Category: Consider It Briefed

Many Americans consider lawns synonymous with success, comfort, and community. (1) They have often become ubiquitous, perhaps without due consideration. (2) Neat lawns are enforced in a variety of ways, including zoning codes and home-owners associations. (3) Nonetheless, they cause a great deal of environmental problems, including “dramatic potable water consumption, high energy costs from water use, increased water and air pollution, and loss of biodiversity.” (4)  

Luckily, awareness of lawns’ negative impact is on the rise. (5) One facet of response is to reform Homeowners’ agreements and zoning codes. Another is participating in the growing permaculture movement. As with any change, not all people experience this progress in the same way. While it promises an idyllic solution to a portion of our current environmental challenges, the permaculture movement causes a rift in our culture. The rift must be overcome if we are to move forward. 

The permaculture movement involves working with the land and pre-existing ecosystems to increase biodiversity, productivity, and environmental wellness. (6) Many have hailed this movement as a potential savior of much of America’s land, as lawns are currently the country’s biggest irrigated crop. (7) Unfortunately, the movement also causes a greater socioeconomic rift between people who have the luxury to take advantage of the publicized, commercialized version of the movement and those who either find its tenets self-evident or will not have the luxury to invest in the solution. (8) Instead of a constructive improvement on a common way of life, traditional knowledge has sometimes been appropriated for capital and used to justify buying more high-value land. (9) Some go so far as to say the movement “demoniz[es] small peasant [farmers]” (10) as it extolls those who will pay for the solution. (11)   

One solution to this rift is to consider the possible colonizing effects of a permaculture movement within the current economic structure and adapt to minimize them. For example, people can offer permaculture knowledge freely instead of charging large fees. They can give proper deference to cultural knowledge they draw from, instead of presenting the information as purely their own.  

Another constructive solution is to give more people the option of improving their existing situation by removing legal barriers. There is growing support for lawn rewilding, (12) and legally binding zoning ordinances and homeowners’ associations rules will likely follow suit. Either communities can advocate with their municipalities to change the prevailing zoning laws, or individuals can apply for variances or conditional use permits to alter their own properties. (13) Homeowners’ associations often make their rules at will and can change their lawn requirements by vote. (14) General availability of knowledge related to permaculture and rewilding, combined with the freedom to carry out a project, could have a major impact on the American landscape and biodiversity. 

There are obstacles to overcoming the mythos of the American lawn, beyond the immediate legal obstacles. The rift in socioeconomic status related to lawns is also related to the American Dream mythos, and the idea of success, and homeownership. (15) There are huge racial disparities in American homeownership and access to lawns. (16) Destroying lawns lowers property value in a neighborhood, no doubt because of prevailing biases and ideas. (17)                                                                    

Following World War II, the federal government allocated funding to help veterans and families achieve homeownership. (18) These policies were deeply discriminatory in implementation, for the most part benefitting only white families. (19) The lawn was quickly adapted as a symbol of power and freedom from either the monochrome of the city or the dirt and crops of agrarian homes. (20) Lawns of plants grown for no reason besides beauty and sport had been a European power symbol even back to medieval castles, and were modernized into a common feature of many American lawns as a show of abundance. (21) The history of lawns shows the roots of ties between the value increase they confer on a property (22) and racial bias. 

People without lawns of their own can participate in so-called “guerrilla permaculture.” (23) This term is loosely defined, but generally entails the pursuit of alternative gardening for nourishment and reclamation of unused land, for example by using “seed bombs” (24) on empty lots. (25) It sometimes intends to disrupt the concept of land ownership entirely. (26)

Attempting to align landowners with lawns and people without access to gardens (and perhaps an intent to disrupt land ownership altogether) muddies the waters of permaculture. Cultural divides are not easily overcome, even in pursuit of a solution to a major environmental issue. The permaculture movement bears many loose definitions and associations. Still, the basics of the idea may appeal to everyone if they are made legally accessible and convenient. If all participants proceed with caution and communication, permaculture and rewilding may be made more broadly accessible, with benefits for all participants.  

