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Solar power generation in the UK reached a new record over the summer of 2026, as temperatures across the nation soared, according to new analysis by Carbon Brief. 

Collectively over June, July and August, solar farms and rooftops generated 8.8 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in the UK*, as shown in the chart below. 

Speaking to Carbon Brief, Chris Hewett, chief executive of trade association Solar Energy UK welcomed the new record, adding that it was driven by “clear skies and continued growth in deployment”. 

This surge in generation took place amid the hottest summer on record in the UK, with five heatwaves between May and August.

Summer 2026 was the sixth sunniest on record, with more than 620 hours of sunshine, according to the Met Office. England and Wales – which experienced the most extreme heat – saw their second-sunniest summers on record. 

June 2026 was the hottest June in England since records began in 1884, according to Met Office data, while Wales and the UK as a whole experienced their second-warmest June. 

It was the driest July for England and Wales since records began in 1836, with some parts of London seeing no rain at all in the month, while Wisley in Surrey had no rain for 62 days. 

In England, temperatures peaked at 38.1C at Kew Gardens in London on 13 August. 

According to the Met Office, this summer’s record mean temperature was made 130 times more likely by climate change.  

Amid these hot and sunny months, solar power generation increased 23% from the same period in 2025. This is double the level of solar generation over the summer of 2021, according to Carbon Brief analysis. 

While solar panels can be affected by periods of extreme heat, the longer hours of daylight and higher levels of irradiation over the summer more than offset any efficiency losses. 

June, July and August all saw solar set new monthly records for solar generation – July saw the highest solar generation in a calendar month ever, with 3.3TWh meeting 15% of overall electricity demand for the month. 

As of the end of August, the total UK solar generation in 2026 stood at 17TWh – 13% higher than the same point in 2025. 

The number of solar farms and rooftop installations has grown substantially in recent years, helping to boost generation. Domestic rooftop solar accounts for around 29% of total capacity.

In 2025, the UK’s solar capacity reached 21 gigawatts (GW) by the third quarter of the year, according to UK government figures. This is a jump of 3GW, or 18%, year-on-year, as Carbon Brief reported in January. 

(Capacity is the maximum output possible from an electricity generation, whereas generation is what was produced over a certain time period, such as a day, month or year.)

According to the University of Sheffield, the installed solar capacity is now nearly 24GW. 

This includes nearly 172,000 solar installations that have been fitted across the UK since the start of 2026, according to recent government figures. In July alone, more than 19,800 rooftop solar panels were installed – the equivalent of one installation every two minutes. 

In total, nearly 1.7m households in the UK now have solar panels installed. 

Over 26 heatwave days this summer – periods of at least three days when temperatures exceed the Met Office’s county-level heatwave temperature threshold – UK households with rooftop solar panels avoided an estimated £86.7m in electricity costs, according to analysis by Utility Bidder.

Talking about the surge in solar generation this summer, Hewett says: 

“[It] not only kept bills down for people with solar and batteries in their homes, but helped keep overall power prices much lower than they would have been if Britain had been relying on more gas generation during the day”.

Despite the record generation, no new half-hourly solar power output record was set in the summer of 2026. This still stands at 15.2 megawatts (MW) on 23 April 2026.

* This article refers to the UK throughout, but strictly relates to the island of Great Britain, made up of England, Scotland and Wales. Northern Ireland is part of the separate, all-Ireland electricity system.

related Factcheck: 10 flaws in the Conservative report on ‘cheap power’ 20.08.2026 Renewables Q&A: What is ‘long-duration energy storage’ – and why does the UK need it? 19.08.2026 Electricity Q&A: What does China’s 15th ‘five-year plan’ for renewables mean for climate change? 29.07.2026 China policy Analysis: Wind and solar power overtake fossil fuels in Germany for first time ever 28.07.2026 Energy

The post Analysis: UK solar power hits record high over summer 2026 appeared first on Carbon Brief.

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Farmers around Europe are dealing with the aftermath of a summer of extreme heat, drought and wildfires that were exacerbated by climate change. 

Human-caused climate change is increasing the severity and likelihood of many extreme weather events around the world, which is increasing volatility for food producers.

This summer resulted in, for example, shrunken potatoes in the Netherlands, reduced carrot harvests in France, dried-up rice fields in Italy and scorched olive groves in parts of the Mediterranean region.

Global food prices are currently at their highest level since early 2023 due to “heatwaves and energy price dynamics”, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. 

Other factors such as blocked fertiliser supplies in the Strait of Hormuz and high fuel costs have also played a role in this year’s agricultural outputs. 

In the six charts below, Carbon Brief provides a snapshot of the impact this summer’s extremes are considered to have had on crop production and yields across Europe. 

1. Most EU countries expect to see declines in cereal production this year

2. Most countries are recording reduced crop yields

3. Around €2bn worth of cereal losses after June heatwave

4. UK yields of wheat, barley and oats are all due to drop in 2026

5. Maize production in France is due to hit a four-decade low

6. Declines in EU grains since 2025

Article Contents Expand menu

• 1. Most EU countries expect to see declines in cereal production this year
• 2. Most countries are recording reduced crop yields 
• 3. Around €2bn worth of cereal losses after June heatwave 
• 4. UK yields of wheat, barley and oats are all due to drop in 2026
• 5. Maize production in France is due to hit a four-decade low 
• 6. Declines in EU grains since 2025

1. Most EU countries expect to see declines in cereal production this year Changes in cereal production in 26 EU countries between 2025 and 2026. Malta is excluded due to a lack of available data. Source: European Commission.

France, in particular, will see heavy losses in the amount of cereals – such as wheat, barley and oats – it produces this year, according to European Commission data. 

French cereal production is expected to drop by almost 8 megatonnes (Mt) in 2026, compared to 2025. 

The chart above shows that most European countries, aside from Bulgaria, will also see production losses this year. 

Germany is due to see the second-largest losses in production, dropping by almost 4Mt compared to 2025.

Prof Til Feike, a cropping systems expert at the Julius Kühn-Institut, says many areas in Germany and Austria, as with other parts of Europe, have been “hit hard by a long-lasting dry period in combination with record-high heatwaves”.

This has resulted in dry grassland for animals and lower yields of maize, which is a “key fodder crop” for livestock. He tells Carbon Brief: 

“In the long run, farming must adapt better to more extreme weather conditions, not only heat and drought, but also prolonged wet periods. So, there is no one-fits-all solution for climate change adaptation.” 

2. Most countries are recording reduced crop yields 

Heat and a lack of water have “substantially worsened” crop expectations this summer in western and most of central Europe, according to a recent bulletin from the EU Joint Research Centre.

Yields are expected to be “significantly reduced”, with local crop failures “likely” in areas such as France, southern Germany, northern and central Italy, and Hungary, it added. 

The chart below shows that yields of cereal grains – which, here, refers to the tonnes of a grain grown per hectare of land – are expected to fall in most EU countries in 2026.

Changes in cereal yields in 26 EU countries between 2025 and 2026. Malta is excluded due to a lack of available data. Source: European Commission.

Slovakia, Austria and Hungary are expected to see the largest declines in cereal yields, reducing by more than one tonne per hectare in 2026 compared to 2025.

The recent EU bulletin noted that irrigated crops performed well in Portugal this summer – the country with the largest yield increases. Other crops relying on rainfall showed growing signs of heat stress, it added.  

3. Around €2bn worth of cereal losses after June heatwave 

The record heatwave that hit many parts of Europe in June contributed to an estimated €2-2.3bn in cumulative grain production losses, as shown in the chart below.

Estimates of revenue lost due to changes in production forecasts between June and July 2026. Source: ECIU.

The intense June heat in western Europe would have been “virtually impossible” just 50 years ago, according to a rapid climate attribution study. It was the region’s hottest June on record. 

The Energy & Climate Intelligence Unit (ECIU) thinktank analysed June and July 2026 grain forecasts from Coceral, a European grain traders association.

ECIU estimated lost supply by multiplying the change in tonnes of grains between these two months by prices for harvest delivery in 28 European countries. 

Major grain producers France, Germany, Hungary and Spain accounted for 86% of the lost revenue, according to the ECIU.  

Extreme heat is also expected to have a wider economic impact across the continent. Analysis from Triodos Bank found that this summer’s extreme weather could reduce the EU’s gross domestic product (GDP) by around 1% this year, or around €180bn. 

4. UK yields of wheat, barley and oats are all due to drop in 2026

If current trends continue, the average yields for cereals and oilseeds will result in the UK’s worst harvest since detailed records began in 1984, according to ECIU.  

Yields of cereals and oilseed rape in the UK over 1990-2026. Source: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

Barley yields could fall by 15%, oats by 14% and wheat yields by 6% year-on-year, according to 2026 harvest surveys from the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board, a non-departmental public body that provides agricultural data to the UK government. 

ECIU said that, even if the situation improves, this year is still expected to be one of the five worst harvests on record. This means that four of the five worst harvests in the UK have occurred in the past decade. 

Consumers will likely see higher prices and/or smaller vegetables in supermarkets as a result, Tim O’Malley, chairman of UK company Nationwide Produce, told BBC News in August.

Other crops, such as berries, have grown successfully in the extreme heat. But the Guardian noted fears this could dip later this year “as plants become exhausted from heavy cropping during the heatwave”. 

5. Maize production in France is due to hit a four-decade low 

France has been acutely affected by this summer’s extreme weather, with more than 7,300 excess deaths during heatwaves and a record number of weather stations recording temperatures of above 40C. 

The country is the EU’s largest agricultural producer, but heat, drought and wildfires have affected many crops. 

The chart below shows that maize production is set to drop by more than one-third (35%) year-on-year. 

Maize production in France over 1980-2026. Source: Agreste.

This could result in France’s lowest maize production since 1980, according to data from Agreste, the country’s agriculture ministry’s statistics service.  

Due to the heat, “record-early” grape harvests have also been recorded in various parts of the nation since mid-July, reported Le Monde. In some cases, this means “smaller, less juicy grapes, which will yield less wine”, explained the newspaper. 

6. Declines in EU grains since 2025 Production of cereal crops in Europe over 1993-2026. The “other” category includes oats, rye, sorghum, millet and buckwheat. Source: European Commission.

