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Five years ago, climate activists stunned corporate America by winning three seats on Exxon Mobil’s board. Similar revolts have forced some of the nation’s biggest companies to address climate change. Now, the federal regulator overseeing shareholder rights is making it harder for small investors to convey their concerns. 

In November, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, announced that it would essentially stop weighing in on whether companies must put shareholder proposals to a vote. Then, in January, the agency said it would no longer allow investors with less than $5 million in shares to use its online system to send communiqués, known as exempt solicitations, to fellow shareholders. Such documents are often used to lay out an investor’s stance on a given issue, including climate action. 

The SEC says the moves are an attempt to rein in the scope of government and ease burdensome regulation. But others see them as a way to contain the influence of potentially irksome investors. “We are concerned that they limit the voice of [company] owners,” Steven Rothstein, chief program officer for Ceres, a sustainability nonprofit working with companies and investors, said of the changes. “Shareholders are being cut out of the process.”

The SEC had already made it harder to place a resolution on the voting docket during President Donald Trump’s first term. And companies are still allowed to block such proposals for several reasons — for example, if they can’t reasonably implement them or if they amount to micromanagement of business operations. But, prior to November, companies could expect the SEC to offer guidance on whether the government would take action if a proposal was excluded. While technically non-binding, these so-called “no action” letters were a strong sign that the government would let the company’s decision stand.

The SEC said it would retreat from its role as arbiter for at least a year, citing “resource” considerations and last fall’s prolonged government shutdown. Andrew Behar, CEO of the shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, wouldn’t be surprised if the SEC extended the pause. As he put it, “they are no longer going to be the referee.”

The government also lamented that the “large volume” of requests often require prompt attention from staff. According to nonprofit think tank The Conference Board, which has more than 2,000 companies as members, last year the SEC ruled on 291 “no-action” requests from companies on the Russell 3000 stock market index. That’s up from 207 the previous year, and 144 in 2023. “It was too much,” said Ariane Marchis-Mouren, an expert in corporate governance at The Conference Board. “This is a way for them to shift the responsibility to the companies.”

Marchis-Mouren argues that without the SEC’s input, companies face greater legal risk from investors or the SEC, which could make them think twice before excluding proposals. But Behar and other activists worry the opposite will occur: Because the SEC has rarely taken enforcement action in this arena and lawsuits are often prohibitively expensive for smaller shareholders, there is little left to prevent companies from omitting resolutions they don’t like. 

“Exxon wouldn’t put them on their proxy statement,” said Behar, giving an example. Still, he remains unsure whether the new SEC approach will spur activists to flood companies with proposals, or shy away. What’s more clear, however, is the impact on exempt solicitations. 

Advocacy nonprofits and corporate gadflies have been the main drivers of exempt solicitations, according to data from The Conference Board. As You Sow topped the list, writing more than 200 of them since 2018, on a range of concerns, including climate change. But, under the new rules, Behar said groups like his would be almost entirely sidelined. 

Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Paul S. Atkins testified before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on February 12. Win McNamee / Getty Images

Some argue that this is a good thing — that exempt solicitations have devolved into a platform for activism that’s better reserved for other platforms. “These notices were not meant to be the means for any shareholder to broadcast its views via EDGAR,” an SEC spokesperson told Grist in a statement, referring to the commission’s official online system. Shareholders can instead use “press releases, emails, websites and social media, and electronic shareholder forums.” 

But Rothstein argues that the targeted nature of the official SEC systems helps give often niche or nuanced issues more weight. “People may not see that newspaper story or that radio interview or whatever it might be,” he said. An exempt solicitation, on the other hand, “reaches the people voting.”

Ultimately, Behar said, limiting small investors’ options for holding corporations accountable removes incentives for those companies to constructively engage with advocates. “Companies generally sit down with us,” he said, noting that As You Sow had more than 100 such engagements last year alone. “It’s all part of a process.”

On Wednesday, SEC chairman Paul Atkins doubled down on his deregulatory push in testimony before the House Committee on Financial Services. He said that, in addition to the steps already taken, the SEC is reevaluating the frequency of financial statement reporting, which is now quarterly, and considering scaling back other disclosures a company must make. Lawmakers asked him about this apparent shift toward shareholders having access to less information. 

