OTA.COM 31 pesticides and record environmental protection, pesticide-related illnesses continue to harm farm-working communities due to environmental racism. ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND AGROCHEMICALS In response to the unequal burden of harm environmental racism placed on communities of color, those communities nurtured environmental-justice movements to advocate for themselves. Environmental justice consists of socialjustice oriented and life-affirming environmental practices, and it intersects with agrochemicals in many ways. The recent federal ban of chlorpyrifos, led by the Latinx farmworker community, is a case in point: with strategic legal and scientific support, farmworker community organizers made the federal ban possible. According to Margaret Reeves and Ángel García, who organized with California farmworkers, communities used their own lived experience and expertise to investigate the environmental injustices they face. In many cases, administrative districting formally excludes communities of color from land-use decisions, and decision-making bodies ignored communities with a perceived lack of scientific credentials. Decades of farmworker experiences, ideas, and efforts generated the local, state, and national momentum necessary to ban the pesticide. ALTERNATIVE AGRICULTURE An environmental justice lens helps us think critically about food systems, even organic farming. For example, organic farming protects biodiversity and soil quality and reduces pollution from fertilizers and pesticide run-off. Since the 1980s, organic farming has advocated for an agriculture free of synthetic agrochemicals as an alternative to conventional agriculture. Organic farmers are also required to use such non-chemical techniques as crop rotation, selecting resistant varieties, using nutrient and water management, providing habitat for the natural enemies of pests, and releasing beneficial organisms such as ladybugs to protect crops from damage. If all these pest prevention strategies have failed and pests are present, organic farmers may use limited amounts of pesticides, but those chemicals are five times less likely to leave behind harmful residues. However, since organic farming has become more popular and profitable, farmers will have to center on social justice and increase compensation, transparency, and safety standards for their workers. BLACK FARMER JUSTICE Thinking critically about Black-owned farms is another way the organic farming community can address environmental racism through environmental justice. The institution of slavery first took African people from their Indigenous lands and subjected them to lives of hard and unpaid agricultural labor. According to Leah Penniman, the owner of food-justice certified Soul Fire Farm, the legacy of slavery still stains many Black people’s ideas and relationship with agriculture. Rather than see growing foods as liberating, they can think of slavery and oppression. Anti-Black racism also robbed Black people of positive experiences with the land after slavery. The history of Black agriculture since the Civil War is a history of violent displacement and fearful migration. In 1920, before the millions of Black people fled southern violence in the Great Migration, over 14% of U.S. farmland was Black-owned. By 1992, Black farmers owned less than 1% of U.S. farmland. Even with the increased attention to Black-owned farms, historical Black-owned farms continue to face racism and injustice today. Lastly, supporting Black-owned land helps center a wide range of Black environmental knowledge and activism. Similar to how Latinx farmworkers and activists have influenced chlorpyrifos policies, Black ecological knowledge and activism have shaped environmental justice movements in the United States. Even though agrochemicals are the engine of industrial agriculture, which adversely impacts the environment and communities of color, many of those same communities fight back. Science and technology alone will not reduce inequalities in our food system. Organic agriculture cannot improve how food is grown and distributed by itself either. The future, however, is far from bleak. Jayson Porter, is a Ph.D. candidate in history at Northwestern University and Social Justice Intern at The Organic Center. puregroundingredients.com +1 (775) 297-4047 Culinary Herbs Spices Botanicals Teas & Leaves Dried Chiles We o er a robust portfolio of organic ingredients, freshly milled and flavorful. Imported directly from the source and processed in our SQF certified facility in Minden, NV. ALWAYS ORGANIC
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