of animals, including farm animals, and strengthen our enforcement of existing laws.
Ban the use of goods produced from exotic or endangered animals.
Prohibit large scale commercial breeding facilities, such as "puppy mills," because of the massive suffering, overpopulation, and ill health such facilities produce.
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.
Ban the exploitation of animals in violent entertainment and sports.

K. Forestry Practices

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:

Overhaul state and U.S. Forest Service rules to protect our forests and use them wisely.
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.
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.
Ban the harvest of Ancient Forests.
Ban the export of raw logs and other minimally processed forest products (pulp, chips, carts, slabs, etc.), which causes American job loss.
Offer subsidies to local watershed-based mills. This will maximize employment opportunities through value-added processing, and promote sustainability and worker control.
Use work projects, goats, and other sustainable methods to control undergrowth rather than spraying herbicides, especially near communities.
Grow and use hemp as a plentiful and renewable resource for the manufacture of paper and other forest products.
Protect significant archaeological, historical and cultural sites.
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.
Forgive the debts of Third World countries that need help in halting the destruction of their rain forest lands.
Develop labels that identify ecologically sound forest products. This would help consumers to support ecologically sound forestry.
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.

L. Ocean Protection

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:

Urge the U.S. government to sign the Laws of the Sea Treaty that establishes the global sharing of ocean resources.
Support the National Oceans Protection Act which bans offshore drilling to a distance of 50 to 175 miles from U.S. shores.
Establish environmental standards for ocean-going vessels.
Ban ocean transportation of nuclear and toxic wastes.
Map undersea toxic dump sites and, where possible, recover and treat the toxic wastes.
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.
Legislate phasing out U.S. factory trawlers while promoting sustainable, community-based fishing.
Ban importation of coral products and the destruction of breakwaters that are necessary to protect dying reefs.
Maintain the ban on international whale trade, which was debated at the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species.