The truth of climate change becomes more prevalent every year, particularly in the Pacific Islands, where increases in storm frequency and severity, along with sea level rise, puts the Pacific Islands at greater risk than the developed world. Waves constantly wash over low-lying islands in the Pacific, damaging crops and groundwater supplies. A recent study shows that the repeated damage due to climate change could render many Pacific Islands uninhabitable as early as 2030. Whole island nations are facing erasure, while industrialized countries reap all the benefits of high carbon emitting activities. For small island states, like the Republic of Palau, the climate crisis is personal. People living in Palau deal with the reality of climate change on a daily basis. In an interview, former President Tommy Remengesau Jr. described his own experiences in using sandbags to prevent the sea level rise from washing away his home. He goes on to explain that sea level rise affects more than just homes; the salt water from the ocean has inundated farms and plantations. Once the soil has been inundated with salt water, the soil is often no longer arable. In addition to sea level rise, ocean acidification greatly affects islands like Palau. The acidification causes coral bleaching, which can affect the fishing environment. Coral cover plays a vital role in determining the overall health of a coral ecosystem. Coral “[r]eefs provide home and shelter to over 25 percent of fish in the ocean and up to 2 million marine species.” This has overarching effects on the people in Palau because fishing plays a key role in Palauan culture as not only sport fishing but sustenance fishing, meaning that climate change not only effects the structures on the island, but many of the aspects central to their culture and survival.

As one can expect, because of the severe effects of climate change in Pacific Islands, Island leaders have tried to be a strong voice in international climate debates. But, despite their efforts, they remain unheard by industrialized nations who have the most power to influence change. However, not all is lost. Over the last year, there have been a series of pushes from the small island states and other climate vulnerable nations to take a legal approach to encouraging international action. Vanuatu, another Pacific Island, has proposed an initiative to request an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to “issue an opinion on the obligations countries have to protect the rights of present and future generations from the harmful impacts of climate change.” In its efforts to obtain the opinion, Vanuatu has been gathering support to try and compel the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion. An ICJ advisory opinion is not binding, but it can help hold nations accountable for protecting human rights as they relate to climate change. And, as conditions worsen, it becomes increasingly essential that there be some mechanism by which small island states can hold large nations accountable for the actions they take that exacerbate climate change. As of March 1, 2023, there are 105 co-sponsors for the United Nations (UN) Climate Justice Resolution. Currently, the resolution is expected to be adopted by the UN General Assembly in late March or early April. A favorable ICJ advisory opinion would be essential for future climate debates. For more information about that resolution, and to follow recent updates, please visit this link.

The issues surrounding climate change in the Pacific Islands are prime examples of how environmental injustice plays out on an international scale. People living in the Pacific Islands are routinely ignored in international debates, their cries for help stretching across decades of debate in the international community. But, individuals from wealthier, higher polluting countries turn a blind eye to the harm that occurs in developing nations on a daily basis because for nations relatively unaffected by climate change, the harm felt by climate change is easy to ignore. To quote a song written by an artist in Vanuatu: 

“What does it take for you to see 

Lives are being lost 

With all the storms raging, corals dying, ocean levels rising 

It’s a threat to our human rights.”  

People living in the Pacific Islands do not have time to wait. Action needs to happen now. Voices in the Pacific need to be heard before it is too late, and the beautiful culture and humanity of the Pacific become the next Atlantis, islands lost to time.

Despite their crowded streets, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Newark, Chicago, and other large urban communities are often considered food deserts. Food deserts are regions of food insecurity where healthy, fresh groceries are virtually inaccessible. Food deserts are typically marked by low income, lack of access to adequate public transportation, or simply lack of choice in the area. Food insecurity already impacted nearly 11% of Americans in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Statistics also showed that food deserts disproportionately impacted communities of color during the same period. In 2019, about 8.1% of white individuals experienced food insecurity in their communities. In comparison, Latino individuals experienced food insecurity at a rate of 15.8% Black individuals at 19.3%, and Indigenous individuals at 23.5%. By the end of 2020, Black households were experiencing food insecurity at a rate of 21.7% and Latino households at a rate of 17.2%. On the other hand, white households reported experiencing food insecurity at a rate of just over 7%. Researchers have observed that “food insecurity is experienced in greater proportion by these racial and ethnic groups due to a number of factors — a key one being structural racism.” Delays, supply chain problems, and limited labor have also led to problems in quality control, making nutritious options that much tougher to come by on a regular basis. So how can communities take on food insecurity made worse by the onset of COVID-19 without the help of chain grocery stores?

Zoning Laws

A potential solution to food insecurity in urban spaces that is gaining some attention is amending zoning laws and regulations to make local agriculture more accessible. Zoning ordinances can be confusing, and often mention terms that do not have a clear vernacular equivalent. Towns can amend zoning ordinances and regulations to use clearer terminology that explicitly authorizes urban agricultural uses. This change can bring fresh fruits and vegetables to the community, from the community. Similar changes might include language that explicitly allows farmers markets and produce vendors to set up stands in public spaces, or language that allows for larger-scale agricultural projects in community gardens.

