God’s Gang is a grassroots organization that engages youth in urban agriculture and landscaping in the far Southside.  Over 40 types of vegetables are grown and a small amount of livestock are kept here.

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO), a grassroots group that serves the Latino community in Pilson.  Group volunteers have helped to maintain a community garden next to the neighborhood middle school.

Growing Power is an organization started by legendary food justice activist Will Allen.  The organization has been on the forefront of food equity nationally.  Across the street from Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park, the organization has planted a fabulous garden that can be used by all Chicagoans.

Millennium Park also has some of the best green space in the city!

Also, here is some food for thought?

Gross inequality in access to healthy food

Give green jobs to ex-cons

We lost a few fellows, a few publications and even a few jobs between
Los Angeles and Chicago. Bobby was on crutches, and Huascar was down
for the count. Had it really been just three months? But as we
convened in the Executive Suite of the Hilton Homewood Suites on
Sunday afternoon, there was good news, too. Warren Vieth from Gaylord
College at the Univ. of Oklahoma joined us as a new project director.
Vieth, a former White House correspondent for the Los Angeles Times specializing in economic policy,  is now a visiting professor at Gaylord. Pending funding, he will lead a week long fellowship program
next spring on coverage of “Immigration in the Heartland.”

IJJ’s Environmental Justice Fellows shared updates on their projects:

Julio Cesar Ortiz told us of the week he’d spent filming the lives of Los
Angeles port area truckers, putting flesh and blood on the grim
statistics about pollution, asthma, and long hours for little pay. He
and his camera man spent the night with one family, rising at 2 am
with the husband to begin the long, dreary day. He listened to the
wife recount her struggles at home, and documented how the job is
tearing at the cohesion of their marriage. In another instance, one of
the many mechanics who “fix” the illegally old, dangerous trucks
freely admitted on camera that he and others like him are the
“coyotes” of the ports, taking cash to get Mexican immigrant truckers
on the road again with little regard for human health and safety, just
as “coyotes” take cash from those desperate to cross the border
between Mexico and the U.S., with little regard for human life.
Julio’s work is expected to result in a four part series for Univision
in Los Angeles.

Brentin Mock and Phoebe Connelly filled us in on the Anacostia River project.
Brentin dove deep into tangled bureaucracies to figure out what
exactly is polluting this river that runs through one of Washington,
D.C.’s historic black communities. He also traced the flow of
pollutants from wealthier, white communities up river, and tried to
ascertain whether grassroots groups committed to river clean up will
receive any of the stimulus fund largess being doled out a few miles
away by federal bureaucrats. Phoebe emphasized the “policy”
framework of The American Prospect magazine, where Brentin’s work is
expected to run. That framework is driving both reporter and editor to
focus not just on the environmental abuses apparent in the river’s
diseased fish, for instance, but the federal policies that allowed the
abuses and might or might not provide solutions.

Edwin Buggage said he had condensed his proposed, four part series about life in New Orleans post-Katrina into one long piece, and a second, shorter
dispatch.  The pieces have already run in his Data News Weekly and he
will make them available for the fellows to read.  He is also in
discussions with CNN about possible use of some of the work for a
“Toxic City” segment on the fifth anniversary of the disastrous
hurricane. Edwin said he was also determined to use his work to
galvanize city residents to take care of lingering environmental
problems themselves, rather than waiting for unresponsive government
officials to do it.

Kari Lydersen had a great trip to New Orleans, and has separately written two stories for the Washington Post.  The first was about Vietnamese-American residents
deeply concerned about a nearby landfill possibly leaking groundwater
contamination into their community food garden. The second chronicled
Native Americans losing coastal wetlands that they have long relied
upon for trapping and other traditional activities. She will be
writing a longer piece based on this reporting for Colorlines magazine
this fall, using photos and video for an online version as well.

Huascar Robles has done in-depth reporting for his project on coal ash waste
near a small, rural Puerto Rico community.  Residents there shared stories of frequent asthma attacks and other respiratory problems.  Huascar learned through document digging and interviews with agency officials that neither the U.S. EPA nor Puerto Rico’s Enivironmental Quality Board has tested the ash at this site, despite recent federal findings about the high risk of coal ash exposure. He’s continuing to dig.

Talia Whyte faced a double whammy: her Boston newspaper has suspended publication, and the ex-offender food programs she had arranged to profile have lost
funding. She will probably profile Boston’s most successful food
justice advocate instead. Devin Robins will move forward with the first part
of her proposed radio series on community activism and emerging
solutions to environmental problems in America’s poorest congressional
districts.  Because of a move back to Los Angeles from Washington,
D.C.,  she is seeking production space, but has several stations
interested in potentially airing her work.

The considerable economic challenges being faced by many of our
journalism fellows brought home the major shifts underway in American
media. Nonetheless, it was good to hear updates on these fine
projects. We adjourned to a wonderful dinner with past IJJ fellows,
Bobby’s parents, and Mark Hallett, senior program officer for
McCormick Foundation, and his wife, Carmen. The IJJ EJ fellowship was made
possible due to Mark’s commitment to coverage of environmental justice
issues, and the foundation’s support.

