Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice

Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice PDF Author: Jill Lindsey Harrison
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262297884
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book

Book Description
An examination of political conflicts over pesticide drift and the differing conceptions of justice held by industry, regulators, and activists. The widespread but virtually invisible problem of pesticide drift—the airborne movement of agricultural pesticides into residential areas—has fueled grassroots activism from Maine to Hawaii. Pesticide drift accidents have terrified and sickened many living in the country's most marginalized and vulnerable communities. In this book, Jill Lindsey Harrison considers political conflicts over pesticide drift in California, using them to illuminate the broader problem and its potential solutions. The fact that pesticide pollution and illnesses associated with it disproportionately affect the poor and the powerless raises questions of environmental justice (and political injustice). Despite California's impressive record of environmental protection, massive pesticide regulatory apparatus, and booming organic farming industry, pesticide-related accidents and illnesses continue unabated. To unpack this conundrum, Harrison examines the conceptions of justice that increasingly shape environmental politics and finds that California's agricultural industry, regulators, and pesticide drift activists hold different, and conflicting, notions of what justice looks like. Drawing on her own extensive ethnographic research as well as in-depth interviews with regulators, activists, scientists, and public health practitioners, Harrison examines the ways industry, regulatory agencies, and different kinds of activists address pesticide drift, connecting their efforts to communitarian and libertarian conceptions of justice. The approach taken by pesticide drift activists, she finds, not only critiques theories of justice undergirding mainstream sustainable-agriculture activism, but also offers an entirely new notion of what justice means. To solve seemingly intractable environmental problems such as pesticide drift, Harrison argues, we need a different kind of environmental justice. She proposes the precautionary principle as a framework for effectively and justly addressing environmental inequities in the everyday work of environmental regulatory institutions.

Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice

Pesticide Drift and the Pursuit of Environmental Justice PDF Author: Jill Lindsey Harrison
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262297884
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Get Book

Book Description
An examination of political conflicts over pesticide drift and the differing conceptions of justice held by industry, regulators, and activists. The widespread but virtually invisible problem of pesticide drift—the airborne movement of agricultural pesticides into residential areas—has fueled grassroots activism from Maine to Hawaii. Pesticide drift accidents have terrified and sickened many living in the country's most marginalized and vulnerable communities. In this book, Jill Lindsey Harrison considers political conflicts over pesticide drift in California, using them to illuminate the broader problem and its potential solutions. The fact that pesticide pollution and illnesses associated with it disproportionately affect the poor and the powerless raises questions of environmental justice (and political injustice). Despite California's impressive record of environmental protection, massive pesticide regulatory apparatus, and booming organic farming industry, pesticide-related accidents and illnesses continue unabated. To unpack this conundrum, Harrison examines the conceptions of justice that increasingly shape environmental politics and finds that California's agricultural industry, regulators, and pesticide drift activists hold different, and conflicting, notions of what justice looks like. Drawing on her own extensive ethnographic research as well as in-depth interviews with regulators, activists, scientists, and public health practitioners, Harrison examines the ways industry, regulatory agencies, and different kinds of activists address pesticide drift, connecting their efforts to communitarian and libertarian conceptions of justice. The approach taken by pesticide drift activists, she finds, not only critiques theories of justice undergirding mainstream sustainable-agriculture activism, but also offers an entirely new notion of what justice means. To solve seemingly intractable environmental problems such as pesticide drift, Harrison argues, we need a different kind of environmental justice. She proposes the precautionary principle as a framework for effectively and justly addressing environmental inequities in the everyday work of environmental regulatory institutions.

From the Inside Out

From the Inside Out PDF Author: Jill Lindsey Harrison
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780262355414
Category : Administrative agencies
Languages : en
Pages : 328

Get Book

Book Description


Food

Food PDF Author: Jennifer Clapp
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1509500839
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 271

Get Book

Book Description
We all need food to survive, and forty percent of the worlds population relies on agriculture for their livelihood. Yet control over food is concentrated in relatively few hands. Turmoil in the world food economy over the past decade - including the food price crisis, intensification of land grabs, and clashes over rules governing global food trade - has highlighted both the volatility and vulnerability inherent in the way we currently organize this vital sector. At the same time, contrasting extremes of both undernourishment and overnourishment affect a significant proportion of humanity. There is also growing awareness of the serious ecological consequences that stem from industrial models of agriculture that are increasingly spreading worldwide. The revised and updated second edition of this popular book aims to contribute to a fuller understanding of the forces that influence and shape the current global food system. In it, Jennifer Clapp explores how the rise of industrial agriculture, corporate control, inequitable agricultural trade rules, and the financialization of food have each enabled powerful actors to gain fundamental influence on the practices that dominate the world food economy. A variety of movements have emerged that are making important progress in establishing alternative food systems but, as Clapps penetrating analysis ably shows, significant challenges remain.

A History of Pesticides

A History of Pesticides PDF Author: Graham A Matthews
Publisher: CABI
ISBN: 1786394871
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Get Book

Book Description
In this fascinating book, Graham Matthews takes the reader through the history of the development and use of chemicals for control of pests, weeds, and vectors of disease. Prior to 1900 only a few chemicals had been employed as pesticides but in the early 1940s, as the Second World War raged, the insecticide DDT and the herbicide 2-4-D were developed. These changed everything. Since then, farmers have been using a growing list of insecticides, herbicides and fungicides to protect their crops. Their use has undoubtedly led to significant gains in agricultural production and reduction in disease transmission, but also to major problems: health concerns for both users of pesticides and the general public, the emergence of resistance in pest populations, and environmental problems. The book examines the development of legislation designed to control and restrict the use of pesticides, the emergence of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) and the use of biological control agents as part of policy to protect the environment and encourage the sustainable use of pesticides. Finally, the use of new technologies in pest control are discussed including the use of genetic modification, targeted pesticide application and use of drones, alongside basic requirements for IPM such as crop rotations, close seasons and adoption of plant varieties with resistance to pests and diseases.

