On Monday, October 7, Wesleyan students, faculty, and members of the broader community broke with their lunch routines to attend “Food Justice & Solidarity in New London, CT, sponsored by a grant from the Robert F. Schumann Foundation to the Schumann Institute of the Bailey College of the Environment. There were about 20 Wesleyan students, staff and faculty, as well as community members in attendance. The hour-long workshop was facilitated by Julie R. Jacome-Garay (Co-Director of Operations and Programming) and Chloë Nuñez (Youth Program Manager) of FRESH New London, with the aim of spreading awareness about the organization’s food justice work. Despite its short duration, the workshop was packed full of informative and engaging content. Following group introductions, we got to know Julie and Chloë, learned in-depth about FRESH’s work, and heard stories from Wesleyan food justice interns who were placed at FRESH this summer.
On September 26, the Bailey College of the Environment welcomed farmer and educator Liz Guerra to lead a workshop on BIPOC Farming: Farming with an Intersectional Lens. This was the latest installment in the land justice workshop series “Tending the Soil: Towards Land Justice in CT,” cosponsored by Wesleyan University’s Bailey College of the Environment and the People’s Saturday School. The event aimed to educate and spread awareness about the struggles of BIPOC farmers with land access and systemic racism, while bringing together a mix of Wesleyan students and community members from various organizations across the state. Liz runs SEAmarron Farmstead in Danbury, where she cultivates hemp and many types of vegetables with her partner Hector “Freedom” Gerardo. Hailing from Queens, New York, Liz is a full spectrum doula/birth worker, social justice advocate, and farmer. In addition to her work as an activist and independent farmer, Liz is an Adjunct Faculty in sociology at the University of Connecticut – Stamford.
On a significant day for environmental awareness—Earth Day, April 22—I found myself seated in Usdan 108, engrossed in a compelling panel entitled, “Planet vs. Plastic: Breaking Free of a Deadly Convenience?” The event, hosted by the Bailey College of Environment, featured a panel of Wesleyan faculty and community members dedicated to unraveling the complexities of plastic pollution and its ramifications on our planet. As I reflect on the insights shared during the event, I realize the urgency of addressing this global crisis and the imperative need for collective action.
What lessons can we learn from the writings of a doctor/activist from the Japanese colonial era in Taiwan as we seek to build a world to safeguard the health and wellness of every living being on this planet? Harry Wu and his ensemble members, Taugether, have used music to transform the literary works of Lai Ho (1894-1943), a doctor and activist widely regarded as the father of Taiwan New Literature. Harry performed several songs at Wes earlier this week, including one with associate professor of history Ying Jia Tan.
Rooted Solidarity: A CT Food Justice Gathering, a place for intergenerational knowledge exchange amongst community members engaged in food justice work and people who’d like to learn more! Register here!
Date: April 20th, 2024, 9:30 am – 4 pm Location: Meriden Public Library (a 5-minute walk from the Meriden Railroad Station)
¡Te invitamos a Solidaridad enraizada: Un encuentro por la justicia alimentaria de CT, un lugar para el intercambio intergeneracional de conocimientos entre miembros de la comunidad que trabajan en justicia alimentaria y a las personas que quieran aprender más! ¡Regístrate aquí!
Fecha: 20 de abril de 2024, 9:30 am – 4 pm Lugar: Biblioteca Pública de Meriden (a 5 minutos a pie de la estación de tren de Meriden)
The Bailey College of the Environment was delighted to welcome Brian Lander, assistant professor of history and environment & society, Brown University, for “The Political Ecology of China’s First Empire,” on February 29, 2024. Lander is the author of The King’s Harvest: A Political Ecology of China from the First Farmers to the First Empire. As an environmental historian who studies China, Lander focuses on how human societies came to dominate a number of regions, a process beginning with the domestication of plants and animals and continuing with the growth of states and empires. Lander’s current research follows the ecological history of the Qin Dynasty.
On Tuesday, October 10, Professor Patrick Trent Greiner presented a talk about redlining and CO2 emissions in cities in the United States. The talk was cosponsored by the Bailey College of the Environment, Government Department, Allbritton Center, and African American Studies Department. Professor Greiner is an assistant professor of sociology and public policy studies at Vanderbilt University who specializes in the intersection of structural inequality, development processes, and environmental change. His talk, “The Racialization of Space and the Spatial Differentiation of Emissions,” was an incredible opportunity for students and faculty alike to listen and learn together.
Professor Greiner began by explaining that CO2 emissions must be decoupled from growth and human well-being. Since the preindustrial era, more than 2.4 trillion tons of CO2 has been released and this has been done so inequitably. He reported that the effects of CO2 emissions have been felt disproportionately both across and within nations.
Greiner then went on to explain redlining and its lasting effects. In the 1930s the Home Owners Loan Corporation, a government sponsored corporation that was created as part of the New Deal to help citizens become homeowners, created maps of neighborhoods. These maps delineated which neighborhoods were safe investments and would get loans, noted as green areas, versus risky neighborhoods, which were color coded red. These decisions were highly racialized and the majority of minority neighborhoods were largely classified as red and, hence, those who lived in these areas were unable to get home loans. Professor Greiner pointed out that this system had many impacts that can still be seen today.
The main goal in Professor Greiner’s study was to explore the relationship between CO2 emissions in a place and life expectancy. Racial projects, such as the construction of public housing, interstate highways, or redlined neighborhoods, played a major role in this relationship. In fact, using CO2 data from 2010 and 2015, along with redlining maps from the 1930s, Professor Greiner found a clear tie between environmental hazards and racial bias.
In the talk he differentiated between embodied emissions and production emissions. The former refers to emissions created by residents while the latter refers to emissions from companies. He found that there is little correlation between redlined districts and higher embodied emissions but a clear correlation with production emissions. He concluded that redlined areas had lower life expectancies and drew connections between the effects of particulate matter in the air due to emissions and health problems in citizens.
