Policy Priorities > 

Stewarding our Land and Natural Resources

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Protect Clean Air, Water, and Soil

Corporations should be responsible for meeting standards designed to protect clean air, water, and soil, and to remediate and restore these resources.

  • Safeguard rural communities by ending the proliferation of overcrowded, polluting concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). USDA should stop subsidizing and unfairly propping up industrial livestock farms with guaranteed loans, and instead support family farmers who are responsible stewards of the land and help more farmers transition to more regenerative livestock production systems.
  • Ensure polluters are responsible for the cleanup of PFAS, a dangerous forever chemical. Cleanup now falls on farmers and rural utility systems, who are already stretched to the breaking point. Congress and the administration must invest in robust testing and hold the companies that profited from PFAS accountable for the environmental harms to land and drinking water.
  • Protect the right of all Americans, including farmers and farmworkers, who are harmed by toxic chemicals, to take legal action against agrichemical corporations.1 In addition, protect local decision making power to pass policies that safeguard the health of their residents and natural resources from toxic chemicals and other environmental dangers.
  • People should have a say in the decisions that impact them, and local people have expertise on how a change in land use will impact the land and people in the area. Before making land use decisions, federal agencies should inform the public, collect comment, and involve them in considering environmental impacts, long-term uses, and alternatives to the proposed action.2
    • The Trump Administration and the 2025-2026 Congress have weakened environmental review and public comment for federal projects, including exempting certain projects from environmental review, limiting the timeline for public participation, and reducing the timelines and scale of review for all projects. Companies who “pay to play” get special treatment to rush through public review and exemption from judicial review.
  • Require developers to cover long-term risks and ensure taxpayers and landowners aren’t forced to foot the bill. For example, a new mining project that requires reclamation should post a bond covering land restoration costs.

Notes

  1. See the Pesticide Injury Accountability Act.
  2. Preserve and protect the National Environmental Policy Act. Also, help people make informed decisions with better testing and reporting of toxic chemicals that connects air, land, and water impacts. Federal agencies should expand air quality monitoring, including but not limited to annual public reporting of PM1, PM2.5, and PM10. This will provide rural communities with transparent data to safeguard their health and advocate for stronger protections.

Also see Don’t Poison Us.