The Healthy Food Policy Project created guidelines to assist communities in drafting definition sections of zoning laws to make them clearer and easier to understand in order to increase access to healthful foods in areas impacted by food insecurity. The guidelines suggest drafting strategies to simplify interpreting zoning requirements, like including examples of permitted practices or burying the meaning of a word in the operative language instead of separating the term and its definition. These changes make it easier for communities to understand and comply with zoning laws while bringing gardens and urban agricultural centers to the community with greater confidence.

Subsidize Healthier Choices and Incentivize Eating Well

Another study suggests that two-thirds of households using Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits bought a greater variety of healthy fruits and vegetables while testing an incentive program aimed at eliminating food insecurity. During a test run of the Healthy Incentive Pilot (HIP), the USDA offered participants who used SNAP benefits an incentive of 30 cents per dollar spent on targeted fresh fruits and vegetables. Researchers reported inspiring results, households increased SNAP spending on fresh fruits and vegetables by an average of 11% which led to an increased Healthy Eating Index rating, ranging from 57/100 to 62/100. Perhaps most importantly, 75% of households felt healthy fruits and vegetables were more accessible and affordable as a result of the HIP incentive. One of the greatest challenges of increasing food security is encouraging communities to regularly purchase and seek out healthy foods in their own neighborhoods. Incentives like those tested here would certainly get many households on the right path.

Incentive programs have the potential to impact food insecurity much faster than other options. Programs like HIP immediately give families more money to spend on healthful foods and make fruits and vegetables affordable. An incentive or subsidy program could also be implemented without the cooperation or contribution from grocery stores themselves if suppliers of healthier foods are reluctant to open a location in a food desert. By handling the issue from an economic standpoint, households would still pay the same price to vendors or stores, but with help with financing instead of just options. While this is not a terribly optimistic option, it is realistic given the lack of enthusiasm from larger companies and retail stores to open a location in areas where poverty and food insecurity affect families the most.

Utilize School Meal Programs 

When healthy options are not just too expensive but too scarce, communities could tackle food insecurity in public schools. By making an effort to offer healthy options to students receiving free meals at schools, especially during a health crisis like COVID-19, students can learn at an early age to value and prioritize eating well. A case study of four large, urban high schools in Chicago, Los Angeles, Houston, and New York looked at public schools’ responses to emergencies and how they provided students with healthy meals during a crisis. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March of 2020, Congress authorized the distribution of federal relief packages to schools that provided meals for students experiencing food insecurity. The USDA supplemented these efforts, granting waivers to aid schools in providing food options like extended food service hours, takeout meals, and allowing parents to come to pick up meals without their children with them. Efforts like these yielded a noteworthy increase in healthy foods available and consumed by students attending these schools. This trend continued even after classes were moved online during the pandemic. The study also showed that schools that allowed adults and children to pick up food and schools that made meals with dietary restrictions in mind were hugely beneficial to students who would otherwise be considered food insecure.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic evolves and schools start to get a handle on managing classes and events with students’ health in mind, it should be clear that food insecurity is always a health concern. School lunch programs like those implemented during the pandemic can continue in areas where food insecurity remains high due to factors other than those related to COVID-19 alone. 

Looking Ahead

The COVID-19 epidemic has prompted widespread concern for health and community wellness and specifically highlighted food security concerns. The pandemic exacerbated issues of poverty and environmental injustice. But that might ultimately draw enough attention to encourage work toward meaningful solutions to these ongoing injustices. Local, small-scale changes like allowing consistent agricultural activity in urban areas (by amending zoning regulations) or encouraging subsidy programs to help schools in food deserts revitalize the community could have a huge impact on food insecurity in the United States. If big businesses and chain stores are reluctant to enter areas with high rates of food insecurity, it is still possible for community members to utilize legal tools to make their neighborhoods healthier places to live.

Today, Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) compose most industrial-scale animal farms. (1)  These farms often house thousands of animals in close quarters with minimal safety and sanitary protections. (2)  The waste created by the animals who live in CAFOs can contain heavy metals, pathogens, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (3) One way of managing this waste is to spray the waste over fields. (4) Although this practice can mitigate the harm CAFO waste has on the soil, the same procedure creates a myriad of health and justice issues. 

