Farmers and rural Americans are the original stewards of the land. Their lives depend on the health of the soil, water, and air. They know the rhythms of nature, how crops thrive, how seasons shift, and how ecosystems balance. By this measure, they should be the truest environmentalists, driven by a practical, intimate connection to the earth. But the term “environmentalism” has been hijacked, twisted into a caricature that alienates the very people who live closest to nature. To win the culture war and build a cleaner, healthier world, conservatives (especially rural conservatives) must reclaim environmentalism, strip it of its corrupted veneer, and champion sane, grounded solutions.
The Corruption of Environmentalism
Modern environmentalism, as pushed by the left, often feels like a performative spectacle. It’s less about protecting nature and more about signaling virtue through flashy, often destructive policies. Covering rolling hills with industrial solar farms and wind turbines scars the landscape, disrupts ecosystems, and demands vast resources to produce and maintain. Electric vehicles, hailed as green saviors, rely on batteries that require strip-mining for lithium and cobalt, leaving environmental devastation in their wake. These solutions prioritize optics over outcomes, trading one form of harm for another.
Worse, the left’s environmentalism fixates on demonizing carbon dioxide, a naturally occurring gas that plants, including crops, thrive on. Farmers know that CO2 is not a pollutant but a building block of life. Yet, the war on carbon drives policies that burden rural communities with regulations and costs, all while ignoring more pressing environmental threats.
Take the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) promotion of sewage sludge as “fertilizer.” Marketed as a green solution, this practice spreads PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), known as “forever chemicals,” onto farmland. These toxins persist in soil, water, and crops, threatening human health and the environment. A 2022 report from the EPA’s Office of Inspector General highlighted how the agency’s lax oversight allowed PFAS-contaminated sludge to be applied to millions of acres, with over 40% of biosolids containing unsafe levels of these chemicals. This isn’t environmentalism—it’s negligence dressed up as progress.
The Left’s Misplaced Priorities
The left’s environmental agenda often ignores practical realities in favor of ideological crusades. It pushes for net-zero carbon emissions while sidelining the environmental costs of renewable energy infrastructure. Solar panels and wind turbines require massive land use—often prime agricultural land—and their production generates toxic waste. A 2023 study from the Manhattan Institute estimated that achieving net-zero goals could require up to 250,000 square miles of land for renewables, an area larger than Texas. Rural communities bear the brunt of this transformation, losing farmland and scenic vistas to industrial sprawl.
Electric vehicles, meanwhile, are no silver bullet. The International Energy Agency notes that battery production for EVs generates up to 74% more emissions than building a conventional car. Mining for battery materials destroys ecosystems in places like the Congo and Chile, far from the suburban driveways where EVs signal eco-virtue. This is environmentalism as a luxury belief—clean for the elite, dirty for the rest.
The obsession with CO2 also distracts from real pollutants. Microplastics, heavy metals, and chemical runoff poison rivers and soils, yet they receive a fraction of the attention. Rural Americans see the consequences firsthand: contaminated water tables, declining wildlife, and degraded soil health. These are the issues true environmentalism should tackle, not the abstract specter of climate change framed as a one-size-fits-all crisis.
Reclaiming Environmentalism for Rural America
Conservatives, particularly those in rural America, are uniquely positioned to redefine environmentalism. They understand the land not as a political prop but as a living system that sustains their livelihoods. Here’s how they can lead:
Focus on Local, Practical Solutions: Environmentalism should prioritize clean water, healthy soil, and biodiversity over global abstractions. Farmers can champion practices like regenerative agriculture, which sequesters carbon naturally while improving soil fertility. Programs like the Conservation Reserve Program already pay farmers to restore grasslands and wetlands—expanding these could do more for the environment than any solar farm.
Expose Hypocrisy: Conservatives must call out the contradictions in left-wing environmentalism. Highlight the environmental cost of renewables and EVs, and demand transparency about policies like sewage sludge application. Rural voices can shift the narrative by exposing how “green” policies often harm the very ecosystems they claim to protect.
Promote Innovation, Not Regulation: Instead of top-down mandates, conservatives should advocate for market-driven solutions. Incentivize technologies like precision agriculture, which reduces chemical use, or small-scale nuclear energy, which provides clean power without devouring land. These align with rural values of self-reliance and ingenuity.
Reclaim the Language: Environmentalism shouldn’t mean urban elites dictating to rural communities. Conservatives can redefine it as stewardship, which is caring for the land with practical wisdom. This resonates with rural America’s ethos and counters the left’s moralizing tone.
Winning the Culture War
The left’s environmentalism thrives on guilt and fear, alienating those who work the land. By embracing a grounded, pragmatic environmentalism, conservatives can flip the script. They can appeal to rural Americans’ natural instincts as caretakers while exposing the flaws in progressive dogma. This isn’t just about policy, it’s about culture. Reclaiming environmentalism means rejecting the idea that caring for the earth belongs to one ideology. It means standing up for solutions that respect nature’s complexity and rural America’s role in preserving it.
Farmers and rural communities aren’t just stakeholders, they’re the backbone of a healthier planet. By championing real environmentalism, they can lead the way to a cleaner, more ‘sustainable’ future, not through virtue signals but through common sense and a deep-rooted love for the land.
References: The article draws on insights from a ZeroHedge piece on reclaiming environmentalism (https://www.zerohedge.com/political/reclaiming-environmentalism-climate-extremists), EPA’s 2022 OIG report on PFAS in biosolids, the Manhattan Institute’s 2023 land-use estimates for renewables, and the International Energy Agency’s data on EV battery emissions.