“In general, it comes down to the company’s decision as to what they believe is material or not,” he said during an exchange with Representative Ayanna Pressley, a Democrat from Massachusetts. “Our rules are geared to the company.”

The SEC did not respond to follow-up questions from Grist, including whether the one-year pause on no action letters will be extended or, without them, how the government plans to enforce noncompliance.

Rothstein worries that the current trajectory could have broader consequences for the economy. 

“Engagement has made our capital markets great,” he said, arguing that tamping the dialogue between companies and its owners will reduce transparency and could make people less likely to buy stock in U.S. companies. “We think that is very harmful to the American economy.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline It just got harder for shareholders to push companies on climate on Feb 13, 2026.

In what one sage deemed "amateur-hour, clown-fucker, reality-show dictatorship shit," this week's House hearings on ICE abuses, Epstein cover-ups and other GOP atrocities showcased a parade of rancid, lying, stonewalling MAGA lickspittles and deplorables - loudest among them sneering "bad acid trip come to life" Pam Bondi - facing off against a for-once united cohort of smart, angry, truth-telling Democrats with righteous history on their side and, finally, no fucks left to give. We are here for it.

Deep in his delusional bubble, the mad child-king ostensibly in charge of these evil cretins told Fox News Wednesday that Americans are living in "the greatest period of anything we’ve ever seen." Maybe he meant how he's been bravely standing up for a bridge he thinks Canada ripped us off for while forgetting he praised it when it was built, and paid for, by Canada. Or maybe it's 'cause in exchange for idiotically spending our money trying to prop up dirty, pricey, inefficient coal - "the 19th century called and it wants its fuel source back" - and glitching out en route, the "simplest mark of all time" got another shiny participation trophy as the “Undisputed Champion of Beautiful Clean Coal." "Lookit his happy face!" the Internet chortled. "The big special boy is so big and so special!" Also, "Marvel is running out of Superheroes" and "This is the saddest thing I've ever seen."

Possibly sadder is MAGA Reps. Andy Ogles and Mark Alford still melting down about Bad Bunny's "pure smut" half-time show wherein "children were forced to endure explicit displays of gay sexual acts" that are "illegal to be displayed on public airways" which is why he wants a Congressional inquiry into said "unspeakable depravities," though they might be confusing them with Epstein's, which they've notably ignored. Also sad is another bigly fail by US Attorney Jeanine Boxwine to get a grand jury indictment for fake crimes, in this case against Dem Sens. Mark Kelly and Elissa Slotkin and four Reps, all veterans, for their video reading the law out loud to remind military they have the right not to obey illegal orders. The kicker: Her attempt was so ludicrous that reportedly zero grand jurors thought she hit the famously low ham-sandwich bar for probable cause.

In this week's House hearings, it was clear Dem lawmakers, like the rest of us, had reached the famed point in 1954's McCarthy hearings when an appalled Joseph Welch, at the limit of his tolerance for McCarthy's lies and cruelty, exclaimed, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" That fierce moral outrage, and the strength and clarity needed to vent it, has been evident in besieged Minnesota for weeks - In grand jurors' refusal to indict so-called "rioters,” in protesters' profane, hilarious anthem pillorying ICE Barbie, in neighbors seething at the masked, armed rabble that just caused a multi-vehicle crash in St.Paul, the latest in endless ICE crimes and transgressions. "Oh my God, you guys are so....evil. I can feel it, " railed one resident. "Jesus. Fucking incels, racists, murderers, thugs. What are you doing?!"

So it was that, in Tuesday's House Homeland Security Committee hearing, when acting ICE director Todd Lyons whined in his opening statement that "to say the men and women of ICE are Gestapo (is) wrong" and hurts their alleged feelings, Rep. Dan Goldman wasn't having it. "People are simply making valid observations about your tactics, which are un-American and outright fascist," he said. Goldman cited their racial profiling, asking people for their papers, use of excessive force and other forms of intimidation, likening them to Nazi/ Soviet regimes and shutting down Lyons' protestations as "unnecessary speaking." "I have a simple suggestion," Goldman said calmly. "If you don’t want to be called a fascist regime or a secret police, then stop acting like one." Tell it to power-mad, I-want-my-blankey ICE Barbie, reportedly fascisting it up big time over her goons. Jesus.

