Environmental for Food Justice

Photo source: North Country Public Radio Moderator’s Note: This being the first week after Seattle declared Columbus Day to be re-designated as Indigenous Peoples Day, it seems timely to bring this particular report to my readers about the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN) and its campaign against genetically-engineered (GE) trees. Writing from North Carolina, Rachel Smolker, co-director of Biofuelwatch (UK), reports on the U.S.-based IEN campaign against deregulation of GE eucalyptus developed by Arborgen, a South Carolina biotechnology startup company. Smolker locates the anti-GE tree campaign in the context of enduring anti-colonialist struggles waged by Native Americans, which have most recently taken place as part of the broader environmental justice movement. Smolker’s short and pithy piece reminds us that colonial domination is inscribed in the environmental history of places and the deep South makes for an exemplary case study: Europeans introduced industrial monoculture...