Environmental Racism

Biodevastation 7: A Forum on Environmental Racism, World Agriculture and Biowarfare

May 16 - 18, 2003, St. Louis, Missouri

Jamala Rogers, Organization for the Black Struggle, moderator
Mark Mitchell, M.D., Director, Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice
Michael Hansen, Research Associate, Consumer Policy Institute
Carlos Marentes, Border Agricultural Workers Project
Mae-Wan Ho, Institute of Science in Society

The panel "Environmental Racism and Genetic Engineering" will be at 7:30 pm, Saturday, May 17. It will link struggles for justice and healthy communities with threats posed by genetic technologies. The panel will bring together people who work on environmental justice advocacy with those who work on genetic engineering (GE) in agriculture and human genetic technologies. It will be a unique opportunity to discuss how genetic technologies may pose a hazard to the health of people of color and low-income people, and how the technologies are being used to discriminate against and exploit communities of color.

The goals and applications of all technologies need to be examined for their effects on diverse communities. The track record of Monsanto illustrates how corporations are able to function in a society that accepts environmental racism, leaving many without adequate protection against polluters.

Dr. Mark Mitchell, founding president of the Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice, has spent nearly 20 years working in the public health sector on struggles for environmental justice. Dr. Mitchell has spent the past five years educating communities on effects of the environment on health. Working primarily with people of color and low-income people, he teaches what can be done to prevent and reduce the disproportionately higher rates of disease in their communities. As a physician specializing in epidemiology and public health he will outline some of the major environmental health threats for communities of color and how communities have successfully fought for their rights to safe and healthy environments.

Dr. Michael Hansen is a scientist with the Consumer Policy Institute who has worked with African governments' pressured by the US to accept GE food as "food aid." The US government argues that it has regulated GE foods for safety and that governments across the developing world should therefore accept them. Dr. Hansen has played an important role of providing information on the weaknesses of US regulations and health hazards to African government officials. He has witnessed US pressure tactics since he also participates in international food safety negotiations (Codex) where richer governments use bullying tactics to force their positions.

Dr. Hansen is also concerned with the use of recombinant Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH). His expertise on the health impacts of rBGH was an important part of the successful struggle in Canada against its approval. There could be particular problems with consumption of GE foods in low income communities and communities of color by those who already face multiple health threats.

Farm workers in the US face additional threats from pesticides and exploitative working conditions. This is because of an industrial and chemical agricultural system that has now added genetically-engineered crops to its tools that increase use of farm chemicals. According to panelist Carlos Marentes, of the Border Agricultural Workers Project in El Paso, Texas, "The current neoliberal agricultural model creates extensive health problems for US farmworkers."

Dr. Mae-Wan Ho has just been added to the panel (May 12).

The panel presentation will open up important issues for discussion and strategizing that will continue in workshops and other panels throughout the weekend.

Biodevastation 7 also includes the following panel discussions:

10:00 am, Friday, May 16: The International Threat to Farms and Farmers

7:00 pm, Friday, May 16: Globalization, Food Imperialism and War

10:00 am, Saturday, May 17: Backyard Bioweapons: Biolabs, Biodefense, Biotech, & Billions of $

10:00 am, Sunday, May 18: Crop Contamination and the Future of Indigenous Agriculture

On the afternoon of Sunday, May 18 there will be an anti-globalization convergence at the World Agricultural Forum (http://www.worldagforum.com). Call 314-771-8576 for details.