Other Dems minced no words. Rep. LaMonica McIver: "Mr. Lyons, do you consider yourself a religious man?" "Yes, Ma'am." "Well, how do you think Judgment Day will work for you with so much blood on your hands?" "I'm not gonna entertain that question." "Oh, ok, of course not. Do you think you’re going to hell, Mr. Lyons?" "I’m not gonna entertain that question." When the Chair chides her about "standards of decorum," she blithely notes, "Well, you guys are always talking about religion, so it's OK for me to just ask a question, right? Thank you, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate you." (Comment: "We need more Black women in Congress.") She goes on, "How many government agencies, Mr. Lyons, are you aware of that routinely kill American citizens and still get funding?” "Ma'am, I'm not gonna entertain that." "Of course you're not. This is exactly why we should not be funding this agency...The people are watching you."

And so it went. Quoting Lyons' earlier testimony he "wanted to see a deportation process like Amazon Prime, but with human beings," Eric Swalwell asked, "How many times has Amazon Prime shot a mom 3 times in the face?" "None," said Lyons, lamely noting he meant it "needs to be more efficient" and he'd added, "we deal with humans so we can't be like them." Swalwell, coolly, "Speaking of humans, how many times has Amazon Prime shot a nurse 10 times in the back?” Online, commenters clarified, "Obviously, Amazon Prime doesn't shoot you in the face. You have to pay for Amazon Prime Plus to get that level of service," though, "you'll still get ads unless you step up to Premium, and you'll have to pay for the ammo." From another, "Is this the first time Amazon has been used as the good guy in a comparison? Fuck him up."

Rep.Delia Ramirez ripped Lyons: "My mother, a Guatemalan immigrant and (finger in air) an American taught me I have a responsibility to look evil in the eye and you have used your power to perpetrate great evil, and it's time you answer to this committee for the lawlessness you have empowered." She named Good, Pretti, Marimar Martinez - "Do something bitch" - and myriad other crimes: 100 court orders violated, dozens of tear-gas attacks despite a court order, banned chokeholds, warrantless arrests, 3,800 children in detention, roving patrols, plate switching, observer intimidation. On ICE demands to "respect the mission": "I have as much respect for you as I do for the last white men who put on masks to terrorize communities of color... the inheritors of the Klanhood and the slave patrol. Their activities were immoral and criminal, and so are yours."

Wednesday, A.G. Pam Bondi appeared before the House Judiciary Committee in a rabid attempt to make them forget her months of covering up the Epstein files, missing deadlines, redacting perps, releasing survivors' names and otherwise ignoring them by "shouting, lying and being a cold bitch." Over five hours, in "an astonishingly contemptuous performance," she failed to answer a single question. Acting out "a sociopathic tween," she shrieked, veered, lied, argued, sniped, stonewalled, deflected, rolled her eyes and mean-girled through a book of scripted smears at Dems daring to seek accountability: "Insolent, Shouty Brat Brings Burn Book To Congress." She was "a nasty piece of work," a "demented skank," a "Nazi redneck bleach blond Barbie," a "historic villain" who once vowed to "put human trafficking monsters (behind) bars" and will now be shunned "in every room she ever walks into for the rest of her life," to die "as a disbarred lawyer and a national disgrace...Her cheese has slid off her cracker."

She was snippy queen of the frantic non-sequiturs, with "an unmistakable stench of desperation" in her tantrums. When Jerry Nadler asked how many Epstein perps she's indicted - zero, duh - she raved, "You all should be apologizing. You sit here and you attack the President, and I am not going to have it." Then she wildly pivoted - what child rape? - yelling, "The Dow is over 50,000, the S&P at almost 7,000, the NASDAQ is smashing records, Americans’ 401(k)s are booming. That’s what we should be talking about." WTF. When Zoe Lofgren asked her about redacting traffickers' names, she sneered, "I find it interesting she keeps going after President Trump, the greatest president in American history. She didn't say how much money she took from Reid Hoffman, did she?" Asked about Ludnick's ties to Epstein, she bickered, "what is ties?", scowled "shame on you," scoffed, "I'm stunned you want to keep talking."

