As farmers face the new crisis of the pandemic, we must come together to demand that federal stimulus funding and future farm policies support small and mid-scale farmers across the country who are supporting resilient and regenerative local and regional food systems.

Instead of altering the animal, we need to fix the farm. Instead of creating GMO pigs that are resistant to diseases, we should focus on the root cause of the problem: industrial agriculture and horrendous factory farm conditions.

Including pesticide reduction as a vital part of the regenerative agriculture conversation ensures that Monsanto and its ilk do not define the path forward.

Our agricultural system is so intertwined with the economic system that is causing the climate crisis that any Green New Deal will need to address how we produce and consume what we eat. That will require actions from combatting corporate consolidation to ensuring fair prices for farmers to supporting growers to transition to sustainable farming practices.

Like millions of farmworkers who have labored in America’s fields and orchards, I know what it’s like to grow the food we eat using toxic pesticides.

Climate change is a crisis that needs new thinking. For almost 30 years, the promise of cap-and-trade, carbon markets and faith in capitalism have generated a never-ending debate that has careened toward political inaction.

For the first year, all major garden retailers are on record committing to eliminate the use of neonicotinoid (neonic) pesticides on the products and garden plants that they sell.

Our current industrial food system, and the policies that prop it up, are a central part of the climate crisis, and transforming them must be a central part of the Green New Deal solution.

This research confirms what is intuitive and supports what the President's Cancer Panel told us nearly a decade ago: reducing exposure to cancer-causing chemicals, including pesticides, reduces your risk of cancer.

Agriculture produces an astounding one-third of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Meat and dairy alone generate about half of those food-related emissions — more than the combined tailpipe discharges from every plane, train, car, bus and boat around the world.