Overall in the EU, data and projections indicate declines in the output of cereal grains this year. 

Cereal production is set to fall by 9% compared to 2025, according to the European Commission. 

Just one year in the past decade – 2024 – recorded lower production levels. 

Maize production is set to be particularly affected, with projections indicating a 13% drop, to 52Mt – the lowest level in the EU since 2007. 

related Livestock heat deaths in transit doubled in UK record-hot summer of 2025 25.06.2026 Food and farming Q&A: What England’s new ‘land-use framework’ means for climate, nature and food 20.03.2026 Food and farming Mapped: How extreme weather is destroying crops around the world 11.03.2026 Food and farming Adopting low-cost ‘healthy’ diets could cut food emissions by one-third 21.01.2026 Food and farming

The post How this summer’s heat and drought impacted crops in Europe – in six charts appeared first on Carbon Brief.

ECVC together with other agricultural organisations met with Commissioner Hansen and Irish Minister Heydon to discuss this summer’s severe weather events and expressed concern over the authorities’ lack of preparedness for this foreseeable crisis.

The post Europe | Meeting with Hansen and Heydon: ECVC calls for immediate support to ensure no farms are lost appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

Penguin colonies are so large that their masses of excrement can be seen from space, offering scientists a useful means of studying the Antarctic birds. An analysis of 30 years of satellite images of penguin guano shows how the birds' diets are shifting in response to warming.

Read more on E360 →

Exploring past examples of ‘revolutionary forgiveness’, D K Renton considers the socialist value of striving to repair harm

The post Why forgiveness is a part of socialism appeared first on Red Pepper.

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Order for 313 railcars to be built in Ontario and Quebec includes 25 domes among nine car types Read more.

This analysis is an expanded version of a presentation to the Ohio River Valley Institute.

Appalachia is poised for a renewed buildout of climate-killing infrastructure as gas companies, emboldened by sweeping regulatory rollbacks, double down on investments in gas-fired power plants, LNG export terminals, and the pipelines that connect them.

Regulatory rollbacks

On May 21, 2026, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced plans to advance a set of comprehensive reforms that would reduce regulatory hurdles and make it easier for developers to build new pipelines across the US. If enacted, the proposal would weaken project-specific oversight, waive environmental reviews, and limit public involvement for major expansion projects. The new rules are particularly alarming as gas companies, encouraged by surging energy demand from data centers and LNG exports, double down on an unprecedented buildout of new gas-fired power plants, storage facilities, and the pipelines that supply them.

At the center of the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, which outlines the agency’s draft rule, are “blanket authorizations,” or the ability of pipeline companies with existing blanket certificates to undertake projects on their pipelines and related infrastructure without undergoing the full certificate process as required by the National Gas Act. Historically, blanket authorizations have allowed interstate pipeline companies to perform routine construction and facility upgrades without obtaining a specific, case-by-case certificate. The types of projects previously allowed were limited by scope and cost thresholds, which prevented significant increases in mainline capacity.

The draft rule proposes to more than double project cost limits, broadens the types of projects to which blanket authorizations can apply, and allows pipeline companies to finance projects by charging higher rates. One legal analyst described the proposal as “the most significant natural gas permitting reform in two decades–and its practical implications reach every segment of the industry.”

If it were its own country, Appalachia would be the third largest producer in the world, behind only Russia and the US. Still, Appalachian gas producers have been hamstrung by pipeline takeaway capacity limits for years, holding the region’s gas production steady between 34 and 36 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d). FERC’s rules could change that, unleashing a renewed buildout of pipelines across Appalachia that could connect the region’s producers to new gas-fired power plant additions and LNG export terminals expanding along the Gulf Coast.

Plans for pipeline expansions

Nearly every major interstate gas pipeline system that crosses through Appalachia is now  subject to expansion proposals. At least 14 pipeline projects originating in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, or neighboring states could expand Appalachia’s takeaway capacity by as much as 8.3 Bcf/d. They would do so by installing looping (adding a parallel line to an existing pipeline), adding compression, and replacing existing pipelines. All would qualify for blanket authorizations under FERC’s proposed rule.

In May, Canada’s TC Energy announced plans for a massive, $1.5 billion expansion project along the Columbia Gas Transmission system, which runs through Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The so-called “Appalachia Supply Project” would add 0.8 Bcf/d of capacity for new gas-fired power generation driven by data centers, and would be scalable up to 2.0 Bcf/d through future expansions. According to the Canadian gas giant, gas demand in Ohio alone is projected to grow 30% over the next decade, driven by power generation and over 40 new data centers.

New pipelines target Pennsylvania

Further north, Enbridge is planning to expand the Algonquin Gas Transmission, a 1,130-mile, 3.1 Bcf/d pipeline that transports Appalachian gas from Pennsylvania to New England, through a series of upgrades that could be potentially sanctioned under FERC’s expanded blanket authorizations.

 Revived pipelines expand takeaway capacity into New England

Meanwhile, Williams revived two major projects: the Northeast Supply Enhancement project, which would expand capacity along the Transco pipeline, and the Constitution Pipeline, a 125-mile greenfield pipeline that would run from northeast Pennsylvania to Schoharie County, New York.

Though still in early development, Boardwalk has expanded the scope of its proposed Borealis Pipeline, a 2 Bcf/d greenfield pipeline that would install 200 miles of new gas pipeline in Ohio and add another 265 miles of new pipeline along the Texas Gas Transmission system, a 6,000 mile interstate pipeline network that links the Midwest and Gulf Coast. The projects would increase the flow of Appalachian gas into southeastern Ohio and Indiana, states with significant behind-the-meter data center development, as well as link Appalachian gas producers with customers in the Southeast and Gulf Coast.

Pipelines to increase takeaway capacity to Midwest & Southwest

Global energy supply shocks boosts US LNG

To say the first half of 2026 has been rocky for global LNG markets would be an understatement. The US-Iran War and the extended closure of the Strait of Hormuz stranded significant volumes of LNG and crude oil, and temporarily took Qatari LNG offline, effectively reducing the global oil and gas supply by 20%. The conflict caused LNG prices to spike globally, and they have remained persistently high apart from a temporary cease-fire in June.

Despite the global volatility, Henry Hub prices–the benchmark price point for US natural gas–have remained largely insulated from the price fluctuations seen in Asia and Europe, making US LNG all the more attractive to international buyers.

LNG exports draw Appalachian gas south

In April, the Department of Energy authorized two LNG export terminals to increase export capacity to countries lacking free trade agreements. But US LNG facilities are already running at high utilization rates, and a significant increase in exports can only increase at the pace of terminal and pipeline buildout. Though nearly all of the planned capacity additions are concentrated along the Gulf Coast, a slew of pipeline expansions that connect Appalachian gas to Gulf LNG terminals is underway.

US LNG capacity expands, pulling Appalachia gas south

In its 2026 Annual Energy Outlook, the US Energy Information Administration confirmed that LNG exports continue to be the fastest-growing source of domestic natural gas demand. Seven LNG terminals will add 6.3 Bcf/d of export capacity through the end of 2027, in addition to capacity additions through 2030 that will increase overall capacity to 27.7 Bcf/d.

Proposed data centers drive up gas demand, pipelines follow

It is becoming clear that gas industry buildout is closely aligned with data center development. As data center developers double down – prioritizing reliability and speed to market by sourcing natural gas-fired generation over renewables – gas companies are incentivized to undertake major expansion projects.

Earlier this year, TC Energy CEO Francois Poirier told investors, “Ohio’s projected natural gas demand growth of more than 30% over the next decade is the largest increase nationally outside of LNG-exporting states.” He added, “Growth is being driven by power generation, industrial expansion and grid reliability needs, including significant incremental load from more than 40 new data centers.”

For instance, SB Energy is proposing to build a 10 GW gas-fired power plant in Piketon, Ohio that would serve a neighboring data center. If built, the so-called PORTS Energy Center would be the largest operating gas plant in the country.

Map of TC Energy’s Columbia Gas Transmission system and planned data centers

These pipeline expansions could be accelerated and harder to fight if FERC’s proposed rule to expand blanket authorizations is adopted.

An RBN analysis indicates there could be a very large increase in gas demand for power generation, especially as existing power plants utilize more of their capacity. But the demand could be much greater if “behind-the-meter” (BTM) mega projects are constructed, such as the Shippingport Power Station in Beaver County, Pennsylvania or the Nscale Monarch data center in West Virginia. According to the analysis, just a handful of BTM facilities could trigger more than 1.2 Bcf/d of demand, if they achieve their planned capacity (which may be unlikely). Still, the projects identified in this analysis represent only a fraction of proposals under consideration for the region. Just as importantly, each of these massive BTM projects would necessitate a network of pipeline expansions within the Appalachian region, including the construction of new laterals to the new facilities.

Petrochemicals temporarily boosted by global conflict

US petrochemical companies saw a brief spike in profit margins following the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the ensuing disruptions to global trade of refined oil and gas products. This marked a huge turnaround from baseline conditions in early 2026, which had been marked by oversupply and underwhelming demand growth.

The longer disruptions continue, the greater the likelihood of a renewed push to expand the petrochemical, plastics, and ammonia industries in the US.

Still, most experts believe the boost will be temporary. By early June, ethane cracker margins had come back down, driven by lower feedstock prices. Patrick Penfield, Professor of Supply Chain Management at Syracuse University, noted that “once the conflict ends and supply chains normalize, the industry will likely revert toward those pre-war dynamics rather than sustaining today’s elevated margins.”

Government forecasts for major production growth depend on pipeline buildout

Gas production in Appalachia is expected to increase by just 1 Bcf/d between 2025 and 2027, according to the EIA. Looking ahead into the next decade, however, the picture looks much different. In this year’s Annual Energy Outlook, the EIA increased its long-term production forecasts for Appalachia. The agency predicts Appalachian gas production could reach 66 Bcf/d to 73 Bcf/d by 2050–doubling today’s volumes.

While rising demand from within Appalachia will support some of the projected production growth, the agency warns that “major growth can only occur if new pipelines are built to transport gas out of Appalachia.” And, FERC’s newest reforms could make it easier for developers to build them.

The post Q2 Appalachia Gas Outlook appeared first on Ohio River Valley Institute.

Nearly 50 years ago, two young organizations were both getting their start. 