The New Food Activism

The New Food Activism PDF Author: Alison Alkon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520292146
Category : SOCIAL SCIENCE
Languages : en
Pages : 344

Get Book

Book Description
"New and exciting forms of food activism are emerging as supporters of sustainable agriculture increasingly recognize the need for a broader, more strategic and more politicized food politics that engages with questions of social, racial, and economic justice. This book highlights examples of campaigns to restrict industrial agriculture's use of pesticides and other harmful technologies, struggles to improve the pay and conditions of workers throughout the food system, and alternative projects that seek to de-emphasize notions of individualism and private ownership. Grounded in over a decade of scholarly critique of food activism, this volume seeks to answer the question of "what next," inspiring scholars, students, and activists toward collective, cooperative, and oppositional struggles for change."--Provided by publisher.

Climate Change from the Streets

Climate Change from the Streets PDF Author: Michael Méndez
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300232152
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 305

Get Book

Book Description
An urgent and timely story of the contentious politics of incorporating environmental justice into global climate change policy Although the science of climate change is clear, policy decisions about how to respond to its effects remain contentious. Even when such decisions claim to be guided by objective knowledge, they are made and implemented through political institutions and relationships—and all the competing interests and power struggles that this implies. Michael Méndez tells a timely story of people, place, and power in the context of climate change and inequality. He explores the perspectives and influence low‑income people of color bring to their advocacy work on climate change. In California, activist groups have galvanized behind issues such as air pollution, poverty alleviation, and green jobs to advance equitable climate solutions at the local, state, and global levels. Arguing that environmental protection and improving public health are inextricably linked, Mendez contends that we must incorporate local knowledge, culture, and history into policymaking to fully address the global complexities of climate change and the real threats facing our local communities.

Rural Poverty in the United States

Rural Poverty in the United States PDF Author: Ann R. Tickamyer
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 0231544715
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 456

Get Book

Book Description
America's rural areas have always held a disproportionate share of the nation's poorest populations. Rural Poverty in the United States examines why. What is it about the geography, demography, and history of rural communities that keeps them poor? In a comprehensive analysis that extends from the Civil War to the present, Rural Poverty in the United States looks at access to human and social capital; food security; healthcare and the environment; homelessness; gender roles and relations; racial inequalities; and immigration trends to isolate the underlying causes of persistent rural poverty. Contributors to this volume incorporate approaches from multiple disciplines, including sociology, economics, demography, race and gender studies, public health, education, criminal justice, social welfare, and other social science fields. They take a hard look at current and past programs to alleviate rural poverty and use their failures to suggest alternatives that could improve the well-being of rural Americans for years to come. These essays work hard to define rural poverty's specific metrics and markers, a critical step for building better policy and practice. Considering gender, race, and immigration, the book appreciates the overlooked structural and institutional dimensions of ongoing rural poverty and its larger social consequences.

Urban Emergency (Mis)Management and the Crisis of Neoliberalism

Urban Emergency (Mis)Management and the Crisis of Neoliberalism PDF Author:
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004446176
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 467

Get Book

Book Description
Urban Emergency (Mis)Management and the Crisis of Neoliberalism: Flint, MI in Context examines the malfeasance and mismanagement that poisoned a city’s water. The authors emphasize the structural forces that engendered the water crisis, and, especially, the long history of racial oppression, racist government policies, and everyday forms of inequality, that shape the life chances for Flint’s residents.

Toxic City

Toxic City PDF Author: Lindsey Dillon
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520396219
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 241

Get Book

Book Description
"Toxic City examines the politics of environmental repair and urban redevelopment in a historically segregated neighborhood of San Francisco. The book argues that environmental racism is part of a broad history of harm linked to slavery and its afterlives, and that environmental justice can be considered within a larger project of reparations. The book also details how, over many decades, residents have argued that toxic cleanup and urban redevelopment ought to be a socially, economically, and ecologically reparative process that supports the self-determination of Black residents"--

A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System

A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 030930783X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 444

Get Book

Book Description
How we produce and consume food has a bigger impact on Americans' well-being than any other human activity. The food industry is the largest sector of our economy; food touches everything from our health to the environment, climate change, economic inequality, and the federal budget. From the earliest developments of agriculture, a major goal has been to attain sufficient foods that provide the energy and the nutrients needed for a healthy, active life. Over time, food production, processing, marketing, and consumption have evolved and become highly complex. The challenges of improving the food system in the 21st century will require systemic approaches that take full account of social, economic, ecological, and evolutionary factors. Policy or business interventions involving a segment of the food system often have consequences beyond the original issue the intervention was meant to address. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System develops an analytical framework for assessing effects associated with the ways in which food is grown, processed, distributed, marketed, retailed, and consumed in the United States. The framework will allow users to recognize effects across the full food system, consider all domains and dimensions of effects, account for systems dynamics and complexities, and choose appropriate methods for analysis. This report provides example applications of the framework based on complex questions that are currently under debate: consumption of a healthy and safe diet, food security, animal welfare, and preserving the environment and its resources. A Framework for Assessing Effects of the Food System describes the U.S. food system and provides a brief history of its evolution into the current system. This report identifies some of the real and potential implications of the current system in terms of its health, environmental, and socioeconomic effects along with a sense for the complexities of the system, potential metrics, and some of the data needs that are required to assess the effects. The overview of the food system and the framework described in this report will be an essential resource for decision makers, researchers, and others to examine the possible impacts of alternative policies or agricultural or food processing practices.