Water is Life.

Water is Life. We support equitable local and sustainable New Mexico farming and ranching, fair water access emphasizing agriculture that feeds New Mexicans, water conservation efforts, and regenerative soil practices. We must increase access to fresh and nutritious foods in all communities, under the direction of impacted communities. 

We Affirm

1. New Mexico water is scarce and precious. We will create a long-term plan to ensure that our state agriculture industry is the most efficient in water usage possible; and

2. Equitable food-oriented development should be a priority; and

3. Pesticides and herbicides should be used responsibly with full consideration of all effects to ecosystems; and

4. “Produced water” is hydraulic fracturing (fracking) waste and should never be used to water our crops; and

5. Sustainable farming practices, including regenerative agriculture, soil health, diversified crops, water conservation, worker safety, and fair labor practices are important to help alleviate food insecurity in both urban and rural communities; and

6. Ongoing research on improvements to agriculture has an important role in mitigating climate change, adapting agriculture to a changing climate, and potentially providing carbon credits to farmers; and

7. Monocropping, large-scale farming, and concentrated animal-feeding operations are not healthy, nor are they sustainable; and

8. Black, Indigenous, and people of color, working class people, and communities of women are disproportionately impacted by poverty, hunger, and health disparities. We will prioritize land, water, and investment for women and Black, Indigenous, and people of color farmers and food entrepreneurs.

We Will

1. Support the removal of  the existing minimum-wage exemption for agricultural workers and end the practice of paying workers by the piece; and

2. Support stronger agricultural-worker protections, including regulating work hours, demanding fair wages, eliminating child labor, ensuring adequate housing for migrant workers, and providing sanitary facilities in the field; and

3. Support funding and prioritization of local farming, including community-supported agriculture (CSAs) and infrastructure to bring products to market; and

4. Support incentives for transitioning to locally sustainable agricultural practices, soil restoration, agricultural water conservation, and retention of lands for regenerative agricultural production and ranching; and

5. Demand modifications to the Farm Bill, to adjust its formulas to accommodate the Southwest's more arid agricultural conditions; and

6. Demand a ban on the use of neonicotinoids (synthetic pesticides), which are neurotoxic to humans and detrimental to bees and pollinators on which we depend for our food supply; and

7. Support efforts to preserve and protect New Mexico’s traditional heritage livestock and varieties of heirloom seeds; and

8. Support individual property owners’ abilities to control their agricultural lands and local water rights for personal and agricultural use to the extent that it does not conflict with the need to have a sustainable community; and

9. Compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as a contaminant; and

10. Compel the Department of Defense (DoD) to clean up PFAS chemical contamination, which originated on military bases, and to provide compensation and remedies for affected water supplies, livestock, and poisoned individuals; and

11. Support individuals and communities in developing yard and community gardens through supportive land-use policies and zoning; and

12. Support regenerative farming practices that protect against drought, mitigate the effects of climate change, increase biodiversity, enrich soils, create living-wage jobs, and improve watersheds; and

13. Support increased funding for New Mexico healthy soil initiatives; and

14. Support legislation that promotes an industrial hemp industry.