In 1978, Sammy Hammons and his mentor, Tommy Brown, founded B&H Toolworks in Richmond with a vision of building a world-class manufacturing company in Kentucky. At nearly the same time, Mountain Association, founded in 1976, was beginning its work to expand economic opportunity across Appalachia by investing in local businesses and local leaders.  

B&H Tool Works has grown from a small startup into a sophisticated manufacturer serving industries ranging from automotive and aerospace to defense and transportation. 

Tommy was a respected metal worker and machinist educator at Eastern Kentucky University, and had first met Sammy as a student. With Sammy’s interest in tooling and machining, the two men began to partner, taking on repair work and small jobs that came their way.  

“It was a hobby shop. Something we loved to do,” Sammy said of the early days. 

The business grew quickly. In its first year, B&H generated about $30,000 in revenue. By year two, sales had climbed to $100,000, and the company had opportunities that suggested it could reach $750,000 the following year. The challenge was financing that growth. 

At the time, Mountain Association, then known as MACED, was also just getting started in community economic development. We were founded with a primary purpose to work alongside entrepreneurs to help strengthen businesses from the inside out. However, after a few years, staff realized entrepreneurs like Sammy and Tommy weren’t able to access financing from traditional lenders.  

Launching our loan fund in 1981, B&H became one of the organization’s earliest loan clients and one of our longest lasting success stories, but the growth was not without challenges. 

More than a Loan 

As MACED and B&H began to work together on the business’s projections, MACED staff found that while demand was strong, management systems needed improvement. B&H’s accounting indicated a small profit, but a deeper analysis revealed it was actually operating at a loss. Instead of shying away from the risk, MACED worked with B&H’s leadership to develop a plan for growth, improve management practices, and invest in needed equipment. 

Based on that plan, MACED provided $100,000 in financing, as well as hands-on business support. Within just three months, B&H grew from 12 employees to 21 and became profitable. 

Sammy and Tommy were then able to purchase land and build a 1,200-square-foot facility. Demand continued to grow, helped in part by opportunities connected to Toyota’s arrival in Kentucky. Then came a major setback. A lawsuit involving the original property owner dragged on for three years, making traditional lenders hesitant to provide financing just as the company needed working capital most. 

“We were growing with no cash flow,” Sammy recalled. 

Looking for help, he again contacted MACED.  

“They sent Ed McCormick out here. He audited us, and we hit it off great.” 

Over the years, McCormick became a trusted advisor. MACED helped B&H modernize its accounting and management systems, purchase equipment, and eventually expand into Rockcastle County. 

“We got all the creditors all lined up, but we didn’t have enough to put down,” Sammy said of the expansion. 

They worked with our Lending Team on a creative arrangement of a preferred stock investment that provided the capital needed to open that second facility. Later, B&H was able to buy out that investment, creating what Sammy describes as “a win for everybody.” 

The People Behind the Numbers 

For Sammy, yes, the equipment, square footage, and sales figures over the last five decades matter, but his greatest success is 110+ employees. 

“What I’m most proud of is providing good quality jobs. We probably spend over $5 million a year in payroll. And we have workers who’ve been here three to four decades, and many who have happily retired.”  

During a recent tour of B&H, Sammy walked us through the now 120,000-square foot Richmond facility, stopping every few minutes to introduce his staff. At nearly every workstation, there was a story worth telling—some employees had spent more than 30 or 40 years with the company and were approaching retirement. A newer hire was only on his third day of work. Then there was a young employee whose father and grandfather had both had careers at B&H. Now he is building a career there himself after graduating from technical college. 

As Sammy introduced each person, he knew their histories and their families. He spoke to the role each has played in building the company that generates millions in sales each year, feeding automotive and other industrial clients like Toyota in Georgetown and Link-Belt with essential metal parts. 

For those of us who work in community economic development, getting to see Sammy with his employees and, to think of how we helped get this started all those years ago, was a great reminder of why this work matters. 

“The field of economic development often equates success with how many jobs are created and saved. Those numbers are important, but they aren’t the whole picture of how meaningful investments can be,” said Leslie Ferguson-Oles, Mountain Association’s Chief Advancement Officer. “Every person Sammy introduced us to as we walked represented a story, a family, and a career.”  

As Mountain Association celebrates its 50th anniversary, B&H Tool Works’ growth from a small startup into a sophisticated manufacturer, now serving industries ranging from automotive and aerospace to defense and transportation, stands as a powerful example of what can happen when we invest in Kentuckians.  

To learn more about our 50 years of history, please visit here.

The post Forging a Future: How B&H Tool Works and Mountain Association Grew Together over 50 Years  appeared first on Mountain Association.

In this episode, journalist **Candice Bernd** returns to the *Green and Red Podcast* to discuss **Trump’s proposed border wall in Big Bend, Texas, and the Indigenous groups and other communities…

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The Letter to the UN special rapporteurs calls for an independent investigation, protective measures for those affected and a response from the Panamanian State within 60 days.

The post Complaint regarding alleged illegal surveillance of social organisations in Panama submitted to UN special rapporteurs appeared first on La Via Campesina - EN.

PUBLIC STATEMENT BY LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN ORGANIZATIONS FACED WITH THE LACK OF PARTICIPATION IN THE 2026 PLASTICS TREATY NEGOTIATIONS

September, 2026.

The undersigned organizations, which have been monitoring the Global Plastics Treaty negotiations since 2022, wish to express our deep concern and alert the public to the following facts:

Since the beginning of 2026, only so-called “informal” meetings have been taking place between heads of government delegations, and according to available official information, these modality of meetings will continue to be held to address the fundamental issues for negotiating the Global Plastics Treaty. These meetings are conducted behind closed doors and in confidence, without access for observer organizations, which severely limits the transparency of the process and prevents informed participation by civil society. This situation creates a worrying lack of transparency surrounding key discussions for the future of the treaty and marginalizes the voices of civil society organizations that defend the public interest.

The situation is such that during this year it has been impossible for us to fully exercise this role due to the working modality adopted by the chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), Ambassador Julio Cordano.

While heads of delegations hold meetings to address the substantive aspects of the negotiations, observer organizations have been relegated to virtual meetings with the INC presidency. During these sessions, the only available interaction mechanism is a chat, which is clearly insufficient to foster genuine dialogue. These virtual spaces neither substitute for nor can replace direct interaction between observer organizations and government delegations, which is an essential component for ensuring effective and meaningful participation in the negotiation process.

This format of online meetings with the INC presidency only allows us to learn general guidelines and organizational aspects of the process, information that is largely already public and does not offer real opportunities to exchange perspectives with national delegations, present evidence and recommendations during substantive discussions, or contribute to strengthening the positions that governments bring to the negotiating table.

We firmly believe that the participation of observer organizations cannot be limited to receiving information about decisions already taken or about the planning of the process. Meaningful participation requires access to spaces where the contents of the treaty are discussed, and the possibility of dialogue directly with government delegations before and during the definition of their positions. Excluding civil society organizations from these bodies reduces the transparency of the process and weakens the principles of participation and accountability that should guide the construction of a global treaty of this relevance.

We denounce this practice as contrary to the principles and standards of environmental democracy, which in our region are enshrined in the Escazú Agreement, particularly regarding access to information, public participation, and transparency in environmental matters. These principles require that decision-making processes be conducted with openness, timeliness, and effective participation of stakeholders.

Therefore, it is legally paradoxical that the president of the INC, who was a promoter of the Escazú Agreement in the region, adopts working methods that do not conform to the principle of progressivity, recognized in international environmental law as an obligation to advance in a sustained manner in the expansion and strengthening of access rights.

In this regard, the implementation of closed spaces and the restriction of substantive interaction between observer organizations and government delegations constitute a clear regression in the standards of participation previously achieved in the negotiation process itself, weakening the minimum democratic guarantees that should govern the drafting of an international instrument of this nature. Ultimately, these are implementing procedures that restrict the effective influence of observer organizations.

Even more concerning is the INC president's request that observer organizations appoint representatives from among our organizations. Implementing this measure will widen the gap between our organizations and government delegations, limit the diversity of voices, and diminish the wealth of scientific, technical, territorial, and public policy contributions that our organizations directly share with our governments during negotiations.

In this context, civil society organizations working to protect human health, planetary health, ecosystems, and independent science denounce our exclusion from discussion forums that define essential aspects of the treaty. This situation has limited our timely access to the debates, hindered our ability to understand the evolution of government positions, and restricted our capacity to contribute independent scientific evidence, technical expertise, and experiences from territories directly affected by plastic pollution.

Our role as civil society is to accompany the negotiations, understand and analyze the positions of our governments, and contribute to strengthening decision-making through evidence and independent recommendations free from industry conflicts of interest, incorporating the realities of the affected communities and territories and oriented towards the protection of the public interest, human rights, human and planetary health, and ecosystems.

For all the above reasons, we call upon the Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiation Committee, Ambassador Julio Cordano, and the Board of Directors of the INC to reestablish mechanisms that guarantee effective, direct and meaningful participation of observer organizations in all stages of the negotiation process.

A global treaty on plastics can only aspire to be legitimate, solid and ambitious if it is built through a transparent, inclusive process that respects the principles of environmental democracy.

 

Signatories:

Acción Ecológica México, México   

Aliança Resíduo Zero Brasil

Alianza Basura Cero Chile

Alianza Basura Cero Ecuador

Alianza Global para Alternativas a la Incineración GAIA 

AMAR Associação de Defesa do Meio Ambiente

BREAK FREE FROM PLASTIC

Centro de tecnologías aplicadas de Argentina

CESTA, Amigos de la Tierra, El Salvador

Coalición Ciudadana Antiincineración, Argentina

Colectivo Ecologista Jalisco, México

Colectivo Tz’unun Ya’ -Guatemala

Colectivo Viento Sur, Chile

El Poder del Consumidor, México

FAS, PANAMA

FUNAM, Argentina

Fundación Agua Clara, Venezuela

Fundación PlastiCo. Project, Ecuador

Hospitais Saudáveis, Brasil

Manos Abiertas La Bandada, Argentina

Mingas por el Mar, Ecuador

Organización Ecologista Piuke, Argentina

RADA, Chile

RAPAL, Uruguay

Red Dominicana de Estudios y Empoderamiento Afrodescendiente. República Dominicana

Taller de Comunicación Ambiental, Argentina

Taller Ecologista, Argentina

Toxisphera Associação de Saúde Ambiental, Brasil

Youth Accion Co:Lab

August 2026—Civil society organizations in Latin America and the Caribbean denounce the lack of opportunities for effective participation in the negotiations for the Global Plastics Treaty and warn of the impact this situation has on the transparency and legitimacy of the process.