Jamie Raskin, the Committee's Ranking Member, repeatedly called bullshit: "You can filibuster all you want, but not on our time. The way it works is, we ask you a question, you answer it. I warned you at the outset of this hearing." Bondi exploded. "You don't TELL ME anything,” she shrieked. “You’re a washed-up, loser lawyer." Then, mad-Lady-Macbeth-like, she muttered, "You’re not even a lawyer." (Raskin, a graduate of Harvard Law School and former editor of Harvard Law Review, is a longtime professor of Constitutional law at American University, and has written several books.) Unflappable, Raskin coolly accused her of running an Epstein cover-up of "staggering incompetence." "You've turned the people's Department of Justice into Trump’s instrument of revenge,” he charged. “Trump orders up prosecutions like pizza, and you deliver every time."

Bondi blocked questions from Becca Balint with smears against Merrick Garland - Balint: "Weak sauce" - then with charges of anti-Semitism. Balint, whose grandparents were killed in the Holocaust: "You want to go there?! Really?!" Ted Lieu asked if Trump attended parties with underage girls; Bondi rolled her eyes. "This is so ridiculous," she said. "They are trying to deflect from all the great things Donald Trump has done. There is no evidence he has committed a crime. Everyone knows that." Lieu: "I believe you just lied under oath, which is a crime." Bondi, screaming, "Don't you ever accuse me of committing a crime!" Jared Moskowitz noted Trump's name appears over a million times in the Epstein files, "more than God's name in the book about God." Grinning, he mused about her Burn Book zingers: "I'm curious. Just flip to Moskowitz. Because we’re in the Olympics, I’m going to give it a grade. Give me your best one. Whaddya got?"

With almost a dozen Epstein survivors sitting behind Bondi in the hearing room, Pramila Jayapal asked them to stand and raise their hands if they'd tried and failed to meet with DOJ officials. They all did. She asked Bondi to turn around and apologize; Bondi stood her ground: "I'm not going to get in the gutter with this woman and her theatrics." Noting an earlier claim that any victim who wants to talk to the DOJ has done so, Dan Goldman took up her quest. He asked how many had met with the DOJ: None. How many had reached out asking to: All. Of those who reached out, how many were ignored: All. And despite "their shameful, despicable efforts to intimidate," how many are still willing to talk to them? All. Bondi, still sitting, still hating, still steadfastly unperturbed, breezily flips her fake blond hair back, gazing into space.

Jasmine Crockett declined to "ask any questions of this witness because (she) has no intention of answering them." She turned to Ballint. "Right or wrong? Raping children." Ballint: "Wrong." "Killing random citizens." "Wrong." Etc. Crockett: "OK, thank you. I never woulda got that from our witness, who is somehow a lawyer but doesn't understand how it works with witnesses. I'm not sure what law school you went to (Stetson)... but you don’t seem very good at your job...Americans are looking for answers (not) protecting pedophiles and creeps. You will be remembered as one of the worst Attorney Generals in history." Bondi cuts in to rave about immigrants convicted of crimes in Texas. Crocket cuts her off: "CONVICTED! So what we talkin’ about? Convict some of these perpetrators who raped these women sitting behind you that you won’t even acknowledge are here!” She stalks out. Bondi is still babbling about Hakeem Jeffries and some money.

Observers were aghast at the wretched Bondi spectacle. Online, one older woman conceded "I'm sure this will get taken down" but spoke her mind for all of us: "Bondi is an absolute cunt, and needs to rot in prison for the rest of her life. What an evil evil woman. My God." Trump loved it: Bondi was "fantastic." John Pavlovitz, pastor and father, looked on at her "masterclass in gaslighting," and wondered, "How does someone become Pam Bondi?" He muses about "the meandering road to losing one's soul...so completely bereft of empathy, so seemingly unencumbered by other people’s suffering, and so strident in the face of simple accountability." As someone's daughter, he writes, "I'm sure there’s a story you have to tell yourself to keep the self-loathing at bay and let you sleep at night...I hope whatever you got for your soul was worth it to you. It sure as hell isn’t for the rest of us."

