Honoring Earth Day

In honor of Earth Day this year, Saturday April 22, we asked the founder of the first Earth Day in 1970, Denis Hayes, to share his priorities for agriculture and food in times of climate change. Since 1992, Hayes has served as president of the Bullitt Foundation, dedicated to safeguarding the natural environment in the Pacific Northwest. Here’s what Denis had to share:

“I have many personal priorities for food production unrelated to climate change. These include humane treatment of animals, adequate buffers along streams, protection of pollinators, zero use of antibiotics for growth-enhancing purposes, maintaining corridors for wildlife, programs to show students where their food comes from, etc. I want to eat food raised by farmers who are good stewards.

“In this era of increasingly erratic climate — floods, droughts, extreme winds — my two top priorities for farms are:

1. Topsoil is a farmer’s most important asset. Don’t employ farming techniques that let it wash or blow away. Don’t lace land with poisons that kill microorganisms. Return nutrients to the soil.
2. In many areas, climate change will bring much less rain. In the Northwest total precipitation is expected to remain steady, but it will be much more seasonal and snowpack will diminish. Most farmers — at least west of the Cascades — haven’t had to worry about water in the past — it was cheap and abundant. We should prepare for the end of that era. A little bit of technology and a lot of common sense can work miracles. But only if efficiency is a priority.”

“As political actors,” Hayes says, we must elect “leaders who care for the Earth, understand basic science, and have the guts to fight for posterity.”

“And as consumers,” he says, we should “cultivate a sense of sufficiency. Our consumer society has built a culture of conspicuous consumption. I’d love to see us cultivate a culture of conspicuous frugality. The Bullitt Center uses one-third as much energy per square foot as the second-most-efficient building in Seattle, without any loss of comfort or convenience. We’d love to see a similar attitude applied to our homes, cars, clothes and food.”