Real Food Scoop | No. 11
Hawaiʻi is doing what the EPA refuses to do—protecting its residents’ health.
This month, we are celebrating another win for healthier communities: The Governor of Hawaiʻi signed into law new pesticide regulations, including a ban on the brain-damaging pesticide chlorpyrifos, the first in the nation to do so. For years, organizations like Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action, Hawaiʻi SEED, Pesticide Action Network, among many others have been fighting to protect the rights and health of their communities in the face of the intense, and largely unregulated, pesticide spraying by global GMO and chemical giants on the islands. They’ve faced millions of dollars spent by industry to push back, intense lobbying, and other tactics used to silence people in favor of corporate profit.
This month’s win is a beacon of hope against a backdrop of dangerous rollbacks on federal environmental protections. (Anna’s been working with communities on the ground to support the passage of this monumental legislation. Check out her piece in The Nation to learn more).
But it’s not just this month—and it isn’t just Hawaiʻi. Our May #RealFoodReadspick, A Precautionary Tale by Philip Ackerman-Leist, took us to Italy where the people of Mals won the fight to make their town pesticide-free by thinking and acting with community at the forefront. People all over the world are coming together to envision what they want—and demand it. Despite the fresh set of atrocities in this month’s headlines, we’re nourished by these stories of people power. What’s your community’s vision?
In community and solidarity,
Anna, Tanya, Christina, and Tiffani
