1. What is the Green Amendment Movement?

Green Amendments are environmental protections added to the bill of rights section of a state constitution that recognize and protect the rights of all people, including future generations, to pure water, clean air, a stable climate, and a healthy environment.

More than 25 states have launched Green Amendment initiatives. Currently, three states – Montana, New York, and Pennsylvania – have established constitutional rights to a healthy environment via Green Amendments. Nine other states considered green amendment bills in 2023, including Texas. The Montana law was the basis for the high-profile case in the summer 2023 in which a court ruled for the first time that the state government violated the rights of children by failing to protect them from climate change.

On August 14, 2023, Judge Kathy Seely ruled in favor of youth plaintiffs citing that Montana’s Environmental Policy Act violated Montana’s Constitution by prohibiting consideration of climate change when approving new energy projects.  This is the first time a Green Amendment was used to protect the people over the matter of climate change. The Green Amendment is an effective tool to advance change.

3. Why does Green Gate Farms and Friends of the Land support the Green Amendment?

After organic farming in Texas for nearly 20 years, we have experienced firsthand how the lives and livelihoods of sustainable farmers are threatened because state laws and regulations put business interests ahead of environmental protections. 

Clean water and air, a stable climate and healthy environments are not recognized and protected by the federal government as inalienable rights and given constitutional recognition and protection. In states that don’t have protections written into their constitutions, protecting these basic human needs becomes an after-thought in government decision-making or are not considered at all.

Texans are increasingly alarmed by how the state’s shared natural resources have been exploited, while local control to manage growth and protect the environment has eroded. A new state law now prevents cities and counties from passing local ordinances that conflict with state laws regulating agriculture, the built environment, and natural resources, such as sand and gravel mining.

A perfect example of this is threatening Texas riverways and fertile farming areas. Texas is the nation’s leading producer of aggregate mining products. Unlike most states, however, Texas’ aggressive pro-business stance has allowed this industry to ignore best practices and self-regulate. No public hearings or environmental studies are required prior to or during sand and gravel mining, most of which takes place along rivers and watersheds. Unlike the oil and gas and other industries, sand and gravel miners are not required to put in air monitors or address basic safety concerns of neighbors.

Friends of the Land and Green Gate Farms is especially concerned about Bastrop County’s Wilbarger Bend, designated a prime recreation area for decades. Home to a historically black Freedom Colony and one of the best places to grow food and observe nature in Central Texas.  Elon Musk’s tunneling and manufacturing operations, along with four new sand and gravel mines — is turning this agritourism, birding and recreational treasure into a massive industrial site without any input from people who have lived there for generations. No thought appears to be given to established eco-tourism enterprises that are already there. And despite numerous violations in state and county regulations and roads now made dangerous by hundreds of gravel trucks, no public meetings have been convened by industry or city officials. Hyatt at Lost Pines and McKinney Roughs Nature Park and other nature-based businesses will soon overlook hundreds of acres of eviscerated holes if action is not taken soon. (To learn more about these challenges, see www.friendsoftheland.com).

4. Huge demands on ground and surface water is on everyone’s mind in Texas these days. How would a Green Amendment help Texans better protect this critical resource when the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is so pro-business?

“TCEQ’s permitting process bars full participation and judicial review by many personally impacted persons,” says environmental lawyer Eric Allmon. “In deciding who can be granted a hearing on a permit application, TCEQ often applies unwritten “rules of thumb,” such as requiring that a person own property within 1 mile downstream of a discharge to be granted a hearing on a wastewater permit.”

Texas also limits participation by requiring that the public demonstrate that a contested permit should be denied, rather than requiring an applicant to demonstrate that the permit should be granted. 

Environmental protections (a Green or “Stewardship Amendment”) written into the state constitution would establish a constitutional mandate, recognizing a healthy environment as above the law, inherent, indefeasible, generational, and belonging to all people, says Maya Van Rossum, founder of the Green Amendment Movement. Once passed, Green Amendments require government officials to prioritize environmental protection when considering new development — from new subdivisions to renewable energy. The health of the environment and environmental impacts would be given first consideration — at the start of planning, decision-making, legislating and regulating.

5. How will the Green Amendment help Texans protect their local food supply?

Currently, Travis County is losing 16 acres of farmland per day to development and this irreversible loss has a ripple effect on neighboring counties. Farmers are leaving metro areas because they can no longer afford to buy land or pay such high property taxes.

We farm on Wilbarger Bend in Bastrop County (20m west of Austin) because it provides increasingly rare attributes in Central Texas: ample water and fertile soil near thriving communities. Several farm and food businesses have joined us to create a diverse food hub. 

If Texas had a Green Amendment, it would provide a means for communities to establish agricultural zones where the best prime farmland could be protected, farmers could focus on growing food, and food security would be increased. It would allow farmers to do what they do best — grow food and care for the land — rather than fighting to protect it from unplanned growth.

6. What became of the Stewardship Amendment bill introduced by Rep. Vicki Goodwin this past legislative session?

During the 88th legislative session Goodwin’s bill didn’t have enough support to get out of committee. She plans to introduce similar legislation next session but your help is needed to raise awareness about the importance of this issue.

7. How can I support the Green Amendment movement?

Please contact your elected officials, especially on the state level, about your concerns. (Texas laws make it difficult for local officials to be effective in addressing the environmental concerns of the areas they represent). Reach out to nonprofit and community groups who can help organize. Let others know via social media, reporters about your concerns regarding: roads made dangerous by reckless gravel trucks, dust in the air created by rock crushing, digging of sacred areas, needlessly bright lights kept on around the clock, and other industrial actions that ruin quality of life for you, your neighbors and and wildlife.

To learn more, see: https://forthegenerations.org.