Environmental racism. What does this mean to you?
One definition is: Environmental racism relates to an enforcement of a policy, practice, or regulation that negatively affects the environment of low-income and radically- homogeneous communities at a disparate rate than affluent communities.
When I think about this it brings me back to the movie we saw a few weeks ago, The Garden. This was a documentary about the South Central Farmers in Los Angeles, a group of farmers coming together, fighting to keep their 14-acre community garden. This community formed a special bond as they grew vegetables, plants, and fruits to help support their families. The movie portrays the plight of the farmers as they fight to keep from being evicted, but as all things must come to an end, sadly this was one of them, torn apart and ripped down to the last piece of grass... left only was a pile of torn greens and a whole bunch of wasted dirt land.
As I watched the film, there are many heartwrenching moments that almost brought me to tears, as basically one man, the man who owns the land, the one who has the power to sell or even give the land to the farmers, outright denies them this property. Even when the farmers raise enough money to buy the land from him, he still refuses. The injustice and corruption in the documentary made me livid.
Does this injustice still exist? As we look around in our community, we will see gardens such as the Danny Woo International District garden, the P-Patch Community Gardens, the UFarm at the University of Washington, but are all these gardens serving the same purpose? And do they all benefit low-income residents?
The P-Patch Community Gardens
The P-Patch Program works to improve their communities food security, defined as, "when all community members obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice."
This is probably the same concept the South Central Farmers believed in, but their community garden was destroyed. Luckily, in Seattle, the P-Patch Community Gardens are still thriving and hopefully, they will never face the same injustice as the South Central Farmers.
The Danny Woo Garden
This garden is in Chinatown/International District. This is a place where families get together to build communities that learn from one another and build strong connections so the garden can succeed. There are volunteers, gardeners, activists, organizations, etc. that help to keep the garden alive and green year round. Due to its success the garden has thrived since its first days in 1975 when a member of the Woo family leased the land to InterIm Cda. The heritage is from the Eastern part of the continent: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Pacific Islander.
In the garden people like to grow vegetables, flowers, fruits, plants, etc. Since tourists and visitors love to look at nature's beauty, they often come and walk down the many trails that display the many crops. There are also picnic benches and public art for people to take advantage of whenever they want to take the family for a nice day out. The elderly and more experienced gardeners grow vegetables that they would have grown if they were still back in their home country (watercress, daikon, and bok choy), while the younger kids stick to planting sweet fruits (strawberries and plums).
The UFarm
The farm at U.W. was started with the goal of, "educating the U.W. community about the global impacts of our food choices." It also, "serves as a tool to connect the U.W. community with where and how food is grown." Isn't this awesome? Now, at our very own fingertips, as students, we can be involved! Here is a great opportunity to learn how to farm!Although the farm at UW isn't necessarily facing any environmental racism, I still think it is a great tool for students to learn more about farming, which will allow us to perhaps connect more with what the South Central Farmers were doing.
Now, it's not all doom and gloom, I have something to look forward to, ever since I heard about the UFarm, the Danny Woo garden, and the P-Patch Community, all in Seattle, YES SEATTLE, I have high hopes for more and bigger gardens to open up within the communities, not just ours, but maybe ones in other states , let's all go GREEN!
-Hien & Alaa
http://www.cityofseattle.net/neighborhoods/ppatch/communityfoodsecurity.htm
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