A Meat and Dairy Article from All-Creatures.org

What is Environmental Racism?

From Food Empowerment Project FEP
April 2023

The food industry, with its animal farms and slaughterhouses, can be considered a major contributor of pollution that affects the health of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities and low-income communities, because more often than not they locate their facilities in the areas where these people live.

While pollution is almost everywhere, certain communities are burdened with a disproportionate number of facilities that fill the air, soil, and water with contaminants. Typically found in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities and low-income communities, industrial polluters such as landfills, trash incinerators, coal plants, and toxic waste dumps affect the well-being of residents. Their health is also often compromised due to a lack of access to healthy foods in their neighborhoods. Those who work on Environmental Justice issues refer to these inequities as environmental racism.

Environmental Justice (EJ) activists approach environmental protection in a different way than groups that focus solely on environmental issues. EJ activists consider the environment to be where “we live, work and play, learn, and worship as well as the physical and natural world” and act to right the wrongs of environmental racism. This form of racism is typically due to the intended or unintended consequences of regulations that may be selectively enforced or not enforced at all; the repercussions are negative impacts on the health and quality of life of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.

When people hear about industrial pollution, most often think about factories with billowing smokestacks. However, the food industry, with its animal farms and slaughterhouses, can also be considered a major contributor of pollution that affects the health of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities and low-income communities, because more often than not they locate their facilities in the areas where these people live....

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Please read the ENTIRE ARTICLE HERE.

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