Ronnie Cummins - Grassroots Rising: A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and a Green New Deal

Praise for Grassroots Rising

The world is finally waking up to the ecological and climate emergency and the urgent need to realign the economy with the laws of ecology. In Grassroots Rising , tireless activist Ronnie Cummins outlines how we can address the multiple crises of our time by making a transition from industrial agriculture and food systems to a regenerative agriculture that recycles carbon and nitrogen in forests, grasslands, and farms; reverses climate change; creates healthy soils; and halts species extinction and the erosion of biodiversity. This is a book that should be in the hands of every activist working on food and farming, climate change, and the Green New Deal.

V ANDANA S HIVA , scientist, environmentalist, social activist; author of Earth Democracy , Soil Not Oil , and Stolen Harvest

Grassroots Rising is one of the most important books you will ever read. It shows the existential environmental and health disasters caused by the toxic and degenerative practices of the poison cartels, Big Agriculture, the fossil fuel industries, predator tycoons, and the money manipulators. Most importantly, though, it is a book with good news! It outlines a logical and very achievable pathway for how we can shift from degeneration to regeneration and make this a healthy, fair, prosperous, diverse, democratic, and environmentally robust world for all of us.

A NDR L EU , former president, International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM); author of The Myth of Safe Pesticides

Healthy soil, healthy plants, healthy animals, healthy food, healthy people. My friend and fellow activist Ronnie Cummins makes a strong case for how organic and regenerative food, farming, and land use can lead us to a healthier and happier world with a stable climate.

D R. J OSEPH M ERCOLA , founder, Mercola.com

The future doesnt have to be gloomy. In this upbeat call to action, Ronnie Cummins, longtime campaigner for healthy food and land, guides us on a hopeful and pragmatic journey into the crucial upcoming decade. A Regenerative Economy is not pie-in-the-sky; it can be done. We have all the tools we need. And thanks to leaders such as Ronnie, we know what to do. This book is a must-read!

C OURTNEY W HITE , author of Grass, Soil, Hope and Two Percent Solutions for the Planet

Other Books by Ronnie Cummins

Children of the World

Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers

Grassroots Rising

A Call to Action on Climate, Farming, Food, and a Green New Deal

Ronnie Cummins

Chelsea Green Publishing

White River Junction, Vermont

London, UK

Copyright 2020 by Ronnie Cummins.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher.

Project Manager: Patricia Stone

Project Editor: Benjamin Watson

Copy Editor: Nancy Ringer

Proofreader: Deborah Heimann

Indexer: Shana Milkie

Designer: Melissa Jacobson

Printed in the United States of America.

First printing January 2020.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 120 21 22 23 24

Our Commitment to Green Publishing

Chelsea Green sees publishing as a tool for cultural change and ecological stewardship. We strive to align our book manufacturing practices with our editorial mission and to reduce the impact of our business enterprise in the environment. We print our books and catalogs on chlorine-free recycled paper, using vegetable-based inks whenever possible. This book may cost slightly more because it was printed on paper that contains recycled fiber, and we hope youll agree that its worth it. Grassroots Rising was printed on paper supplied by Sheridan that is made of recycled materials and other controlled sources.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Cummins, Ronnie, author.

Title: Grassroots rising : a call to action on climate, farming, food, and a green new deal / Ronnie Cummins.

Description: White River Junction, Vermont : Chelsea Green Publishing, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019049657 (print) | LCCN 2019049658 (ebook) | ISBN 9781603589758 (paperback) | ISBN 9781603589765 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Climate change mitigationUnited States. | EnvironmentalismUnited States.

Classification: LCC TD171.75 .C86 2020 (print) | LCC TD171.75 (ebook) | DDC 363.738/740973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049657

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019049658

Chelsea Green Publishing

85 North Main Street, Suite 120

White River Junction, VT 05001

(802) 295-6300

www.chelseagreen.com

CONTENT

3.Grassroots Awareness, Political Mobilization, and Marketplace Demand
regeneration driver one

4.Carbon Farming, Reforestation, and Ecosystem Restoration
regeneration driver two

5.Politics and Public Policy
regeneration driver three

6.Public and Private Investment
regeneration driver four

regeneration. 1: an act or the process of regenerating: the state of being regenerated. 2: spiritual renewal or revival. 3: renewal or restoration of a body, bodily part, or biological system (such as a forest) after injury or as a normal process.

M ERRIAM- W EBSTERS C OLLEGIATE D ICTIONARY , 11th ed.

This is a book about how wethe United States and a global grassroots movementcan rise up together and overcome the most serious threat that humans have ever confronted: global warming and severe climate change. According to scientific consensus, unless we can begin to rapidly turn things around, within one to two decades, our current climate crisis will likely morph into catastrophic climate change, unraveling the life-support systems of our planet.

The driving force that informs and inspires our new grassroots revolution is Regeneration, a rapidly spreading, carbon-sequestering, ecologically restorative, technologically innovative, forward-thinking worldview that takes us well beyond the now unfortunately outdated twentieth-century notions of sustainability. Regeneration calls for a transition from degenerative, climate-disrupting fossil fuels to renewable energy and from industrial food, farming, and land use to regenerative practices. In this way, through the miracle of plant photosynethsis, we can draw down billions of tons of excess carbon from the atmosphere into our soils, forests, and plants over the next few decades and thereby avert climate catastrophe. By mobilizing the grassroots power of a united body politic for survival and revival, we can head off climate chaos and build a new nation along the lines of a Green New Deal. At the same time, as our Regeneration revolution spreads across borders, we can build a new global commonwealth of peace and justice.

A properly organized and executed Regeneration revolution, led by global youth and a revitalized US and global grassroots not only has the awesome capacity to draw down massive amounts of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO) and reverse global warming but, at the same time, has the power to clean up pollution, restore water quality, increase biodiversity, and rejuvenate soils, forests, pasturelands, croplands, wetlands, and watersheds. Moreover, this revolution in our relationship to Mother Earth and one another, scaled up nationally and internationally, has the potential to revitalize public health, both mental and physical, by providing a bountiful harvest of healthy, organic foods for everyone, while transforming our currently degenerative urban and rural landscapes into regenerative environments and bringing us all together in a common mission. Coupled with a green and equitable energy economy, regenerative agricultural and land use policies and practices hold out the promise of a better life and standard of living for all of the worlds 7.5 billion people, rural and urban, including the most impoverished and exploited communities.