The organizations, which have been following the negotiations since 2022, note that throughout 2026, heads of government delegations have participated in so-called “informal” meetings to discuss substantive aspects of the treaty, while observer organizations have been denied access to these forums.

Instead, they have been invited to virtual meetings with the Chair of the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC), led by Ambassador Julio Cordano, in which the primary means of interaction available is a chat function.

“The Global Plastics Treaty cannot, under any circumstances, create new ‘sacrifice zones’ or consolidate existing ones—zones marked by opacity and decisions made without public input—and observers are working to ensure that this does not happen. Keeping them on the sidelines of delegate meetings is not merely a procedural decision: it is a political act that widens the gap between those who make decisions and those who suffer the consequences. If the treaty aspires to be fair, it must be participatory from the very beginning,” explains Cecilia Bianco of the Argentine organization Taller Ecologista.

According to the organizations, this approach prevents them from timely contributing independent scientific evidence, technical expertise, and the experiences of communities and territories affected by plastic pollution, as well as from understanding and contributing to the debate on the positions that governments bring to the negotiating table.

They also expressed concern over the INC Chair’s request that observer organizations designate single representatives. They believe this measure could limit the diversity of voices and reduce the range of scientific, technical, and territorial contributions available to the delegations.

The organizations maintain that the lack of substantive participation represents a step backward from the standards previously achieved in the negotiation process itself and runs counter to the principles of environmental democracy, particularly those related to transparency, access to information, and public participation established in the Escazú Agreement.

“We have insisted that the Escazú Agreement represents a benchmark of progress for our region. Therefore, it is concerning that, while Latin America and the Caribbean have made progress in recognizing higher standards of transparency, access to information, and public participation, the negotiations for the global treaty on plastics are adopting procedures that restrict the opportunities for participation that civil society had enjoyed in earlier stages of the process. This change represents a step backward in terms of participation and transparency, particularly given that these negotiations will shape responses to a global environmental and public health crisis.

“This situation is even more paradoxical in a region deeply affected by ‘Waste Colonialism,’ which historically has received and borne a disproportionate share of the impacts of plastic pollution and waste generated by other countries,” states Larisa de Orbe of the Mexican organization Acción Ecológica.

In light of this situation, the organizations are calling on INC President Ambassador Julio Cordano and the Executive Board to reestablish mechanisms that guarantee direct, effective, and meaningful participation by observer organizations at all stages of the negotiations.

The organizations maintain that a global treaty on plastics can only be legitimate, robust, and ambitious if it is developed through a transparent, inclusive process that respects the principles of environmental democracy.

Signatory Organizations

Acción Ecológica México; Alianza Resíduo Zero Brasil; Alianza Basura Cero Chile; Alianza Basura Cero Ecuador; AMAR Asociación de Defensa del Medio Ambiente; Libérate del Plástico; Centro de Tecnologías Aplicadas de Argentina; CESTA, Amigos de la Tierra (El Salvador); Coalición Ciudadana Antiincineración (Argentina); Colectivo Ecologista Jalisco (México); Colectivo Tz’unun Ya’ (Guatemala); El Poder del Consumidor (México); FAS (Panamá); FUNAM (Argentina); Fundación Agua Clara (Venezuela); Fundación PlastiCo. Proyecto (Ecuador); Alianza Global para Alternativas a la Incineración (GAIA); Manos Abiertas La Bandada (Argentina); Mingas por el Mar (Ecuador); Organización Ecologista Piuke (Argentina); RADA (Chile); RAPAL (Uruguay); Red Dominicana de Estudios y Empoderamiento Afrodescendiente (República Dominicana); Taller de Comunicación Ambiental (Argentina); Taller Ecologista (Argentina); Toxisphera Asociación de Salud Ambiental (Brasil).

Read the full statement here.

September 2, 2026

Read great news article about the August 28th town hall meeting in Hanford in California’s Central Valley to educate, unite and mobilize residents against proposed AI Data Centers! Join Greenaction in this fight!

Click here to read

Di Maxwell 

What happens when communities lose too much local capability? Di Maxwell shares the story of The Old Packhouse Market Project in the far north of Aotearoa (New Zealand), which began as an effort to secure and protect a …

An introduction from Britt Gondolfi, Bioneers Indigeneity Special Programs Coordinator

I first met Jasmine Smith in her ancestral homeland, the Great Smoky Mountains, along the banks of the Long Person, the Cherokee name for the river and stream system that has sustained the Cherokee people for millennia. We were camping streamside at a Protecting Mother Earth gathering hosted by the Indigenous Environmental Network. Over several days, we attended workshops and strategic visioning sessions together, learning directly from tribes working to protect and preserve our precious planet. 

When Jasmine took the stage at an open mic, her powerful poem about the legacy of Cherokee women carried the audience 20 generations back and 7 generations forward, leaving them on their feet for a standing ovation. My 7-year-old was so moved by the Indigenous teen on stage that she found the courage to share an impromptu song of her own. That moment captured one of Jasmine’s great gifts: lifting up, inspiring, and empowering other young Indigenous women to speak up and join in. 

At 16, she founded a junior chapter of the North American Indian Women’s Association so young women in her tribe could build a support network of sisters and aunties and get organized. After taking Bioneers’ Indigenizing the Law course, Jasmine connected her organization of Indigenous teenage girls with our Native Youth Ambassador Program. With grit, determination, brilliance, ferocious faith, and guidance from elders, parents, and mentors, these young women helped pass the first-of-its-kind Rights of the Long Person Resolution in the Eastern Band of Cherokee Council. The resolution created a task force and inspired the council to initiate efforts to undam a section of the Long Person on the Ewa River. 

In this conversation, Jasmine shares the journey behind that work, the power of young Indigenous women organizing together, and what it means to indigenize the law by speaking for “that which cannot speak for itself.”

What follows is an edited excerpt of a conversation recorded at the Bioneers 2026 conference.

BRITT: Would you share how you decided to start the NAIWA Daughters, and who NAIWA (North American Indian Women’s Association) Daughters are?

Jasmine Smith

JASMINE: NAIWA is a nonprofit within our tribe with elder women members. They’re known for their cooking, but we always wanted to bridge the gap and have youth talk to our elders more. I remember the day we went in there; we were talking about creating this pilot program and building that partnership. I was so nervous talking to our elders about it. Now we’ve built those relationships, and they’re supporting our work, and we’re supporting theirs.

My third great-grandma, Ruth Littlejohn, is a very big pillar within our community. She helped found our fire station and raised money for our housing program. She’s a very impactful and strong woman. She and Ethylene Conseen and another woman they knew got together to create a network of Indigenous women across Turtle Island, and that’s when they started NAIWA. It grew from the Cherokee chapter into a national nonprofit.

NAIWA Daughters is also contributing and partnering with national NAIWA more. We’ve attended several national conferences, and this year, the national organization is coming back to the homelands. They’re having their conference in Cherokee, and we’re planning that and will host youth caucuses for the first time in a long time. They originally had youth as part of it, but it kind of dwindled away after my great-grandma passed away. So we’re getting to bring that back to our homelands. 

My second great aunt is the treasurer for our chapter, and for the national nonprofit. We have four generations within NAIWA this year. So my aunt, my grandma, my mom, my sister, and me. We have four generations on our homelands, affecting change and starting youth caucuses. So it’s a really historic moment, and it’s part of our family and lineage.

BRITT: You’ve talked about patriarchy and the importance of Indigenous women having a platform and a place of leadership in the community. This is a very wise and grounded awareness to carry. How old were you when you started the NAIWA Daughters? How old are you now, and how did you get to this place of understanding?

JASMINE: I started NAIWA when I was 11, and this understanding of how Indigenous women lead goes back to our ancestral ways. As a community, we understood that women were pillars and lifegivers, and we honored them, but we were an egalitarian community. So everyone was equal, but we honored women for what they did for our community and how they gave life. Without them, we wouldn’t be here. That’s something that they passed down through generations.

Coming from a family that has such strong matrilineal women and matriarchs, it’s kind of in my DNA to lead. And harnessing this in NAIWA Daughters was an outlet for that, and it fostered that environment. And through, I think, intergenerational trauma, our community’s looking at how we can reconnect with those ancestral values. 

It reflects within our tribe. I grew up not having seen Indigenous women within our tribal leadership. And now, since the ‘90s, we’ve had four women on our tribal council. It was an honor bringing our resolution for Rights of Nature into the chambers, and there were already four women on the council supporting us. It was great, because it wasn’t like we were talking to a bunch of men. We got to see women who looked like us in those seats, and they have really been empowering, supporting us.

We’ve always seen, at least in my family, women taking leadership. And my mom’s someone I always look up to because she always takes that leadership role. And she does so much, but she does it the right way, and understanding when we do anything, we have to do it under a certain set of values. So it kind of goes back to those values of how we live and how we interpret things, and just a way of being.

BRITT: You all originally started with a Rights of Nature initiative for the Eastern hellbender salamander. Will you walk us through the journey and thought process, and how you ended up narrowing your focus to this immense water body? And share a bit about the Cherokee history of the Long Person?

It all ties back to our water. We are water. Water is life. We couldn’t do any advocacy for land without talking about water. You can’t talk about Cherokee people without talking about water.

JASMINE: Yes, Long Person’s what we call our waterways. Its head begins in the mountains, and its feet travel to the sea. That’s over roughly 800 miles. This is a personal connection for me because my Cherokee name’s Agasga, meaning “rain”. So when you’re a baby, in our community you’re introduced to water. And for us, traditionally, we went to water and had ceremony sometimes seven times a day. It was a daily routine to have that relationship.