Spraying this waste creates plumes of foul-smelling, potentially toxic waste to permeate into the area’s homes, water sources, and soil. (5) These plumes have been linked to respiratory ailments, mucosal irritation, and decreased quality of life. (6) Additionally, these issues often disproportionately affect low-income, minority populations. (7) 

One example of this is North Carolina. (8) Here, most CAFOs are in the state’s eastern region, an area predominantly occupied by people of color. (9) The local government determines the location of CAFOs via a permitting process. (10)  Placing CAFOs in locations that disproportionately affect people of color is likely intentional. CAFOs were in this region because the government and industry followed the “path of least resistance.” (11) In short, the local government of North Carolina chose to place the CAFOs here because people of color and those in poverty are often the least likely population to be able to resist. (12)

North Carolina was wrong. In a recent Supreme Court case, McKiver v Murphy-Brown, residents who were being disproportionately affected brought a nuisance case against select CAFOs. (13) A nuisance exists when an individual’s actions threaten another enjoyment of their property and or the peace of an area through repeated acts. (14) Here, the residents here used NC’s nuisance laws to seek relief from CAFOs’ odors, pests, and noises. (15)  Ultimately the court held in favor of the residents and ordered the CAFO to pay $75,000 in compensatory damages to each plaintiff and $5 million in punitive damages. (16) Although this outcome did little to remedy the harm the CAFO is causing, the case opened the door to holding CAFOs accountable. (17) 

One major obstacle to bringing suits against CAFOs is Right to Farm Laws. Right to farm laws generally grants statutory protection against nuisance suits to CAFOs. (18) In Mckiver, the Right to Farm law was inapplicable because the nuisance had begun before the law’s passage, and the Court held the law did not apply retroactively. (19) Because of these laws, the environmental harms are increasingly being externalized to the U.S. taxpayer—specifically in rural neighborhoods. (20) The arrival of CAFOs in rural communities is consistently impacting the animals, environment, local economies, and even property values of low-income minority regions. (21)  

There is, however, hope. In North Carolina, two grass-root movements are challenging NC’s Fight to Farm Law: NC Environmental Justice Network (NCEJN) and Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help (REACH). (22) These organizations are working on a state level to challenge the constitutionality of Right to Farm Laws. (23) These organizations are working with the Senators and Representatives to introduce the Farm Systems Reform Act on a federal level. (24)

The Farm Systems Reform Act would set aside $100 billion to help industrial animal farmers voluntarily phase out CAFOs by 2040. (25) The bill has strong grassroots support for national-scale action against CAFOs. (26) If this bill passes, cases like McKiver might become less an exception and more of a norm. Fighting CAFOs’ environmental and social impacts on local communities is essential for building a more just world.

Climate Change is the great exasperator. Countless research has warned of the climate catastrophe that will happen if anthropogenic carbon emissions continue to rise: sea-level rise will accelerate, tropical storms will occur in greater number with greater severity, and droughts will grow harsher and longer. (1) However, natural disasters are not the only thing exasperated by Climate Change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned that Climate Change could contribute to human conflicts. (2) However, wars over natural resources are not the only forms of conflict that will be fueled by Climate Change. Social divisions will also be compounded by the effects of Climate Change, as the crisis worsens.

One key social issue that is worsened by Climate Change is gender inequality.  The impact of climate-driven conflict is not distributed equally along gender lines. (3) Women and LGBT individuals “face higher risks and greater burdens from the impacts of climate change in situations of poverty.” (4) For example, after climate disasters, women have a higher mortality rate, which occurs in part because women are “responsible for vulnerable populations like women or children during the disasters.” (5) Additionally, incidents of gender violence (including homophobic and transphobic incidents) increase after people are displaced from disasters. (6) Natural disasters fueled by Climate Change expose individuals to harm from both the natural disaster and from gender discrimination as well. 

Women and members of the LGBT community cannot be left behind as the world struggles with and adapts to Climate Change. In fact, Women and LGBT individuals actively participate in grassroots movements, such as environmental justice and climate justice, to avoid being left behind. For instance, women make up 90 percent of environmental justice movement organizations. (7) Women of color especially have been instrumental in the early days of the environmental justice movement since they brought experience from the Civil Rights Movement. (8) LGBT activists groups have been active in environmental and climate justice movements as well. Several LGBT groups signed on to the Group of Ten Letter in the 1990s that criticized mainstream environmental groups for their lack of inclusivity. (9) Additionally, there are a growing number of LGBT groups that are dedicated towards climate justice. (10) These efforts show that women and LGBT individuals are active in fighting against the impact that climate change has on both the environment and themselves.

While Climate Change does not discriminate when it comes to its impact, people do. Often, women and LGBT individuals are left to fend for themselves when climate disasters wreak havoc on their communities. However, it should not be their responsibility alone to make sure that they are accounted for in Climate Change solutions. If humans expect to survive the climate crisis, then everyone needs to be involved in the decision-making process and be able to reap its rewards.