The EcoAction Committee of the Green Party of the U.S. held a forum on Monday, August 14 about climate change and agriculture. 

Speakers included Peter Lehner and Liz Henderson.

Agriculture is often overlooked as a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Globally agriculture accounts for almost a third of emissions. Our food system is also under threat from climate change and extreme weather, at both the level of production and distribution. The lack of access to healthy, affordable food for many is already a major domestic and global problem. Only recently has the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) begun to highlight the role of agriculture in the climate crisis, including the recommendation to move to a more plant-based diet. (See chapter on Agriculture in Putting Out the Planetary Fire.)

Peter Lehner, who is appearing as an individual, directs Earthjustice’s Sustainable Food & Farming Program, developing litigation, administrative, and legislative strategies to promote a more just and environmentally sound agricultural system and to reduce health, environmental, and climate harms from production of our food. Peter is one of the leading experts on the impact of agriculture on climate change and is the author of Farming for Our Future; the Science, Law, and Policy of Climate-Neutral Agriculture.

Liz Henderson is a founder of Peacework Organic CSA, one of the oldest CSAs in the United States. She is also the author of a seminal work on CSA farming called Sharing the Harvest. Liz serves as a board member of NOFA-NY and the Agricultural Justice Project. Liz Henderson will talk about how the conventional estimates of ag's contribution to GHG usually overlook the production, transport and use of synthetic nitrogen feritlizer, CAFOs, methane and anaerobic digesters, and the Soil health work NOFA is doing together with other farming organizations around the country, and the NOFA Farm Bill platform.

Registration Required.