–Janet Wilson, Senior Fellow for Environmental Justice

Photo by Umoja Community Builders

Last month the US Department of Agriculture released a report on food deserts – areas in the United States where communities lack access to supermarkets and other outlets selling foods necessary for a healthy diet. According to the report, 2.3 million Americans live more than a mile from a supermarket and do not have access to a vehicle. The report goes on to say that the “urban core areas with limited food access are characterized by higher levels of racial segregation and greater income inequality.” In short, this problem largely affects low income communities and people of color. In recent years, there have been efforts by food justice activists around the country to bridge the food gap. One group in Chicago is taking back the food system online.

The Umoja Student Development Corporation is a Chicago-based, youth development organization which runs a six-week summer program in partnership with youth media group Free Spirit to film a short documentary about food deserts in the predominately African American community of North Lawndale.

“In my neighborhood, there are no grocery stores,” said Porsha Treadwell, a student intern in Umoja’s community builders program. “It is unfair that my community doesn’t have the same access to healthy foods as other communities. It’s just not right.”

In addition to learning how to grow organic foods in community gardens and polling residents about their food shopping habits, the student interns have also kept a blog for the duration of the program about their own eating habits and the various social and environmental injustices that block access to food equity.

Also on the blog, the youth have created a slide show, displaying photos of themselves learning how to use cameras for their documentary.

Treadwell said this program has been a rewarding experience. She noted that she has had informative conversations with other residents about the food problem in the community, and how they now feel empowered to do something about it.

“When a community comes together, we can do powerful things,” she said.

Franklin began with a roll playing exercise to help fellows deal with sources.  He acted belligerently as a cop, commander, factory rep and OSEA press rep related to a factory accident who denied information to fellow Julio César Ortiz and Senior Fellow Janet Wilson, who played reporter and editor respectively of a television news program working on the story.

Franklin used the example to illustrate how to better work with sources. He stressed the importance of asking questions in the context of situation and added that reporters should use their head as cameras and recorders.

He also recommended having a partner. He or she may have other skills necessary to complete the story. He or she could also be more organized, an advantage when working on these projects.

“Be prepared,” he said when going to an interview and suggested conducting interviews at beginning of the encounter; that might be the only shot for an interview.

Develop a strategy and find out who has got the information. When interviewing, he asked to “read back to people what they tell you,” in order to avoid being sued for libel.

“Carry two tape recorders,” he added in case one buckles. Franklin has a regular recorder and one hidden in his shirt’s lapel. Subjects are notified they’re being recorded, he said. Since the camera is hidden, they don’t feel threatened and open up more.

Fellow Brentin Mock asked for advice on reporting investigative pieces for new media.
Sometimes editors expected stories for websites quicker than print news. Wilson suggested putting out a short-term story with enough information to satisfy editor and readership and work on a long-term story with more in-depth material.

This could also alert potential sources, Wilson added.

When working with long-term stories journalist might end up hyping the story up, said Franklin; not overselling the story is important, he stressed.

Franklin posed difficult questions to fellows regarding working with authorities. Sharing information with FBI and other authorities have several implications.  Each case is considered into its context, but fellows agreed that certain steps must be taken like notifying the editor and the legal department of the publication.

Franklin reminded us of the importance of multimedia for our projects.

Bob Gottlieb, professor of urban and environmental policy and director of the Urban & Environmental Policy Institute (UEPI) at Occidental College, spoke to the fellows yesterday about food as an environmental justice issue.  He alluded to the recent discussion in the food justice community about the possibly origin of swine flu, and the reluctance to discuss it public.  Below might give some insight into this issue.

From Food and Water Watch:

Today, amid increasing international concern about the global swine flu outbreak, Food & Water Watch urged leaders of the U.S. Senate and House agriculture and health committees to investigate the serious human health problems caused by industrialized pork production. The national consumer advocacy organization submitted a letter to Chairman Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Chairman Tom Harkin (D-IA), Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Chairman Collin Peterson (D-MN), asking their respective committees to hold hearings examining the source of the swine flu virus, the pathway for transmission between hogs and humans, and the conditions inside factory farms that could foster the growth and mutation of the influenza virus into more virulent strains. 

“Factory farms have a long track record of maximizing volume and profit at the cost of human health and safe food,” said Wenonah Hauter, Food & Water Watch executive director. “The swine flu outbreak is unfortunately just the latest example of the negative public health impacts from intensive pork production.”

Food & Water Watch warned of other potential threats to human health, including the discovery at U.S. hog facilities of Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) – the difficult to treat staph infection – and antibiotic-resistant E. coli on operations using non-therapeutic antibiotics.  

“The public health issues of disease transmission, antibiotic resistant bacteria and worker health are critically important to rural communities, workers, and consumers and any research into these issues must be done in a way that is independent of any industry pressure,” said Hauter in the letter. “Congress needs to prioritize these topics for credible research that is funded and performed by public entities, not the pork industry or its trade associations.”

The full pdf is at this link:

http://iis-db.stanford.edu/pubs/22157/WP74_final_final.pdf

A Realistic Policy on International Carbon Offsets

Working Paper

Authors
Michael Wara – Stanford University
David G. Victor – Stanford University

Published by
Program on Energy and Sustainable Development Working Paper #74, April 2008

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200707/shenzhen/3

Great quote by JULIO CESAR emphasizing the need for clear, crisp reporting that speaks to “everyman” and not academia.