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After failing to get some of their main asks at the COP30 climate summit in November, European Union environment ministers are considering a new strategy for international climate negotiations which they describe as “less naive”, and more “realistic” and “pragmatic”.

On their way into a meeting to discuss the strategy in Cyprus last Friday, several ministers and officials hinted that the EU should take a tougher line in the United Nations (UN) climate talks and make more use of its power as a climate finance donor and trade partner.

At COP30 in the Brazilian city of Belém, the EU pushed – along with other countries including the UK and some Latin American and small island nations – for stronger outcomes on transitioning away from fossil fuels, including a global roadmap. But after fractious all-night talks, the group was left disappointed as big fossil-fuel producers and most African states did not come on board.

Last week, reflecting on those results, Belgian climate minister Jean-Luc Crucke told reporters that Europe should be “realistic” and “better prepared”. Speaking in French, he said multilateralism should not mean that “it is always the same people who contribute while others do not”.

Hungary’s state secretary for environmental affairs Aniko Raisz said the EU must learn the lessons of COP30. The EU “has nothing to be afraid of, nothing to be shy of, we are not lacking ambition”. But, she added, “we need realism, we need pragmatism and we need to show that we are competitive”.

• Nov 27, 2025 Politics EU alliance with climate-vulnerable nations frays over finance trade-off Negotiators from the EU and from small island states – usually well-aligned at UN climate talks – have expressed disappointment in each other after COP30 Read more
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According to Radio France Internationale, an official from the office of French climate minister Monique Barbut told reporters before the meeting in Cyprus that the EU must be “less naive” and “more assertive, more demanding and more transactional if we want to have an impact in these negotiations”.

“We are in a tougher world where the European Union, when it comes to climate negotiations, is more isolated,” the quoted official said, before questioning whether the EU should “continue to demonstrate climate and financial solidarity with countries” that have not met their obligations under the Paris Agreement.

“We have tools like trade agreements,” whose implementation could be conditional on compliance with the Paris accord, the unnamed source added.

Speaking after the ministers’ meeting, European Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra said the EU “is financing by far the most of climate action abroad” but “unfortunately, solidarity and reciprocity do not always go hand in hand. and that has to change”.

According to analysis by think-tank ODI Global, the US has never paid its fair share towards rich countries’ climate finance commitments and, under the Trump Administration, has now pulled back from climate finance almost entirely, leaving the EU as by far the biggest provider.

Trade and finance as leverage

Discussions are still at an early stage, details of the new strategy have yet to be published and the European Commission did not respond to a request for comment. But a source who speaks regularly to EU officials said they expect the bloc to become more selective in who it gives climate finance to, placing greater weight on the EU’s own commercial and geopolitical interests.

The source told Climate Home News that a higher proportion of funding may be given on a country-to-country basis, rather than through UN climate funds like the Green Climate Fund (GCF) where it is harder to control. Several European nations recently blocked Oman from getting GCF climate finance for an early warning system, sparking accusations of “discrimination” and “political considerations” from developing countries.

Trade could also be used as leverage. The EU’s recent trade deals with New Zealand, Kenya, Chile, India and the South American Mercosur bloc all included clauses specifying that both sides should implement the Paris climate agreement. Those provisions have yet to be used, despite backtracking on climate action from the New Zealand government.

• Feb 9, 2026 News Vanuatu pushes new UN resolution demanding full climate compensation The Pacific island nation wants the UN General Assembly to enforce last year’s landmark court decision on states’ climate responsibility, a first draft shows Read more
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At UN shipping talks in October, the Trump administration used threats of tariffs and visa restrictions on individual negotiators to achieve its aim of delaying green regulations, outmanoeuvring the EU and its allies.

“In a world where Trump is inserting clauses into trade agreements and using bullying tactics, it’s important for Europe to look at how it can – in a values-based way – use all of its assets too,” former German climate envoy Jennifer Morgan told Climate Home News.

