News
Dorceta Taylor delivers interesting lecture on food insecurity, justice
By Noelle Connors ’19
March 10, 2016
Tags news
University of Michigan Professor Dorceta Taylor’s lecture, “Food Insecurity, Resistance, and the Quest for Environmental Justice in Communities of Color” on March 3 described the overlap between food insecurity and the environmental movement as it affects minorities. Associate Professor of Government Peter Cannavo introduced Professor Taylor by describing how she had changed his perspective on environmental justice, and how he had been waiting to bring her to Hamilton for many years.
One major issue Taylor addressed was minorities’ limited access to food, often because of environmental pollution. In New York state, a General Electirc plant has been producing the contaminant Polychlorinated Biphenyl (PCBs) on land which borders a Mohawk Reservation. Native people who have lived there for years are now being poisoned by the fish they depend on. Also, the federal government created national parks along the Great Lakes in Michigan; this upset Native American tribes because they depended on the land to hunt, fish and gather food, all of which are banned in national parks. Many environmentalists have blamed Native Americans for being against national parks. However, environmentalists often do not understand that these federal policies negatively impact the people who live there.
Taylor addressed the myth that environmental issues impact all people equally. Contrary to popular belief, many environmental issues only burden the poor or minorities, although they are often caused by the wealthy or major corporations. One powerful example she described was the town of Triana, Alabama, which from 1947-1970 was where Redstone Arsenal made DDT, a pesticide that constantly leaked and poisoned the wildlife. For years, the government tested the birds, turtles and fish that were dying in abnormally large numbers and concluded that it was a result of the DDT. However, they did not tell the people in a nearby black community until 1978. In this town, scientists later recorded the highest levels of DDT ever found in the human bloodstream.
Throughout her talk, Taylor discussed her current research being conducted at the University of Michigan about food insecurity. In the United States, there are 50 million people living in food insecure households today, over 50 percent of whom are black or Hispanic. African Americans tend to live one mile further from grocery stores than white people, and prices in cities are 10 percent higher than prices in suburbs on average. With all these variables against them, access to food can be difficult for minorities living in cities. In addition to studying the locations of grocery stores, which is a focus for many researchers studying food insecurity, Taylor’s research also focuses on the access people have to gas station mini marts, pharmacies and fast food restaurants, as these are other places that people in cities get most of their meals.
After describing the countless environmental issues which impact minorities, Taylor discussed how progress has been made. One example she gave addressed the issue of access to healthy food choices in a city. After a local school closed in Detroit, it reopened as the Catherine Ferguson Academy in Detroit, a school for pregnant girls where they also learned to farm. All of the girls who went to this school ultimately graduated, every single one of them went to college and none had a second baby. This school was enormously successful not only in improving access to nutritional food, but as a place for pregnant women to receive support and education. Throughout her speech, Taylor advocated for creative solutions like this school, which improve food security and also help the environment.
Jane Barry ’19 described the talk, saying, “The lecture showed me that environmental sustainability can help promote social justice.” Ultimately, Taylor’s conclusion was that by managing our environmental impact, we will positively impact humanity, especially minorities.Taylor stayed long after her talk, answering many questions regarding her research and other issues which impact food security, as well as the future of the environmental justice movement.