The journey to create the resolution all started when we were tubing down the river, and we would have to stop all the time because tourists would stack rocks, which disrupts the ecosystem and the homes of the juwa, the hellbender salamander. We got so frustrated, we wanted to do something about it. So we started conversations, and thought, “what if we made a resolution that says you can’t do this?” Then we talked about advocating for the land. We didn’t really know about Rights of Nature efforts until we met you. We understood this isn’t a new concept, it’s a cultural concept, something we’ve done since time immemorial, advocating for nature, and being a voice for the voiceless. 

We submitted a public comment, and that was one of our biggest community events. We had over 60 youth participants and adults come in just one night, planned out the public comment, wrote it as a community, and advocated for the juwa. We even had a survey about how many of the adults here had seen a juwa, and three or four raised their hands. Then we asked the youth, and nobody raised their hand. That’s a connection point that we’re losing because our waters have been unclean, and the hellbender has always been an ecological count, a mark, for us. What we say is that if the water flows over its back five times, it’s clean enough to drink. And what is it telling us when the juwa’s going endangered, and it’s going extinct? The juwa has been around since the dinosaurs. It survived all of that, and it’s starting to be endangered now. So what are we doing, as humans, for it to be going extinct? It’s a cultural loss as well. 

This resolution has opened many doors for other projects, like the dam project. We’re working on undamming one of the big parts of our Long Person, and reconnecting the sicklefin redhorse fish with the juwa. They haven’t been in connection for almost 101 years. 

But it all ties back to our water. We are water. Water is life. We couldn’t do any advocacy for land without talking about water. You can’t talk about Cherokee people without talking about water. You can’t talk about our homelands without water, because it is the center of Cherokee. If you look at where we lived traditionally, it was always in a water bend, and the importance of water to us has always been there.

BRITT: Take us back to that day in the council chambers. There were thousands of people watching online, and the room was packed. Feelings, memories, what did it feel like that day?

JASMINE: We started the Rights of Nature process 18 months before, and we kept asking: What’s it going to be like on Council day? Over those 18 months, I created scenarios in my head: Am I going to do this, am I going to do that? When it came to writing my speech and talking to Council, one of the things I really wanted to say is that we can’t flex sovereignty if we aren’t going to our ancestral roots and decolonizing our legal systems. In my speech, I talk about how we can’t be Cherokee without our land, and if we don’t pass this resolution, are we really upholding those Cherokee values, and is this a priority for our tribe?

The river is right beside our tribal council, so before even going into the chambers, we started with a water ceremony and brought the Long Person into the conversation in a pot that was made by a beloved woman. We had to make sure that we were doing this the right way, and with intentionality by having Long Person, because we couldn’t have had that conversation without it in the room.

Within our group, we were trying to figure out who was going to cry first, and we all thought it would be our mentor, Kim, and it was me first. I tried not to get emotional, but even now, any time I talk about it, I do, because it was such a significant moment.

Having community support was the biggest thing, prioritizing this in our tribe. NAIWA were there supporting us. Having my elders there, government leaders, tribal council leaders taking time out of their day to come support this. We saw that other people saw the value in this program, and what we’re doing to help mold these Indigenous women into being the future leaders of our tribe. And it felt right. It was a full circle moment.

It was very hot in the room, and people there were talking about how you could just feel the ancestors there. One of our council women, Shennelle Feather, talked about how we get to honor and reconnect with our Long Person, our relative, and have that relationship go to a deeper level. That’s something we haven’t had in a very long time. So through the Long Person Resolution, we’re reconnecting with our ancestors. And having that relationship and advocating for things that don’t always have a voice. So being a voice for the voiceless. 

So that’s kind of what the day was like. I was happy to see my fellow Indigenous young leaders speaking up and advocating and making change. And I’m always so proud of them. I never envisioned us doing this, but it was almost like our ancestors entrusted this to us, a calling to restore ancestral ways, and to heal intergenerational trauma.

BRITT: That’s beautiful. I watched it remotely. I was crying my eyes out. Other allies were texting me; they were all crying. I had jokingly said that obviously we’re honoring water here, because water is flowing out of all of us watching what was happening in this Council Room. So it was so beautiful to see y’all carry the Long Person in that beautiful pottery made by this beloved woman. It was only right, I think, that tears fell because we’re water. And so by recognizing the Long Person as a rights-bearing entity but also relative, it’s like it’s honoring the water in us and in the ecosystem and in the spirit of that person.

So what was it like to be a teenager going to your tribal council and telling them: I want you to pass this law.

JASMINE:  It was not an easy process. We had separate meetings with tribal council members to gain their support, and meetings with the chief to talk about how this would affect our fishing department, and how it would affect other fish and wildlife, and how our tribe operates, and tubing companies. And yes, all those things are so important, but talking about that – it’s almost as if we’re forgetting the real importance of the resolution and advocating for Long Person, because it hasn’t had an advocate in so long.

We realized we had to get community input, and get the community behind it to get it over the finish line. Educating the community was hard, but beautiful at the same time, because they reconnected to a cultural concept that we’ve always had, and it empowered them. And a big success was making our Rights of Nature T-shirts, and having it say “Water Protector” in Cherokee and in English. So when anyone wears the T-shirt, they’re a water protector too, just by wearing that T-shirt and empowering our community members to affect change. 

So with the survey, we got those responses that showed we had pretty much full support, which was a big factor in our tribe’s support. Because at the end of the day, they’re supposed to be there for their community. And when we showed them that, it was really, really hard for them to say no. It was healing for the tribal council and just for our tribe in general because this was the first resolution in our tribe that doesn’t look at water as something to be owned or profited from, and giving rights back, and having this resolution in places like our visitor center, and some of our biggest achievements as a tribe. It was a lot of work, but it’s so rewarding to know our waters are protected. 

Now we’re looking at what specific laws we need to protect the Long Person. One of the things my mom always jokes about is that if you need anything done, let the youth handle it.

BRITT: That’s incredible. I love what you said in your presentation, that, you know, this is not a new legal concept. And you brought in that traditional value of doing good. I think for many people in the Rights of Nature movement, there’s this idea of this hot, new legal, environmental movement, and that it’s brand new in 2008 in Ecuador, in the constitutional amendment, but I think the real truth of the matter is this is old.

Right relationship, reciprocity, seeing oneself as a part of the ecosystem, not separate from it, not allowing people to poison the well and kill all the animals and ruin the food and the air. I mean, there were laws before there were the current governments that are operating in this territory now. People think that everyone was just running around wild, but there were laws and value systems, and that’s how you have thousands of years of continuous culture; that’s how you have thousands of years of language and practice and spirituality; that’s how people survive where they’re placed for thousands of years is because there are rules. And what I find so powerful and so beautiful and inspiring is that y’all are the youngest leaders in your community, but you’re bringing forward some of the oldest rules.

Would you share a bit about the Cherokee value system and principles of doing good? What did you learn about Cherokee values in the process of bringing about this good work? And for people that aren’t familiar with Cherokee, if you could help them understand the rules that you all live by.

One of my favorite things about our language that I find so fascinating is that you see how our values are built into just the way we communicate, and understanding relationship and reciprocity, and all of those components. Two examples are how in Cherokee “root”, in direct translation, means “to help”. And for basket, whenever you’re talking about making a basket, you never say, “I made a basket,” you always say, “I mended wood to sculpt this object.” It’s that understanding that we utilize these things but it’s a relationship we have with them, and respecting that.

JASMINE: That’s actually how we start our resolution off, we list the Cherokee values that correlate with the resolution itself. And that’s what we try to encompass in everything we do, as a tribe, as NAIWA Daughters, and just as people. And understanding that everything we do reflects our ancestors’ sacrifices. It’s also things like meeting people, making connections, supporting one another. Those are all Cherokee concepts. And it’s the little things that amount to the big successes. And without partnerships, conversations, and reciprocity, work and relationships, we wouldn’t have been able to get this resolution going and finished.

Throughout this process, we made sure to uphold those values with everything. When we’re talking to elders, we make sure we’re listening more than talking, and soaking up the knowledge, sitting in space with them. Talking to educators and attorneys in this process, how can we make sure that our words are translated into legal government systems today? 

One of my favorite things about our language that I find so fascinating is that you see how our values are built into just the way we communicate, and understanding relationship and reciprocity, and all of those components. Two examples are how in Cherokee “root”, in direct translation, means “to help”. And for basket, whenever you’re talking about making a basket, you never say, “I made a basket,” you always say, “I mended wood to sculpt this object.” It’s that understanding that we utilize these things but it’s a relationship we have with them, and respecting that, so anything we do, every time we speak our language, throughout this process, it’s going back to those values. And everything we do we need to do the right way. 

We really learned that through this process, and doing anything with NAIWA Daughters, making sure our projects instill those values. That’s one of the things the girls were talking about when we first started, is why doesn’t our tribe already have these things built into our constitution, and have them as the basis of our tribe? This is what the youth are supposed to be doing today, this is our job. We get to bring these values back and be the leaders that we need today, and be the future leaders our tribe needs.

BRITT: That’s beautiful. What’s next for you all?

JASMINE: What’s next, specifically for Rights of Nature, is the dam project. We have this resolution put in place; it lays the foundation for anything environmental, anything talking about land or water, we can always refer back to this. It’s great to know that because we’ve effectively made it possible for so many other projects. That’s one of the bigger things coming up for NAIWA Daughters. But outside of our priority projects, we’re speaking at conferences on Rights of Nature, and empowering other youth.

BRITT: What is your call to action or advice or counsel, especially for young people? You were inspired by a group of young people who did something in their tribe; you went home, you made it uniquely yours and did it in your way, and have had beautiful outcomes already would be your message to youth in Indian Country.

JASMINE: Sitting with the Mashpee NEA and learning about their efforts for the rights of the herring was so helpful, having those conversations and understanding, what to expect if something happens, what’s your counter. But it also creates a community, a network of Rights of Nature advocates. That’s one of the things that we really wanted to voice, is while NAIWA Daughters is doing work, we’re always open to supporting youth and giving guidance, and helping out, because Rights of Nature is so important; we want to support other tribes.

What I love about having conversations with youth and empowering them is that they can always do it better than we did. My advice for youth is never, never give up on the work, because you’re not just advocating for other youth now; you’re advocating for youth in the future. 

Community is one of the biggest things. If it’s hard, creating a network and making relations makes it so much easier. Garner support. We had support from people who weren’t even from or non-Native companies and organizations. If their values are the same as ours, and they want to partner, creating a network of supporters outside of the tribe is really helpful when we’re talking about sovereignty and having people in the community that can support and uphold the work. 