Morgan, one of the EU’s lead negotiating figures at COP27, COP28 and COP29, said the EU should integrate climate into all areas of foreign and economic policy and combine trade, investment, climate and energy security files. She also urged the bloc’s members to hire more high-level climate diplomats.

After a change in the German government, Morgan’s climate envoy position was abolished and now no major EU country has a climate diplomat of ministerial or deputy ministerial rank, making it harder to organise meetings with foreign ministers.

Jennifer Morgan with advisers and ministers at COP29 on December 3, 2023 (Photo: Kiara Worth/UNFCCC)

The EU’s diplomats in the European External Action Service should collaborate more with the European Commission divisions dealing with climate (DG CLIMA) and international partnerships (DG INTPA) so that the EU can “speak with one voice in capitals and internationally”, Morgan said.

But, she suggested, “Trump-like transactionalism should be avoided” as “countries need to come together to build the clean economy, not divide and rule to keep the old”.

Too transactional already?

The EU has already faced accusations that it is too transactional and doubling down on this strategy could backfire. At COP30, negotiators from the world’s poorest countries, African nations and small islands criticised EU attempts to trade promises on adaptation finance for commitments to cut emissions. “Adaptation is a right, not a bargaining chip,” said Africa’s then lead negotiator Richard Muyungi.

Avantika Goswami, climate lead at the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, told Climate Home News: “It is unfortunate that the EU is seeing a fractured world and choosing to be transactional and ‘pragmatic’, rather than reinforcing their commitment to international cooperation and a multilateral regime based on justice and reparations.” She added that, as the EU has not yet fully eliminated its own dependence on fossil fuels, this strategy is “hypocritical”.

The Asia Society Policy Institute’s Li Shuo also warned the EU against taking a harder stance. “In turbulent times, the line between assertiveness and hypocrisy grows thin,” said the China specialist, adding that the EU’s new strategy could further isolationism and damage its relationships.

He said the EU should engage better with other powers like China to advance its interests. Other than an EU-China summit in July 2025, there has been little recent climate diplomacy between the two, despite hopes their partnership would deepen after Trump decided to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement.

The post After disappointing COP30, EU mulls “less naive” strategy for climate talks appeared first on Climate Home News.

A version of this piece was featured in Food Tank’s newsletter, typically released weekly on Thursdays. To make sure it lands straight in your inbox and to be among the first to receive it, subscribe now by clicking here.

Next week, I’ll be writing to you from Australia.

Australia—like everywhere on this planet—is beautiful and complicated. It’s one of the most biodiversity-rich countries in the world, from the arid Outback to tropical urban coastlines to temperate rainforests in Tasmania. At the same time, also like many other nearby South Pacific island nations, Australia is experiencing the effects of the climate crisis particularly acutely.

Nine out of the country’s 10 warmest years on record have taken place within the past two decades. As sea levels rise, more than 1.5 million Australians are at risk. And severe weather events are becoming much more devastating: The summer bushfire season, which peaked last month, was the worst in more than five years and burned around 1 million acres (400,000 hectares).

It’s also a place where people struggle to afford food. The country’s official Bureau of Statistics reports that 1 out of every 8 Australian households is food-insecure, but organizations like OzHarvest say it’s actually closer to a staggering 1 in 3 households.

But here’s what gives me hope: In the face of these cascading crises of food insecurity, climate change, and land degradation, Australia is showing how farmers and ag system leaders can be key players in building more resilient food and climate systems!

This year, Australia is stepping up in a big way on the global stage as the country prepares to lead negotiations at COP 31, the United Nations climate change conference in Turkey, this fall. And on the ground, sustainability work has long been deeply engrained: The Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF), for example, has worked since 1965 to push governments and businesses to not only protect but also regenerate the country’s wildlife and natural resources—and to support farmers doing the right thing.

“Australian farmers care for over half the country’s land, nurturing some of the richest ecosystems on this incredibly biodiverse continent,” Nathaniel Pelle, the Business and Nature Lead at ACF, told Food Tank. “It makes sense for a conservation organisation like ACF to work with farmers who are producing food in harmony with nature—we know we can’t fix our climate nature crisis without farmers.”

