eleven years ago, unity college, a small environmental college tucked into the woods of rural maine, became the first institute of higher education in the country to divest, scrubbing their finances clean from fossil fuels. with the help of climate activist bill mckibben and activist groups, unity college’s story started a movement. today, over 100 schools are divested or in the process of divesting from fossil fuels. from private, wealthy goliaths such as harvard and yale to the entire california public college system, fossil fuels are out the door. 

on this planet forward audio story, i talk to the former president of unity college about how divestment works and the story of how his school became the first to do it. also, he happens to be my dad.

circumstances may have reached a new junction as one main project is underway on u.s. soil, and a $205 billion national hsr system proposal was recently introduced into congress. more importantly, studies show that hsr is a smart, economic and green plan; a case analysis for one proposal found that the system would create an 8:1 return on investment. 

what remains is determining which player is going to take on this long-awaited task: should the government or private entities fund development?  

why trains are so bad in the united states 

it may be hard to believe, but the u.s. was once the global poster child of railway transportation. cities were filled with street cars, and most people did not yet live in suburbs or own a car, making it sensible to travel from city to city on steam engines. 

but according to andy kunz, the president of the national high speed rail association (nhsra), that began to change after the world war ii economic-boom. the american lifestyle became associated with living far away from city centers and owning an automobile to get from place to place. by 1940, 60 percent of americans owned a car, and the government began relocating money in 1955 to build our current interstate highways.

“amtrak is basically the remnants of our history: leftovers after cuts from this and that,” kunz said. “since the government has spent trillions of dollars on building highways that connect every inch of america, there has been an anti-rail bias coming from congress, the white house, and the u.s. department of transportation.”

it was not until former president barack obama’s administration that $8 billion was set aside for the development of an hsr system. kunz said although he is more than appreciative of the funding, that money is just a fraction of what would be needed for a trans-continental system. 

unlike construction in other parts of the world, american developers face several bureaucratic hurdles and costs when building such large-scale projects, kunz added, namely environmental regulations and private land battles. 

“it’s like building a new highway: you can’t do it overnight,” he said.

the projects currently underway

despite bureaucratic and political pushback, enthusiasm from leaders like obama and rep. alexandria ocasio cortez has transformed american hsr from some fantasy into an expected service within the next couple of decades. 

the most ambitious publicly led effort is the california high speed rail association’s project, which is currently under phase one construction in the state’s central valley. according to boris lipkin, the authority’s northern regional director, the current goal is to have the train connect san francisco with los angeles by 2033 and expects to run on 100 percent clean energy, which would reduce between 1.5 to 1.8 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions by 2040. 

“i know california certainly likes to compare itself to other countries, but this kind of state-wide scale and magnitude is equivalent to what other nations have done,” lipkin said. 

once in operation, california’s trains will operate at over 200 miles per hour, which would be among the fastest in the world. to take on such a tremendous project, lipkin said the authority already has created 50,000 job years (which also represents employees who only worked for a few months), including 4,000 construction workers. 

the director added that despite covid-19 hurdles, california gov. gavin newsome’s executive order designates construction workers as essential employees. there are currently about 1,000 construction workers on site every week. 

“this is having big effects in the central valley, where many people in these communities have been hit hard and have been historically poorer than the rest of the state,” he said. 

although there are no private companies to break ground on a brand-new hsr system, the two most prominent efforts underway are the texas central railway to connect houston with dallas and virgin trains’ (formerly brightline trains) xpress west project connecting las vegas with los angeles. nevada recently allocated a $200 million bond to virgin trains, and the company said it plans to break ground by the end of 2020.

today’s debate: public or private hsr?

the question now isn’t whether we should be developing hsr: it’s now about who should oversee the development. 

some potential american hsr users, like transit-geek nathaniel zhu, believe american technological development is rooted in capitalism, and he said he believes hsr initiatives should observe current american space technology programs, where several private actors like virgin galactic, spacex, and boeing compete among one another to produce the best and most affordable technology. 

“the united states would be such a more efficient country if it had a high speed rail system,” zhu said. “for such a technologically advanced country, it’s a shame we don’t already have one.”

however, he said there is a distinction between innovation and economic sustainability and added that an american hsr would probably not help reduce automobile and plane use if ticket prices are not competitive.

having lived in both china and europe, he said the reason he used hsr in both places was because it was often a much more affordable and convenient alternative to flying or driving, and he acknowledged that publicly operated hsr systems do make hsr cheaper.

“until it’s treated as a public service and (while) ticket prices are still expensive, i don’t think i would even take a train from say chicago to minneapolis,” he said. 

others, like california’s boris lipkin, argue that the public sector is necessary for development because the government has a strong incentive to economically link together several communities it tresspasses, not just create a link between two cities.

unlike the project in texas, where both the houston and dallas stations are planned to be constructed on the city outskirts, lepkin said the california project will provide easy access to downtown stations and stop along smaller cities between san francisco and los angeles.

although more expensive, lipkin said the goal is to provide economic opportunities for the historically marginalized communities in the central valley — an investment that will offset the costs tremendously. 

