Environmental for Food Justice

BMG cyanide calavera. Art | Amy Woods. Photo | Devon Peña It’s the water, stupid! THE CRIME OF COAL MINING EAGLE PASS Devon G. Peña | Seattle, WA | November 21, 2014 One does not have to travel to the Global South to witness the social, cultural, and ecological ravages of industrial mining. We can see plenty of damage in our own country. Colorado has a gold mining legacy gloriously celebrated in movies, books, and museums across the state. This is a mythical enterprise and promotes romanticized nostalgia and a warped ideology of rugged frontiersmen bravely beating back Indian savages to conquer the wilderness in search of a God-given right to make fortunes while doing their part for Manifest Destiny and the settler colony. In the real material world, Colorado’s mining legacy is encapsulated by one fact: There are more than 1,300 miles of mountain streams and rivers badly contaminated by acid-mine drainage from more than 23,000 abandoned mine sites scattered across the high country (see...

Moderator’s Note: A group of individuals and organizations representing more than 56 million U.S. citizens and residents have signed a “ Letter from America ” addressed to the citizens, elected officials, and regulators of the UK and the rest of the EU about the ecological and health hazards and social and economic threats posed by genetically modified crops. The letter is a timely document because politicians and regulators in the UK and the rest of Europe are currently deciding on the future of policies and laws affecting the regulation of GMOs. European countries have banned commercial plantings of GMOs for decades but the pressure from biotechnology lobbyists and trade negotiations like the TAFTA ( Transatlantic Free Trade Agreement ) and TTIP ( Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership ), have reopened the policy and legal debate around the importation and sale of GMO crops. The organizers of the Letter from America define the non-GMO struggle as “an urgent international iss...