A step in the wrong direction

We should be doing everything we can to encourage healthy, safe food and responsible farming.

Unfortunately, the U.S. House just voted to eliminate programs that encourage local, sustainable farms. At the same time, they’re continuing to send billions of dollars to the factory farms that endanger waterways and contribute to air pollution by transporting food long distances.

The Senate can remedy this by restoring the programs that help small farmers, and making sure large farms don’t pollute our water and air.

We need access to more local food, not less

Fresh, local food shouldn't be hard to find. There are now 251 farmers' markets across the state, but we can still do much more to expand opportunities for local, sustainable farmers. Most of the food sold in supermarkets and restaurants comes from factory farms that ship semi trucks full of basic commodities across long distances. Industrial agriculture allows polluted runoff to drain into our precious waterways, uses excessive amounts of chemicals, and pollutes the air from excessive shipping. Abusing our land and polluting our air and water to fill shelves with low-quality food is unacceptable. We must require factory farms to clean up their acts and at the same time that we encourage the expansion of sustainable farms.

Sustainable agriculture has grown from a collection of visionary farmers to a viable market sector. There is immense potential to provide food from sustainable farms to more people. We can build the market for good food and encourage more farmers to switch from growing commodity crops on chemical-intensive farms to growing food for local customers in ways that are in balance with the environment.

With your activism and our advocacy, we can have healthier farms

Environment Oregon is working to make sure the rules for conventional farms are strong enough to protect our waterways. At the same time, we are helping to build the market for food from local farms that grow diversified crops using sustainable practices.

Healthy Farms updates

Blog Post

To A Greener, Cleaner, and Healthier New Year... | Sarah Higginbotham

As the winter rains finally fall this month, refreshing Oregon's landscape and bringing in 2012, Environment Oregon has many things to be proud of from the past year and much work ahead. With people like you on our side, I'm confident we can keep making a difference for the Pacific and its wildlife, protect Crater Lake from logging and development, and keep Oregon moving toward a clean-energy future. Just consider the difference we've already made together:

We've banned plastic bags in Portland...and we're working in cities around the state urging decision-makers to do their part to cut plastic pollution. Read our report, Oregon Takes Action, noting that in addition to Portland, more than 80 goverments worldwide have taken action against plastic bags.

We've sounded the alarm about threats to Crater Lake. Take a look at the proposed wilderness area that would create and protect a 75-mile long wilderness corridor containing pristine forestland, wildlife habitat for some of Oregon's most iconic species, and headwaters home to spawning salmon.

We're leading the way toward a cleaner future. Tell President Obama today that you support the landmark Clean Car standards he's proposed. We paved the way for a new federal fuel-efficiency standards by helping pass them here in Oregon first--dederal standards that could help us get off oil and slash global warming emissions by an amount equivalent to shutting 70-coal fired power plants.

I hope the new year finds you enjoying your favorite places and discovering new ones. Go enjoy the snowy slopes of Mt. Hood, the trails along the Columbia River Gorge or a special place closer to home, knowing that all of us at Environment Oregon are working hard to ensure they are just as beautiful for future generations as they are today.

And know that you are playing an invaluable part in protecting what's best about Oregon.

Here's to a greener, cleaner, and healthier new year.

-Sarah

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A push for Crater Lake protections

A coalition of conservationist groups has launched a campaign centered on Crater Lake, hoping to expand the federally protected land in and around Oregon’s only national park. The proposal, which also would bar helicopter tours over the lake, calls for Congress to designate an additional 500,000 acres as wilderness, the highest level of protection available on federal lands. The goal is to link smaller wilderness areas that already dot the landscape and create a “wildlife corridor” along the crest of the southern Cascades, said Dave Mathews, a preservation associate with Environment Oregon.

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Op-Ed: Energy tax credits help emerging businesses

Oregon has quickly become America's capitol for solar manufacturing and will soon be home to the world's largest wind farm. But Oregon's current financial crisis has forced the Legislature to make some hard choices in order to balance the state's budget.

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Report | Environment Oregon Research & Policy Center

Oregon Takes Action: Efforts Across the Globe to Fight Ocean Pollution

To reduce ocean pollution and protect the environment, more than 80 national and local governments across the planet have taken official action to ban throw-away plastic bags or to establish fees or taxes on such bags. State, county, and city governments in Oregon should follow their lead and ban the use of plastic grocery bags.

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Headline

Plastic Bag Bans Spreading Across the US

Across the country, cities and counties are instituting fees on plastic bags, or even banning them outright, in an effort to prevent pollution and raise revenue for cash-strapped local governments.

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