“from an economic, equity, and connectivity standpoint, we want fresno to be an hour away from san jose; we want bakersfield to be an hour away from los angeles,” lipkin said. “that changes the entire way the state operates; it changes the way our economy works.” 

and in a few decades, it is quite possible that americans could have an hsr that would connect them from cities all across the country. in may, rep. seth moulton introduced a $205 billion economic recovery bill into congress that would provide the foundations for a national high speed rail system.

ultimately employing up to 1.16 million people, moulton’s plan would build off existing federal transit administration plans to provide new transportation alternatives for business commuters between large, innovative cities like chicago to milwaukee, portland to seattle, and dallas to oklahoma city.  

lipkin added the federal government historically has helped navigate transportation projects like the interstate system, so he said he would not be surprised if a future administration or congress would take on the project.

“federal funding will be a necessary component to finishing that project — i have no doubt in my mind about that,” he said.

one in three filipinos is directly employed in agriculture, but agriculture only contributes to 9% of gross domestic product (gdp).

in the last few decades, rural communities have experienced cycles of poverty and indebtedness in which farmers find themselves trapped in cycles of loaning and insecurity. vulnerable to the effects of climate change and stuck without crop insurance, many filipino farmers perennially live in debt and at the mercy of traders. the philippines is hit by an average of 20 deadly typhoons per year, which wipe out crops and perpetuate cycles of borrowing and debt. a farmer’s average income is around 2,000 philippine pesos (about $40) per month. the philippines is an agricultural country, yet it is also one of the top rice importers in the world.

these problems and paradoxes have not been lost on urban millennials. cropital, a crowdfunding platform for local farmers, was started by a group of filipino college students in 2015 with a simple philosophy: doing good comes with great rewards. low-cost, sustainable investments support farmers with the mission of improved productivity, reduced poverty, and food security. this is the first platform that allows individuals to finance filipino farmers.

a bottom-up alternative

for 24-year-old co-founder rachel de villa, cropital’s objective stems from watching her own family become trapped in a cycle of oppressive debt. predatory lending forces farmers into a crippling cycle of debt passed down between generations. when her grandmother lost her pineapple farm, de villa became aware of the systemic injustices that farmers face.

“we had to sell it because we lacked money. and thinking about it now, if only i had the skills back then, i would have created cropital and helped my grandmother not sell her land,” de villa says. she was listed in forbes’ 30 under 30 asia list in 2016. cropital was awarded philippine social enterprise of the year at the philippine rice bowl startup awards 2016. the company has financed more than 600 farmers so far in six provinces.

cropital works by allowing people to choose from a list of approved farms to invest in. cropital’s team manages the funds, helping farmers get access to crop insurance and capital to protect against weather and pest risks, and then investors receive returns once the farm has been fully funded. the minimum amount of investment is php$5,000 (about $100) up to a maximum of php$50,000 (or $1,000), and the rate of return for users ranges from 3% to 30% in less than six months. the farmers have 100% repayment rates so far.

investors range from young professionals, older consumers, and overseas filipino workers (ofws).

all of cropital’s campaigns have maxed out in mere minutes, and on the faq section of their website, the second question asks: “if all farms are already fully funded, when will you open the new cycle and how will i know?” users can then await email notifications from cropital to hear when new farms for funding are posted according to the cropping seasons.

growing agriculture by growing money

global trends show a shifting labor movement away from agriculture. massive rural-urban migration coupled with erratic climate patterns have pushed filipinos off their farms to seek opportunities elsewhere. farmers are aging; the average age of a filipino farmer is 57 years old. cropital is tasked not only with maintaining farms, but also reviving interest in younger generations to grow food. the reality of philippine agriculture must change to demonstrate there is a future in farming.

innovations in financing and technology must reach beyond urban economies. de villa explains that cropital works by a simple formula: capital + resources for production = sustainable income for farmers. cropital’s team is using the most powerful resource of this generation — technology — to revolutionize farmers’ access to resources, and thus empowering them.

combining agriculture and technology is controversial in the philippines. we still see the damaging repercussions of the green revolution on farmers in cycles of indebtedness and reliance on high-value inputs. monsanto, golden rice, and gmo wars are large as life. the international rice research institute (irri), located just outside metro manila, is financed by figures like bill gates. these resources always were controlled by giant companies and the government.

what we are seeing now with cropital is a bottom-up, grassroots approach to implementing technology for agricultural change. cropital is run as an open platform, where any vetted and approved farmer may list their farm and any individual may choose to finance. besides providing resources to make farming more promising and viable, cropital is building partnerships and redistributing economic power between citizens and food growers. cropital hopes to educate people about farming, its opportunities, and its challenges: “many young people are entrepreneurs, and maybe not all of them will go into farming but they can create tools and innovations that will help make farming more sustainable and attractive to younger generations,” de villa said in a forbes interview.

a regional platform

crowdfunding schemes can happen anywhere, at any time. as cropital aims to scale up its impact across an archipelago of 7,000 islands, the business model can be replicated and expanded throughout southeast asia. financing and agricultural services and support offered by cropital will improve food security in the asean countries. besides financing thousands more farmers in the next few years, cropital’s future plans include supporting farmers by matching them with established contract buyers, providing weather resilience technology, and building efficient production systems.

there is rich potential for cropital’s achievements to tie back into the united nations’ sustainable development goals of no poverty, zero hunger, and reduced inequalities. stakeholders at the upcoming responsible business on food and agriculture in jakarta on march 26-28, may sit up and take note of cropital’s work and potential in the region. cropital provides an avenue to tie us back into the roots of our food system, reminding us that our farmers are our food growers. we must support agriculture and fulfill our basic needs to achieve equitable, inclusive progress in food security.