It’s important to advocate for our waterways, and to effectively make Mother Nature whole and healthy all together, we have to create these networks. It’s good here, but it also has to be good here, and over there. We’re doing it for not my sixth grandchild, but my great, great, great, great, great, great-grandchild that I’ll never meet. Knowing that I made a difference and made their life better. You do it to honor your ancestors, because they made sacrifices for you to be where you are, and you have to do the same for future generations.

Honestly, it gives me chills sometimes just talking about it, because before the Long Person Resolution, I had an innate connection with water, but now it’s different. It’s more of a “I see you, and you see me” deeper relationship, and knowing you’ve protected me for so long, I’m going to give back in a time when you need it. It’s understanding if your ancestor speaks to you and you get this feeling to keep going. That was really our fuel to do this, and understanding that it’s meant to be and it just takes time.

The post Speaking with Youth who are Speaking for the Voiceless: A Conversation with Jasmine Smith appeared first on Bioneers.

The new rules shut more migrants out of basic financial and health supports. Here is who is affected, why it matters and why we need to speak up.

What are Ontario Works and ODSP?

In Ontario, financial support is available to some people who need help paying for basic needs.

Ontario Works (OW) supports people with little or no income. The Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) supports low-income people who meet the program’s disability requirements.

These programs are already small and exclusionary. A single person on Ontario Works receives only $733 per month – nowhere near enough to pay rent, buy groceries and meet basic needs.

That amount has been frozen for eight years.

What did Ford change on August 13?

On August 13, 2026 the Ford government changed Ontario’s OW and ODSP regulations to explicitly exclude people based on their immigration status.

The new rules say that people are not eligible if they:

• do not have authorization to remain in Canada; or
• are only authorized to remain temporarily, including people on work and study permits,

unless they fall within specific exceptions, including having made a refugee claim or certain applications for permanent residence.

The same new exclusion was added to ODSP.

The government also removed an existing protection for some people with enforceable removal orders who cannot leave Canada for reasons completely beyond their control.

The new rules Immigration situationBefore August 13: what the regulations saidSince August 13: what the regulations sayRefugee claimantsCould qualify for ODSP and OW. No change – remain eligible if they meet the other OW/ODSP requirementsPeople who have applied for permanent residenceCould qualify for ODSP and OW. No change – remain eligible if they meet the other OW/ODSP requirements.Migrant workers, international students and other work permit holdersThe regulations did not explicitly say that everyone with temporary status was ineligible. They excluded people categorized as “visitors” and “tourists”.Now explicitly excluded.Undocumented people without an enforceable removal orderCould qualify for ODSP and OW. Now explicitly excluded. People with an enforceable removal order who cannot leave Canada for reasons completely beyond their controlCould qualify for ODSP and OW. Now explicitly excluded.People with an enforceable removal order who have made an H&C application for permanent residenceCould qualify for ODSP and OW. No change – remain eligible if they meet the other OW/ODSP requirements.

Before August 13, the regulations excluded “visitors” and “tourists,” but neither term was defined in the legislation or regulation. 

The Ford government has now removed those words and replaced them with much broader language explicitly covering temporary immigration status and lack of immigration status.

Were migrants receiving OW and ODSP?

Ontario had a longstanding unjust practice of caseworkers treating many people with work and study permits as “visitors.” As a result, many migrants were often denied OW or ODSP. Those who could, challenged those decisions at the Social Benefits Tribunal.

The regulations did not previously say that every person with temporary immigration status, or every person without immigration status, was automatically excluded, so hearings at the Tribunal were often successful. 

The Ministry describes this as a “clarification” of its longstanding policy. But what it has actually done is put a much broader immigration-status exclusion directly into Ontario law.

Who will this hurt?

These rules affect people who may have lived, worked and paid taxes in Ontario for years and then suddenly need help because of illness, unemployment, abuse or another crisis.

Patel: Patel is a 40-year-old man who came to Canada from Bangladesh after fleeing persecution because of his bisexuality. His immigration applications were denied, but he was afraid to return. He was later diagnosed with liver failure and cirrhosis. Because of his serious health condition, Canada cannot remove him. ODSP provides him with essential financial and medical support. Ford has now removed that protection. People in Patel’s situation can now be denied the basic financial and health supports they need to survive.

John: John is a 30-year-old seasonal agricultural worker from Jamaica who has been coming to Canada every year since 2020 to grow and harvest our food. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2024. He could not work while receiving chemotherapy and temporarily relied on Ontario Works.  Today, John is in remission and back at work. Under Ford’s new regulation, most workers in John’s immigration situation are now explicitly excluded from Ontario Works.

Vanessa: Vanessa is a mother from Jamaica who worked as a home support worker caring for elderly people. During the pandemic, she fled abuse from her ex-partner with her children and entered the shelter system. After losing her job, she temporarily relied on Ontario Works while looking for work and child care. Her family later became permanent residents and she returned to care work. Under the new regulations, migrant women on temporary status in similar situations can be explicitly denied basic financial support while trying to escape violence or survive a crisis.

Why is the Ford government doing this?

Meanwhile, Ontario’s Auditor General found that the Ford government spent a record $111.9 million on government advertising in 2024–25. Six of its ten largest advertising campaigns would not have passed Ontario’s former, stricter rules against partisan government advertising.

And while poor people and migrants struggle to pay rent and buy food, Premier Ford used taxpayer money to buy a $28.9 million dollar jet for his own private use. Members of Ford’s government have spent hundreds of thousands of public dollars on hotel rooms and fancy dinners. 

The government announced these changes after media attention around a Social Benefits Tribunal case involving a man who had lived and worked in Canada for decades before losing his home. He challenged the denial of social assistance and won. Ford responded by changing the regulations.

No one should be denied food, housing, medicine or the means to survive because of the immigration documents they have or do not have.

At a time when rent and food prices are soaring and decent jobs are harder to find, blaming migrants will not make anyone’s life more affordable.

Taking $733 a month away from someone with cancer, someone escaping violence or someone who has lost their job will not lower the rent, raise wages or fix health care.

These changes are another attempt to pit migrants and poor people against each other while those responsible for the affordability crisis escape responsibility.

We must reject divide-and-rule and speak up together.

I’m a migrant and I’m worried. Where can I get support?

Migrant Workers Alliance for Change is a group of current and former migrants. We come together to support each other and push back against unfair rules and laws like these.

If you live in the Greater Toronto Area, we offer free, confidential, in-person Migrant Support Clinics every second Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

You can share what is happening and work with other migrants to understand your options and find solutions.

Fill out our form to sign up.

Can’t come in person? Fill out the form anyway and we will get back to you.

The post Ford just changed who can get Ontario Works and ODSP. first appeared on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

The post Ford just changed who can get Ontario Works and ODSP. appeared first on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

Road Safety for All Pledge /* * ROAD SAFETY FOR ALL — MWAC PLEDGE PAGE * This can be pasted into a Custom HTML block. */ .mwac-pledge-page { --ink: #15211b; --muted: #5d6962; --cream: #f5f0e6; --cream-dark: #ebe3d3; --white: #ffffff; --green: #125b42; --green-dark: #093d2c; --green-soft: #e3eee8; --yellow: #f5c63e; --yellow-light: #fff2bd; --red: #bf4032; --line: #d4ddd7; --shadow: 0 16px 42px rgba(14, 58, 42, 0.11); color: var(--ink); font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.55; background: var(--white); overflow: hidden; } .mwac-pledge-page *, .mwac-pledge-page *::before, .mwac-pledge-page *::after { box-sizing: border-box; } .mwac-pledge-page a { color: inherit; } .mwac-pledge-container { width: min(1120px, calc(100% - 40px)); margin: 0 auto; } /* HERO */ .mwac-pledge-hero { position: relative; padding: clamp(62px, 8vw, 100px) 0 72px; color: var(--white); background: radial-gradient(circle at 84% 10%, rgba(245, 198, 62, 0.23), transparent 28%), linear-gradient(135deg, var(--green-dark), var(--green)); 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A pledge for Niagara municipal candidates

Road Safety for All

Everyone deserves the freedom to move safely through their community. Migrant farm workers are asking candidates to commit to practical action so that every worker can get to work, reach essential services and return home safely.

See where candidates stand Read the commitments Candidate? Sign the pledge Sign the petition

Freedom of mobility

Road safety is about the freedom to live a full life.

Freedom of mobility means being able to travel between work, home, grocery stores, health care, legal services and community without risking your life.

For many migrant farm workers, there is little or no public transit. Workers may have no choice but to walk or cycle on dark rural roads without safe shoulders, bike lanes, crossings or lighting to get privacy and access basic needs.

Essential Work. Invisible to public planning.

Migrant workers have helped sustain Niagara’s farms and food economy for sixty years. Their labour is visible everywhere. Their safety, transportation needs and voices have too often been missing from road design, transit planning and government decisions.

They have names

These deaths and injuries are part of a pattern.

At least seven migrant farm workers have been killed or seriously injured on Niagara roads since 2019. Behind that number are workers, neighbours, friends and family members.

2026 Sinhue Garcia

Sinhue was killed while cycling home on Concession 6 near Line 4 in Niagara-on-the-Lake. He was 39 years old and leaves behind his wife and two daughters in Mexico.

2019 Zenaida

Zenaida, a Mexican farm worker and mother, was killed in a hit-and-run in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

2022 Fermin Soto Sanchez and two co-workers

Fermin was killed and two of his co-workers were seriously injured when they were struck near St. Catharines.

2022 Ceto Reid

Ceto, a Jamaican farm worker, was seriously injured while cycling home from a laundromat.

2023 Omar

Omar, a migrant farm worker, was injured in a hit-and-run on Lakeshore Road.

Sinhue Garcia was a neighbour, a co-worker, a friend and a father. He deserved to get home safely. So does every migrant worker who comes to Niagara to work.

The Road Safety for All Pledge

Candidates who sign commit to:

Working with migrant farm workers, community members, municipal staff and regional partners to advance the following actions.

1. Create and fund a migrant farm worker road safety plan

   Support multi-year funding for improved lighting, protected shoulders or bike lanes, traffic calming, safer crossings and lower speeds on routes used by workers.

