It should be evidently clear food and water are some of the most basic human rights that nearly everyone agrees with. So it should go without saying that this should be a top priority to provide people with safe, green, and affordable sustenance. Especially while helping small businesses fairly compete in this market.

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Here's What I Would Do:

• End “factory farming” of animals. Mass meat production models currently in use have a massive carbon footprint and degrade the environment.

• Supplement healthier foods so that the cheapest possible options for food will still be rich in nutrients.

• Ban antibiotic use for growth promotion. Antibiotics should be used exclusively to treat illnesses in livestock populations; the dangerous overuse of antibiotics in farming is contributing to the development of “superbugs” that resist treatment.

• Pressure the federal government to void all patents for seed genetics. Food crops are not intellectual property; they’re a human need. Advancements in food science belong to civilization, not shareholders.

• End commercial use of synthetic fertilizer. These fertilizers sterilize the ground and runoff into nearby bodies of water, creating toxic algal blooms.

• Currently, a handful of companies control nearly all of the seed and chemical products required for agriculture. We need to pressure the federal government for this monopoly to be broken to allow necessary developments in research to advance.

• Invest in soil renewal and watershed management. We must revive the soil and water in ecosystems that our “modern” agriculture methods have destroyed.

• Eliminate overtime exemptions for farmworkers while subsidizing smaller farms to ease this transition and paying workers their fair share. 

• Eliminate subsidies for monoculture crops. We must diversify our food production, moving away from nitrogen-intensive, low-nutrition feed/food crops like corn to a higher percentage share of nitrogen-fixers (legume crops, alfalfa, and etc.)

• Prohibit raising and processing animals on the same site.

• Ethanol, while cleaner and cheaper than oil, still releases carbon emissions and pits energy needs against food production in a dangerous way.

• Guarantee free, clean, drinkable water as a human right to every person in Oregon.

• Fund all necessary infrastructure upgrades to deliver this Right to Water in every residence and public building in Oregon.

• Apply further use bioswales to remove debris and pollution while also using the vegetation to recharge the groundwater.

• Legalize personal rainwater collection (with reasonable limits to prevent negative impacts on vulnerable watersheds).

• Expand and enforce protections for all naturally occurring bodies of water within the jurisdiction of Oregon law, including aquifers and coastal waters.

• Pressure the federal government to use the US military to completely clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. If we can put a rover on Mars, bail out failing banks, and give tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy, we can take the plastic out of the ocean.