And because some 22 percent of food waste in Australia originates on farms, we need farmers on the front lines of building food security, too. Every week, the organization OzHarvest saves over 250 tonnes of good food from over 2,600 food donors and delivers it directly to more than 1,500 charities. Agriculture, the organization has said, is “largely untapped for food rescue.”

“We have forgotten how to value our farmers and the effort it takes to grow food,” Ronni Kahn, the Founder and Visionary in Residence of OzHarvest, told me on the Food Talk podcast.

Uplifting the voices of farmers—giving farmers the microphone to tell their own authentic stories—is itself a food system intervention! As Pelle put it: “With smart, sustainable practices, and the community’s support, farmers can heal damaged land, restore soil health, lock away carbon, and help create a food system that works for people and nature.”

Next week, on the opening night of Adelaide Fringe, Food Tank is presenting “Voices of Australian Farmers: A Love Story,” with our partners OzHarvest, Woolworths, Aquna Murray Cod, and the Australian Conservation Foundation. We’re so excited to celebrate Australian farmers as the kickoff to the world’s second-largest annual theater festival—and we’re thrilled to announce that the evening’s special celebrity guest host is none other than the renowned actress, director, and regenerative farmer Rachel Ward.

For the evening, we’re handing the stage over to mushroom farmer Georgia Beattie; cod aquaculturist Mat Ryan; poultry and beef farmer Hannah Greenshields; Ngarrindjeri Elder and pipi harvester Derek Walker; grain farmer Matthew Haggerty. We believe deeply in the power of bringing artists and farmers together for deeper collaborations like this, so we’re grateful for an amazing creative team including director Shannon Rush, the Artistic Associate at State Theatre Company South Australia; producer Isabella Strada; and musician Jamie Hornsby.

If you’re in the Adelaide area and want to join us, be sure to grab a ticket before they sell out! Public tickets are HERE, but as a Food Tanker, you can CLICK HERE to reserve a free spot as our special guest.

Otherwise, I look forward to seeing you at another “Voices of Farmers” event! Within just the next few months, we’re visiting Dublin, Ireland; Austin, Texas, during SXSW (find info and access free tickets HERE); Boston, Massachusetts; and more.

In Australia just as in each of your home communities, it’s the wisdom of farmers that can help solve our most pressing challenges!

Hearing farmers’ stories firsthand—listening as they describe the love they have for the land, for their animals, for the food they produce—is incredibly powerful. I’m moved to tears and filled with hope by these folks who literally embody resilience in the face of the climate crisis.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Jeff Muir, Unsplash

The post In Australia, Farmers Lead the Way to a More Resilient Food System appeared first on Food Tank.

Between February 24 and 28, the ICARRD+20 will take place 20 years after the first edition and bring together representatives from more than 70 countries.

The post Popular movements gather in Colombia for 2nd international agrarian reform conference appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

The climate crisis inflamed wildfires that left 23 people dead in Chile and devastated forests in Argentina that host some of the world’s oldest trees, scientists have found.

Read more on E360 →

During the Second World War, the Communist Party led efforts to secure shelter for ordinary Londoners amidst the horrors of the Blitz. Fergus Lamb examines the lessons we might draw from this today

The post Storming the Savoy: a communist history of the Blitz appeared first on Red Pepper.

Alberta’s electricity system is entering rapid change. Electric vehicles, rooftop solar and behind-the-meter technologies are reshaping electricity consumption and grid pressures. At the same time, interest is growing in time-varying rates (TVR) to...

Angus Taylor has been elected leader of the federal Liberal Party, deposing Sussan Ley just nine months into her stint as the first woman to head the party.

The post “Well done, Angus:” Liberals elect “failed” former energy minister to lead party appeared first on Renew Economy.

In this episode, Kate and Aaron are joined by Professor John Ruple, a public lands law expert at the University of Utah and former attorney at the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ), to discuss the Trump administration’s dismantling of the CEQ’s authority over NEPA regulations. He breaks down what the Trump administration means when it claims to have ended NEPA’s “regulatory reign of terror” and why removing uniform environmental review standards creates chaos for public lands.