2. Complete a worker-led road safety audit and map

   Ensure migrant farm workers directly identify dangerous roads, routes and destinations and help set priorities for action.

3. Put worker-identified routes into municipal and regional plans

   Use transportation and master planning processes to prioritize routes identified by migrant workers.

4. Assign responsibility and report publicly on progress

   Identify a lead Niagara Region staff person and provide at least two public reports to council each year: one before and one after the height of the agricultural season from May to September.

5. Ensure migrant worker housing is safe and dignified

   Support proactive inspections through Niagara Region Public Health, including access to basic facilities, privacy, adequate space and protection from unsafe conditions.

6. Call for a coroner’s inquest

   Publicly support a coroner’s inquest into migrant farm worker road deaths and serious injuries in Niagara.

7. Meet directly with migrant farm workers

   Hold direct meetings with workers and release a public implementation plan during the first year of the new council.

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For municipal candidates

Sign the pledge

Add your name to publicly commit to the Road Safety for All Pledge and to working directly with migrant farm workers on implementation.

By signing, you commit to supporting all seven actions listed above.

Your contact information will be used to confirm your response and communicate with you about the pledge. Only information you have agreed to make public should be published.

Candidate pledge form

Please complete the form below. We will follow up to confirm your response.

For everyone

Justice for Sinhue Garcia

Add your name to demand safer roads and real support for migrant workers in Niagara. Together, we can push municipal leaders to act so no one else is killed simply trying to get home.

Send a message now calling for safer roads, dignified housing and action with migrant workers at the table. Sign the petition

Add your name and send your message to decision-makers.

The post Migrant Farm Worker Safety During Niagara Elections first appeared on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

The post Migrant Farm Worker Safety During Niagara Elections appeared first on Migrant Workers Alliance for Change.

Labor organizer Saru Jayaraman makes a clarion call to action: support workers across the United States who are saying there’s always been an affordability crisis and are asking politicians what has democracy done for me lately? Addressing inequality worse than the infamous Gilded Age requires ensuring living wages for all.

Featuring

Saru Jayaraman (JD, Yale, MPP Harvard), an academic at UC Berkeley and a renowned labor activist, is President of One Fair Wage, which organizes to raise wages and end sub-minimum wages nationwide. She is author of: Behind the Kitchen Door; Forked: A New Standard for American Dining; and One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America.

Credits

• Executive Producer: Kenny Ausubel
• Written by: Kenny Ausubel
• Senior Producer and Station Relations: Stephanie Welch
• Associate Producer and Program Engineer: Emily Harris
• Host and Consulting Producer: Neil Harvey

Resources

Take This Job and Shove It: The Great Resignation or The Great Revolt? | Bioneers Podcast

Saru Jayaraman – What has Democracy Done For Me Lately? Engaging Working People in the Fight to Save Democracy | Bioneers 2026 Keynote

Saru Jayaraman – The Great Revolution: What A Worker Power Moment Can Mean for Climate Justice | Bioneers 2023 Keynote

Living Wage for All

A Dime a Day: The Impact of the Miller/Harking Minimum Wage Proposal on the Price of Food

‘Give Me a Chance to Survive’: Workers, Employers Dread Deportations’ Effect on Health Care | Labor Notes

This is an episode of the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature series. Visit the radio and podcast homepage to find out how to hear the program on your local station and how to subscribe to the podcast.

Subscribe to the Bioneers: Revolution from The Heart of Nature podcast

Transcript

Neil Harvey (Host): In his book Goliath’s Curse, researcher Luke Kemp at Cambridge University looks at the rise and collapse of over 400 societies over the past 5,000 years. At the center of every collapse is extreme inequality caused by wealth extraction by the one percent. As inequality spikes, these increasingly hollowed-out societies become acutely vulnerable to shocks, collapses and rebellions.

Fast-forward to Peak Inequality in the U.S. in 2026. The Goliath wealth pump has been cranking at warp speed to extract the biggest wealth transfer in history from bottom to top. They want to have their cake and eat yours too.

The world’s 12 richest billionaires have more wealth than the poorest half of humanity. The top one percent control $58 trillion in assets, more than the combined GDPs of the U.S. and China. That’s more than enough to eliminate global poverty 22 times over.

About three to five giant corporations dominate around 80% of almost every industry and marketplace. About 60% of rising costs since the pandemic can be attributed to corporate “greedflation.” “All that the market will bear,” as the Robber Barons fondly put it.

While basic living costs balloon, savage policies are shredding the social safety net and workers’ rights, hurling people into economic free fall. Labor’s share of income is the lowest since the Great Depression.

But when the mass immiseration becomes this extreme, people fight back against Goliath.

This is the terrain where labor organizer Saru Jayaraman takes her stand. As founder and president of One Fair Wage, a national organization of over 300,000 restaurant and service workers, 1000 restaurant owners, and organizations, she leads campaigns to raise wages and end all subminimum wages nationwide. She spoke at a Bioneers conference.

Saru Jayaraman speaking at Bioneers 2026. Photo: Alex Akamine

Saru Jayaraman (SJ): I have been organizing for 25 years and represent an industry, the restaurant industry, which is 13.6 million people in the United States who work in the lowest wage jobs in the United States. The largest employer of women and people of color, and youth and immigrants, and pretty much all of us, gets to pay $2.13 an hour in 2026.

When half of America cannot afford to feed themselves, their families to survive, they also cannot engage politically, and as long as they are paid the wages they are paid, as long as they’re working three jobs instead of one, and as long as they do not see any reason to vote because the people in power, the people who run all represent the antithesis of everything they need and stand for. [APPLAUSE] 

So I’ve been sharing this and facing a lot of push-back. In 2024, when we were trying to raise money to put wage increases on the ballot in key states like Arizona and Michigan, donors told me that’s cute, you’re trying to raise wages. We’re trying to save democracy. And I had a really hard time trying to explain to people that raising wages is saving democracy. [APPLAUSE] It is the same thing, because there is no world in which democracy can function with these incredibly high levels of inequality. And I’m sad to say we haven’t heeded the warnings that working people have been trying to tell us for so long. We’re in a moment when working people either stayed home or went the other way because we didn’t listen; we didn’t pay attention; we did not say your lives matter. 

Host: Saru and her organization are traveling around the country, organizing meetings and rallies with the Living Wage for All Coalition. In every state, workers are joining and telling their stories…

Credit: OFW member and photographer Nortei Dowuona

Johannah: My name is Johannah Alabi. I am a CN certified nursing assistant from Connecticut. I dedicate 15 years to this work caring for those who cannot care for themselves. But today I stand before you not just as a CNA, but someone who is struggling… I have 2 fulltime jobs over 80 hours a week just to make ends meet. I do not have a day off. I make under $25 an hour at both jobs even with my experience. I work endlessly to provide for my kids, but we just make it. My wages cover food and roof over our head. But there’s nothing left over for savings or for emergency. Caregivers are working 60, 70, 80, even 100 hours a week to make ends meet. This is not sustainable. This is not respect. That is not care. It’s time for $25 an hour minimum wage for all. Thank you so much! [CHANTING]

Silvy: My name is Silvy, I’m from Bridgeport Connecticut. I’ve been bartending since 2018. I work hard, I work long hours, sometimes up to 13 hours a day. My base pay is $8 an hour, which is $8 less than the Connecticut state minimum wage. It hasn’t changed since the cost of living has skyrocketed. Service workers are often grouped under unskilled labor and we are told that our work isn’t valued much. And when profit is the dominant interest at large, it will only be service workers who are paid less than they’re worth. I ask that we are paid the full minimum wage plus tips. We are human beings who deserve to be paid a living wage! No less than $25 an hour. Thank you!

Host: There’s not a single state, city or county where a full-time worker making the minimum wage can afford a modest two-bedroom rental. Roughly half of Americans can’t afford a thousand-dollar emergency. Poverty is now the fourth leading cause of death.

As director of the Food Labor Research Center at UC Berkeley, Saru witnesses the real-world human costs of these chilling statistics every day. She’s authored several books, including One Fair Wage: Ending Subminimum Pay in America. She’s working with over 100 labor and community organizations on a Living Wage for All campaign to address the twin affordability and democracy crises.

She knows that the affordability crisis is actually a billionaire crisis, which in turn is a democracy crisis. The most unequal countries are seven times more likely to experience democratic backsliding or autocracy.

Raising wages is not a left-right issue – it’s a top and bottom issue. Meanwhile, she says, both major political parties play a cynical game of political football that sidesteps tackling the imperative for a living wage.

SJ: We were struck by a series of USA Today articles that came out documenting a rumor video that the right had been circulating among MAGA voters saying that Donald Trump had already raised the federal minimum wage to $25 an hour. The videos were so popular and gained so much attention among right-wing voters. 

Now, we all know it’s a lie, and they lie all day. No big deal. That’s not the news here. The news here is that they didn’t say Donald Trump raised the wage to 15 or 17 or 20. They said he raised it to $25 an hour, which is the least you need to live anywhere in the United States of America right now. The MIT Living Wage calculator says the cheapest county in the U.S. is McLennan County, Texas, and you need $25 to survive. So they picked the very number that affects all of us, including MAGA voters. 

When I saw these articles, I said we have a five-alarm fire. The right is talking about 25 and agitating their base about 25, and the left is stuck on 17, some places 15. And I gotta tell you, this is why people hate us. People hate us because they see us negotiating against ourselves before we even get to the room. [APPLAUSE] They see us arguing for half a loaf. 

Even as I’ve started talking, I’m sure there are people in the room who, some part of their brain is saying, “What about small business?” “What about will the economy survive?” “Can we manage 25?” And I’m not blaming you. That is what you have been fed your entire lives. But we negotiate against ourselves before we even tell working people we are fighting for you; we are fighting for the full loaf, not half a loaf. We know what it takes, and it’s no less than 25. So it is time for a living wage for all, a floor of 25. Let higher cost regions go to 30 and higher.

So we polled across red, blue and purple districts – overwhelmingly popular. And I gotta tell you, people are so angry right now. If you tell them we can’t raise the wage, prices will go up, they say, “What are you talking about? Prices have already gone up!” The only price that hasn’t gone up is the price of human beings. 

