Analyze

California’s Central Valley is arguably the most productive agricultural region in the world. Despite making up only 1% of all farmland in the United States, it produces 250 different crops that make up a quarter of all food consumed in the U.S., including close to half of all fruit, nuts, and table foods. The map included below shows the variety and intensity of this kind of cultivation. This level of agricultural production has been made possible by the dominance of industrial agriculture interests at all levels of government, resulting in one of the most physically altered landscapes in the world. These alterations focused in large part on water, the biggest limiting factor for industrial agriculture in a region technically classified as a desert. Over the course of the 20th century, the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi–Tulare Lake–was drained to make more land available, the Central Valley Project and State Water Project built thousands of miles of canals and tens of dams to control the supply of water for irrigation, and massive groundwater aquifers were pumped nearly dry during drought years. These transformations were accomplished through the utilization of rhetoric that emphasizes the centrality of the farmer identity to the American political imaginary (despite the massive distance between Californian industrial agriculture and the Jeffersonian agrarian ideal) and the unique importance of providing the nation’s food. This kind of exceptionalism has characterized agriculture across the United States since its inception and has repeatedly produced other forms of social injustice (e.g., the exclusion of agricultural laborers from U.S. labor protections) that compound the hazardous effects of its environmental injustices.

Source

Vo, Katie, Taranjot Bhari and Margaret Tebbe. 2023. Industrial Agriculture in California's Central Valley. In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali, Kim Fortun, Phillip Baum and Prerna Srigyan. Annual Meeting of the Society of Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawai'i, Nov 8-11.

California’s Central Valley is arguably the most productive agricultural region in the world. Despite making up only 1% of all farmland in the United States, it produces 250 different crops that make up a quarter of all food consumed in the U.S., including close to half of all fruit, nuts, and table foods. The map included below shows the variety and intensity of this kind of cultivation. This level of agricultural production has been made possible by the dominance of industrial agriculture interests at all levels of government, resulting in one of the most physically altered landscapes in the world. These alterations focused in large part on water, the biggest limiting factor for industrial agriculture in a region technically classified as a desert. Over the course of the 20th century, the largest body of freshwater west of the Mississippi–Tulare Lake–was drained to make more land available, the Central Valley Project and State Water Project built thousands of miles of canals and tens of dams to control the supply of water for irrigation, and massive groundwater aquifers were pumped nearly dry during drought years. These transformations were accomplished through the utilization of rhetoric that emphasizes the centrality of the farmer identity to the American political imaginary (despite the massive distance between Californian industrial agriculture and the Jeffersonian agrarian ideal) and the unique importance of providing the nation’s food. This kind of exceptionalism has characterized agriculture across the United States since its inception and has repeatedly produced other forms of social injustice (e.g., the exclusion of agricultural laborers from U.S. labor protections) that compound the hazardous effects of its environmental injustices.

Vo, Katie, Taranjot Bhari and Margaret Tebbe. 2023. "Industrial Agriculture in California's Central Valley." In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali, Kim Fortun, Phillip Baum and Prerna Srigyan. Annual Meeting of the Society of Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawai'i, Nov 8-11.

Educating young people in Indigenous Ways of Knowing, and about Indigenous approaches and relationships with the natural environment, has a potential multiplicative advantage in the context of environmental justice. At Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in particular, where learners will graduate and immediately take on leadership roles within the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), presenting learners with harmonious, non-extractive environmental philosophies has huge potential benefits. As educators, we labour with the objective that our classroom efforts will carry over into our learners’ individual spheres of influence during their military careers and in their civilian lives, when they are deployed across Canada from coast to coast to coast. Considering the arguably poor track record of the CAF in interacting respectfully with the environment, educating officers into symbiotic environmental philosophies may serve to motivate institutional change in the CAF, the Department of National Defence, and the Government of Canada, leading to more sustainable and respectful environmental relationships. (Image: Stainless steel pans of maple sap boiling over an open fire during an urban land-based learning/outdoor classroom session with RMC learners. Kingston, Ontario, Canada, February 2023). 

Lussier, Danielle and Gregg Wade. 2023. "Environmentally sensitive education at Royal Military College of Canada." In 4S Paraconference X EiJ: Building a Global Record, curated by Misria Shaik Ali, Kim Fortun, Phillip Baum and Prerna Srigyan. Annual Meeting of the Society of Social Studies of Science. Honolulu, Hawai'i, Nov 8-11.

1. With this organization's work, how does it center the voices and experiences of marginalized communities in its work, and what steps does it take to ensure accountability and transparency? 

2. How does the organization evaluate its impact and measure its success within the community?

 APEN is centralized around addressing the issues faced within the Asian American Pacific Islander working class, immigrant, and refugee communities within California. The organization seeks to empower these communities to participate in critical conversations that dictate their neighborhoods’ future, health, wellness, and prosperity. In the broader sense, APEN’s work contributes to the whole movement that seeks to amplify a message that all people should have the human right to an environmentally just world.

1. APEN is seen as a grassroots environmental justice group that has proven effective in advocating for the Asian American Pacific Islander community. Other environmental organizations and community organizers often praise the organization for its work.

2. APEN releases its own Press Releases on its website and within its network, speaking on the critical issues relating to the efforts they support.

The Asian Pacific Environmental Network functions within the environmental justice movement, following the response and emergent growth of disproportionate impacts of environmental hazards and pollution among low-income communities of color across the United States. APEN has stood its ground in local, statewide, and national environmental justice campaigns. It has been recognized as a leading organization in the movement for EiJ for its innovative approaches to community organizing and policy advocacy.

1.  APEN is a member organization of the California Environmental Justice Alliance coalition. They also partner with Filipino Advocates for Justice, the Chinese Progressive Association, Hmong Innovating Politics, and the AAPIs For Civic Empowerment Education Fund.

1. APEN works at the intersection of environmental and economic justice, immigrant rights, and advocating for policies prioritizing the needs of low-income Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Many of the issues in AAPI communities are rooted in a legacy of colonization and imperialism within the United States. APEN prioritizes these concerns by directly supporting the voices and leadership at the frontlines of their community's work. 

1. The APEN serves Asian American Pacific Islander communities; institutionalized racism and inequality contribute to the disproportionate impacts of environmental harms on low-income communities of color. In creating alternative solutions, the lack of political will from local, state, and federal agencies is complex, especially when highly contested to the profitability of corporations. 

2. The work of APEN heavily relies on community support and funding to carry out its work. There are challenges in acquiring the means to make a meaningful impact within the communities they serve. 

3. The complexity of environmental pollution and climate change creates complex and multifaceted problems that demand innovative and unique solutions.