Ronnie Cummins

"Grassroots Rising is a wake-up call, an agronomic and political blueprint, and a call to action for America and the global body politic to address the challenge of climate change. The best-kept secret in the world today is that the solution to the global climate emergency and related crises lies right beneath our feet and at the end of our forks and knives. The book is based on the premise that business as usual-profligate fossil fuel use; degenerative food, farming, and land use; hyper-consumerism; and the status-quo focus of the US and global elite-can and must be reversed over the next decade and beyond. The economic system of late-stage capitalism and the biological carrying capacity of the planet have reached points of implosion. Unfettered greenhouse gas emissions have brought us to the brink of runaway climate catastrophe, while out-of-control corporate greed, militarism, and elite rule have devastated public health, the environment, and the "natural capital" and democratic ethos that sustain the global economy and political system. To survive and thrive in catastrophic times, Grassroots Rising calls for building a world-changing, grassroots Regeneration Movement, one based on consumer awareness, farmer innovation, political change, and regenerative finance, embodied most recently by the proposed Green New Deal in the US. This Regeneration Movement will enable us to not only mitigate and slow down climate change, but actually reverse global warming by regenerating our soils and our food system and converting to renewable energy. With these methods, we will be able to address and resolve the interrelated crises of environmental destruction, deteriorating public health, rural poverty, endless war, and political degeneration. Regenerative food, farming, and land use can provide a new outlook on life, a therapeutic vision and daily practice that demonstrates that we the people, the global grassroots, can begin to turn away from disaster, solve our most pressing crises, and meet our most important needs"--