We have to give people some sense of hope that a different future is on the horizon, one in which they can survive, and, yes, maybe thrive.

Source: Saru Jayaraman / One Fair Wage

Host: Taxpayers are subsidizing wages because companies refuse to pay a living wage or provide enough hours. Saru Jayaraman says that while it’s clear a living wage is essential for people to survive and thrive, the general focus of politicians has been only on reducing costs and inflation.

SJ: There’s so much talk about affordability, but most of it is “bring costs down”, “freeze the rent”, “affordable childcare”, “affordable healthcare”. Nobody is saying those things aren’t essential, critical, important and there is no world in which we achieve affordability by simply bringing costs down. 

Look at inflation over the last 75 years. It has never come down. It has never gone backwards. Do you know that now half of Americans earn less than $25 an hour? Half of America earns less than what it costs to live in the cheapest place in the United States of America. So half of America thinks maybe things are okay, and half of America has been in a five-alarm fire for a very long time. 

And if you look at the last six years in particular since the pandemic, it is double or triple the level of inflation of the last 75 years. So this is not the stagflation of the ‘70s. This is not anything we have ever experienced as a country. This is unprecedented. Unprecedented affordability crisis means an unprecedented democracy crisis, means unprecedented crisis, period.

I have heard from so many older people: I am so sad to say that the young people in my life will never leave the house. Because they can never afford to! And that’s a funny thing and a heartbreaking thing because the California budget office just reported recently that a new trend we’re seeing among minimum wage workers is that young people are deciding never to have children because they can’t afford to; they can’t imagine a life where they could actually afford their own place and have their own children. How heartbreaking is it that we are denying the next generation the ability to have kids? 

Host: Saru says that ensuring a living wage for everyone is a popular policy, but big business often discourages that support by repeating the false claim that raising wages will hurt small businesses.

SJ: It’s, you know, fair game and exciting and popular for everybody to say billionaires, trillionaires. I think there’s still this reverence for small business over people that is used by the billionaires and the trillionaires and the corporations to get even the most progressive people on our side to shy away from raising wages. 

And so, let us push our representatives, even our best friends, to say this cannot be a one-sided conversation. It has to be about prices and paychecks. It has to be about, yes, bringing costs down or freezing them, but life will never be affordable unless people have enough money in their pockets. 

Host: We’ll hear more from Saru Jayaraman when we return.

I’m Neil Harvey. You’re listening to the Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature.

Host: Extreme concentration of wealth leads to extreme concentration of power. In 2024, just a hundred billionaire families poured two billion dollars into U.S. federal elections. That’s about a 160-fold increase since the Supreme Court passed Citizens United in 2010, allowing unlimited dark money to be poured into elections. A billionaire is 4,000 times more likely to run for office than a regular citizen. Few policies pass that they don’t want.

The National Restaurant Association – the extremely powerful corporate lobby that’s often referred to as “the other NRA” – continues to wage class war on restaurant workers by swaying state and federal policy. It came about in 1919 with the express intent of being able to hire newly freed Black women after Emancipation, not pay them, and have them live only on tips. That is the origin story of the miniscule $2.13 an hour wage for restaurant workers today.

SJ: Since 1938, when FDR first – created the first federal minimum wage in the United States, you have to know that the opposition has used the exact same arguments over and over again for a century – “prices will go up, jobs will be lost, people will lose hours, small businesses will close, and the economy will tank”. Right? Whole industries will collapse. Same thing over and over and over and over again. 

Your restaurant didn’t need to raise prices, they just did. And, you know, the National Restaurant Association’s own data shows there’s a natural closure of about 20 percent of all restaurants every year, but when the wages go up, they’ll pull those restaurants in particular and say, look, they closed because of this. 

Prices have not actually gone up that dramatically each time we’ve raised the wage. In fact, I did a study with another professor here at UC Davis, and the title of the study was—at the time, this was way back when we were doing Fight for 15 and all the same arguments came up, prices are going to go up, jobs will be lost, blah, blah, blah, and we—the title of this study was A Dime a Day, because we studied—if you gave every worker in the food system, from farm workers up to restaurant workers $15 an hour, how much more would it cost the average consumer, and the answer was a dime a day. It’s not a dollar to dollar increase, y’all. 

Our calculation is it’s about, at most, at 10 percent over many years. None of the wage increases, none of the bills we’re moving raise the wage overnight. We can afford that, especially we can afford that if we’re earning enough to consume. 

Host: Saru says it’s well documented that countless initiatives across the country to create living wage policies have been stymied by the same tactics of disinformation, intimidation, and fear that the National Restaurant Association has deployed for decades. Even minor wage increases in Blue states have often been rolled back – by both political parties.

SJ: We’ll have hearings in blue states, very Trifecta blue states – Colorado, Maryland, New York – and the restaurant association will require all workers to attend a pre-shift meeting, and tell them, listen, the legislators are trying to take your tips away. Right? When the law is: Let’s raise the wage to a full minimum wage with tips on top. “The legislators are trying to take your tips away, so we’re going to shut down the restaurant, pay you all $15 an hour”, which, by the way, they could never afford to pay normally, because they normally pay $3 in the very blue state of Maryland. $2 in the very blue state of New Mexico. You know? Most of the country, it’s 2, and 3, and 4. And they’re like, you know, this law is about taking your tips away, so we’re going to shut down the restaurant, pay all of you. Come, come—you know, and then it’s 75 or 100 workers getting up one by one: “Please don’t take my tips away.” 

And we do everything in our power to get workers to come to say, “No, I need a raise!”, which the overwhelming majority, of course, of workers want. But those workers are working three jobs and terrified of showing up with their name and their face, and their employers see it. So democracy doesn’t work when the majority of people are unable or terrified to come speak up. And then a minority of people are paid to come speak for their bosses. Right? 

And the Democrats, I don’t believe they’re this dumb. Maybe they’re this dumb. But their response is, oh, we can’t do this because workers don’t want it. And I really believe it’s a good excuse, or maybe they are that dumb to be taken in by what we call an AstroTurf campaign, right, Fake grassroots campaign. 

But that’s been my experience of democracy, is Democrats blocking wage increases because of the restaurant association, rolling back—Do you know in 2025, as the affordability crisis became the thing that everybody understood, it was Democrats, who for the first time in United States history, rolled back workers’ wages, cut them in half in Michigan, in Colorado, in DC, in Chicago. I could say state after state. Republicans would never touch this with a ten-foot pole, because turning back workers’ wages they would always consider to be political suicide. Democrats thought it was okay because we have not created the consequences for those Democrats. 

Do you know what the Republican stand on minimum wage is? It’s not leave it where it is. I mean, I’ve debated them on The New York Times podcast. Their stance is there should not be a minimum wage. The free market should take care of wages. They never negotiate—Do you think they sit in a room with policy wonks and say, “What’s acceptable? What’s feasible? What’s palatable?” before they come out and say there shouldn’t be a minimum wage? No. They don’t care. They will say exactly what they need and want. 

So this has been my experience of democracy. What would it look like in a real democracy? In a real democracy, workers would be able to have one job instead of three. They could show up en masse and say, oh, take your hands off our wages. If we can make it a big deal in the policy arena, then we see workers who’ve been afraid start to talk about it with one another. If you are alone in a workplace and you’re like, we deserve $30, and nobody else is talking about $30, it becomes really, really hard. But if it’s on the television and everybody’s talking about it, suddenly it becomes something we can talk about. “You know? Let’s talk about it. Do you think we’re worth $30, first of all? Hell yeah, we’re worth $30.” They could overpower any lies or AstroTurf campaign, and they would be listened to. That’s what democracy would look like; that’s why it would be important. 

Host: More and more people are seeing the reason they’re sicker, poorer, and chronically insecure is the giant sucking sound of the Goliath wealth pump.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Congress could make policy changes, like an embarrassingly modest wealth tax on millionaires and billionaires, which would raise an annual estimated $414 billion for social programs and fighting poverty. Remember, from WWII until 1980, the top marginal tax rate in the U.S. was 81%.

But the most effective, lasting change comes from the grassroots. Saru Jayaraman calls for a bold, proactive vision that unites working people across the country and that addresses their key concern: the cost of living.

SJ: I know there’s a lot to be unhappy about, I know there’s a lot to cry about, there’s a lot to be angry about, there’s a lot to defend. Yet if all we do is defense, we will lose. 

But I have to tell you in terms of democracy, I have been hearing so often from our members across the country, if I ask them, ‘Come to Saturday’s rally, No Kings; help us save democracy,’ they’ll say, “Save democracy? I earn $3. I work three jobs. What has democracy done for me lately?” 

And I have asked workers: What would you do? What would you do if you actually had the capacity to engage in the democratic process? If you had one job instead of three, if you could engage politically, what would you work on? Do you know what they tell me time and time again? They say the climate crisis. 

Working people live in the communities that are most impacted by environmental crisis. So of course they care, but they do not have the capacity, again, nor do they see people in power doing or speaking to anything that represents them or resonates with them, or frankly addresses the top need they have, which is the cost of living. 

Photo: Steve Sanchez Photos / Shutterstock

As sad as this moment is, there’s a moment of opportunity where the pendulum could swing in the exact opposite direction. And yes, they would have time to engage on the issue they said they would engage on if they had capacity, which is the climate crisis. 

What’s so hopeful to me is that when I travel the country, I’m in Michigan, Pennsylvania, or even the South, every red, blue, and purple district, the one thing I find working people across the political spectrum can agree on is if you work, you deserve to earn enough to feed your family, to have a roof over your head, maybe even to take a vacation. What a concept. 

But I really want to ask you to join me in stopping this notion of “saving democracy”. It’s not working. It didn’t work in 2024. The messages we were told – “you’re wrong, the economy is working; you’re wrong, there’s so much that we’ve done, we’re just not messaging it right.” No! No! You know what the best message is for working people? Delivering. Delivering on the things that allow them to survive and thrive and live. 

So that is why I feel such deep urgency to work with you to deliver, to deliver on wage increases that will put more money in peoples’ pockets, that will give people a sense of hope. And, yes, together, building a different future in which all of us can thrive. Thank you. [APPLAUSE] 

Host: Saru Jayaraman, “Saving Democracy Means Ending Extreme Inequality.”

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