What is environmental justice?

Environmental justice is the principle that all people — no matter their income, race or nationality — should be equally protected from pollution and have a say in decisions that may impact their environment or health.

Injustice occurs when disadvantaged communities, most likely people of color and impoverished communities, are more exposed to air, water and ground contamination due to bias in policies and laws. As a result, they often experience higher rates of health complications and illnesses.

What does environmental justice and injustice look like in Iowa? The Gazette spoke separately with two local experts about the realm and its context in the state.

Meena Khandelwal is an associate professor of gender, women’s and sexuality studies and anthropology at the University of Iowa. Much of her current research focuses on wood-burning cookstoves in India — traditionally preferred by local women yet often associated with health impacts, deforestation, climate change and more.

Corbin Scholz, a UI graduate, is the owner and manager of Rainbow Roots Farm in Iowa City. Many of the fruits, veggies and mushrooms that bloom on her 6-acre farm are distributed through community supported agriculture, a weekly subscription service for local produce.

Their answers are edited for brevity and clarity.

Q: What is the history of environmental justice?

Khandelwal: Mainstream environmentalism in the U.S. was heavily influenced by literature from authors like Henry David Thoreau and John Muir. It has this very narrow view of the environment as pristine wilderness that has to be protected from human activity.

It's not until the late 20th century that people began to make connections between environmentalism and social and racial justice. Notably, there was more attention on pesticides and their impact on workers and ecological health.

So, environmental justice has different roots — not this literary tradition of pristine wilderness but rather labor movements.

Q: What does environmental justice look like in Iowa?

Scholz: In Iowa, I think injustice revolves mostly around our food system because we are in an ag-heavy state. I think pollution, runoff and illness comes from the industrial ag system we live within. Lower-income communities are impacted the most because affordable housing options are typically built in unhealthy areas, like near confined animal operations and pesticide and herbicide applications.

I also think much of the food going to people in need is not nutritious. It's processed and comes from factory farms, where antibiotics are added. It makes us antibiotic resistant when we consume the antibiotics still in the meat.

Khandelwal: Something I would call an environmental justice issue in Iowa is land access. Farms have consolidated for decades. Now, we have fewer and very large farms. Farming is only accessible to people who inherited land or have money to buy land. Impoverished people and people of color have less access to farmland, which intensifies environmental issues because those small farmers are more likely to prioritize the long-term health of soil or water quality.

Q: What’s part of the solution for environmental injustice?

Khandelwal: Honestly, I don't think country leaders are going to get together and solve this problem. I think it's going to be a million small solutions on the ground all over the world. I feel like we can learn a lot from the poorest people in the world, who have often learned to live sustainably and can show us a path forward.

I don't think there has to be one universal solution. They’re going to look different in rural Iowa than they're going to look in Chicago or in a village in India.

Scholz: I think the only way to change these huge corporate systems is to get federal regulations. We need companies to be held accountable for any devastation they do to our world.

Processed foods and factory-farmed meat are inexpensive because the government puts money into them. If the government put more money into subsidizing fresh local produce, then it would become more affordable.

We can learn a lot from Indigenous regenerative farming practices as well, where they feed entire communities by working with the land instead of exploiting it. We need to get more people of color and beginning and young farmers access to land so they can farm. I think our food system would be better with more small-scale farmers.

Q: How can Iowans get involved if they want to?

Khandelwal: I think there's opportunities all around us in the spirit of environmental justice. Anyone can get involved in urban farming or community supported agriculture. People can also plant trees and restore prairies.

Scholz: Lobbying at the Capitol. Other than that, getting a community supported agriculture membership to support farms, voting and educating the community.

Brittney J. Miller is the Energy & Environment Reporter for The Gazette and a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues.

Comments: (319) 398-8370; brittney.miller@thegazette.com