Environmental for Food Justice

Moderator’s Note: It has been twenty years since President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12898, establishing a federal environmental justice policy to address enduring inequalities in the distribution of environmental rights and wrongs. As part of a continuing series on the state of the environmental justice movement, I am presenting a reflective essay by one of the founders of the movement, Charles Lee. I briefly met Charles at the First EJ Summit in Washington, D.C. in October 1991, where the Principles of Environmental Justice were formulated and adopted. He is not just a visionary; he is also a lifelong activist – a true change agent engaged with social movements and political institutions. In this brief essay, Mr. Lee provides an overview of accomplishments made possible by Clinton’s executive order, not the least of which is the proliferation of EJ studies and research faculties at hundreds of universities and colleges across the country. I take a less than completely enth...

Moderator’s Note: We are three days away from the global 2014 March Against Monsanto on May 24. Events and protests are planned in hundreds of cities across more than fifty countries. It will be another important day for political organizing, testimonials, educational workshops and classes, films, lectures, and much more. There will certainly be plenty of direct action protests. This year we have much to celebrate in the struggle for food democracy. There are multiple clear signs that the no-GMO movement is finally turning the tide against Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer CropScience, Dow Agriscience, and the rest of so-called Gene Giants. These include the successful passage of the Vermont labeling law last month; this week’s overwhelming voter support for the Jackson County, Oregon ban on transgenic crops; the ban on transgenic corn in Mexico in effect since October 2013 and upheld two months ago; another Mexican ruling against Monsanto, this one involving the planting of transgenic soybean...