In response to the introduction of the Green New Deal resolution last year, a congressman bankrolled by oil and gas interests announced the formation of an “Anti-Socialism Caucus.” “The government will come into almost every part of everyday life, from energy to transportation to literally what you eat,” warned Republican representative Chris Stewart of Utah. The announcement may seem better suited for 1949 than 2019. But its predictable demagoguery hides an important truth: the political struggle to decarbonize the economy and move the United States onto an ecologically sane and socially just footing will be waged on the field of consumption.

As absurd as right-wing fearmongering about the demise of hamburgers lurking in the Green New Deal’s “deep, deep red communist” core is, it also raises important and difficult questions. Any Green New Deal sweeping enough to meet this moment must address what and how we consume. Rapidly phasing out fossil fuels in the energy sector, essential as that is, won’t automatically create the consumption patterns needed to remake our relationship with the planet. And without a clear policy vision that defines sustainable and egalitarian consumption, explains why it matters, and charts a democratic path to get there, a transformative Green New Deal faces long political odds.

Meaningful action against climate change and other ecological problems will require big changes in how products and services are distributed, marketed, sold, bought, used and recycled. This will affect not just billionaires and their outsize carbon footprint, but working- and middle-class people. Precisely what those shifts entail and how to manage them democratically are political questions we have to face.