News

• For $1 Million, Donors to U.S.A. Birthday Group Offered Access to Trump – New York Times
• Potential conflicts over celebrating America’s 250th anniversary spill out in congressional hearing – Associated Press
• Concessionaire Nominated To Run National Park Service – National Parks Traveler

Resources

• Watch this episode on YouTube

Credits

• Produced & hosted by Aaron Weiss and Kate Groetzinger, edited by Lilly Bock-Brownstein
• Feedback: podcast@westernpriorities.org
• Music: Purple Planet
• Featured image: David Korzillus, BLM

The post What gutting the Council on Environmental Quality means for public lands appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

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Sometimes finding the love of your life is as simple as stepping away from the computer screen for a bit and enjoying the great outdoors. That’s how David met Serena–on a wildflower hike in the Marin Headlands—a meeting that almost didn’t happen if it weren’t for some “lucky stars” and the motivation to go explore. Thirteen years later, the couple is still going strong. This is their Greenbelt Alliance love story.

It was April 28, 2013. He was David D. Schmidt, Bay Area native and veteran Greenbelt Alliance outings leader since ’92. On this beautiful spring day (naturally), David was co-leading a wildflower hike in the Marin Headlands with Greenbelt Alliance Outings Coordinator and possible Cupid-in-disguise, Ken Lavin. She was Serena Enger, a recent Bay Area transplant by way of Boston and veteran Greenbelt Alliance outings-goer since 2008. So was it love at first sight?

As he puts it, “ When we sat down for lunch, I looked around and saw her, and I wanted to have lunch with her. So I sat down next to her, and we talked for a while. At the end of the hike, I wanted to keep in touch, so we exchanged numbers. I was working six days a week, long hours, and I almost missed the hike because I thought I needed a rest—I almost missed meeting Serena!  I thank, as the saying goes, my lucky stars that I went.”

She says, “He came bearing books, and as a librarian and passionate reader, I was pleased. He had such an impressive and poetic knowledge of wildflowers, the history of the bay, sustainable development, and so forth, but he was also a very kind person, and that attracted me to him.”

Their ensuing courtship reads like a Greenbelt Alliance outings calendar. On that first date, they went for a hike in Sonoma’s Jack London State Historic Park. On date two, they explored the Presidio and Golden Gate Park together. Date three took place in Rancho Corral de Tierra, a big swath of land stretching southward from Montara Mountain to Half Moon Bay.

David and Serena were a match made in the greenbelt. They’re both avid readers. They both enjoy history and politics. They like watching foreign films together at the Castro Theater. And they obviously both love Greenbelt Alliance outings. 

Six months after meeting, David proposed to Serena atop Mount Tamalpais.

“We hiked along the Matt Davis Trail on Mount Tam that’s above Stinson Beach—it’s a beautiful area with those quintessential rolling, mound-like hills of Marin County with great views of the Pacific and the whole Bolinas Ridge,” Serena recalls. “And David proposed to me on the trail as the sun was setting and we had this tremendous view of the Pacific Ocean behind us.”

To celebrate their love, they go on wildflower hikes in the Marin Headlands every April, where it all started. And their bonding love for nature endures. They spend a lot of time hiking and are currently re-landscaping our home with California indigenous plants and flowers. “It’s restorative, rejuvenating, for us.” David has also just published the book, San Francisco Bay Area:  An Environmental History (with incredible tidbits of history about Greenbelt Alliance, too).

So, this weekend if you find yourself still looking for love in all the wrong places, skip the dating apps—try looking elsewhere, like David and Serena. Maybe in the greenbelt. On one of our upcoming outings, perhaps?

“Greenbelt hikes make you feel good in two ways: First, you’re in a beautiful natural area, breathing deeply, and you always feel relaxed at the end, even if you’re tired.  Second, you learn about the great ongoing work of the Greenbelt Alliance to save natural places and foster resilient, vibrant urban places – a positive, hopeful vision we all need! You always meet other people who love nature, and you just might meet someone special!,” said David.

Happy Valentine’s Day from the matchmakers at Greenbelt Alliance!

 

 

 

Originally published on February 13, 2015, by Alex Chen. Updated by Daniela Ades with information from David Schmidt and Serena Enger.

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