At the risk of incurring some unpopularity and violating the spirit of
PC, I would like to comment on your query. I applaud your research but I
would encourage you to broaden the scope of inquiry. Targeting research
to a specific group is fine but has resulted in biased results in the
past, for example medical research that ignored the fact that some of the
subject were heavy smokers. The particular issues you are documenting
are not color issues, they are farming and national issues. There is a
general decline in the farm population, white and black farmers are going
out of business. Children, of all color, may be impacted by chemicals. The
common use of lawn chemicals might be just as hazardous or perhaps even
more hazardous to children, if misapplied, than their use in ag, if properly
applied in ag. with reentry times properly honored. The use of chemicals
on golf courses (a tremendous user of chemicals), run-off from lawns,
runoff of oil, etc., from parking lots, may impact streams and water
supplies in urban areas, which in turn impact rich as well as poor.
Rural areas use septic tanks which may impact rural water supplies. As
relates to the migrant worker: can you separate the effects of poor
nutrition, secondary smoking, lack of innoculation and health care from
the ag. pesticide issue? Unequal access to credit may be a problem
that's racially motivated in some instances. However, I know of
instances in which white farmers were denied credit. Bankers lend on
assets and poor farmers don't have much equity to borrow against. Access
to the Extension Service? In Alabama we serve all who seek our
services. Anyhow, I know this isn't what you asked for and I apologize
for the tirade. Good luck on your study.
With best intentions
Jim Novak
Auburn University
jnovak@acenet.auburn.edu
On Wed, 11 May 1994
MANDERSO@PEARL.TUFTS.EDU wrote:
> I would appreciate documentation, or names and phone numbers
> of people I could contact, on agricultural justice issues.
> I will be working with a group of faculty from Historically
> Black Colleges and Universities and Minority Institutions,
> and we are especially interested in ways that US agriculture
> has disproportionate adverse health, environmental and
> social effects on blacks, Hispanic, Asian-American, and
> Native American populations.
>
> Particular issues I'd like to document are:
>
> 1) decline of black family farms and attrition of blacks
> from agriculture
>
> 2) migrant workers' exposure to pesticides, especially
> greater exposure of children of color which occurs through
> accompanying parents who are field workers
>
> 3) other agricultural occupational health and safety issues
> that affect minority and low-income people more than
> relatively well-off whites
>
> 4) disproportionate impacts on black, low-income, or
> minority communities from pesticide drift or groundwater
> contamination
>
> 5) unequal access to agricultural credit, agricultural
> extension services, etc.
>
> I have found much anecdotal information on these topics but
> little documentation. I would be most interested in
> research results, popular-press articles, and information
> about groups trying to redress agricultural injustice.
>
> Thanks in advance---
>
> Molly D. Anderson
> Center on Agriculture, Food and Environment
> School of Nutrition, Tufts University
> Medford, MA 02155
> Phone: 617/627-3223
> FAX: 617/627-3887
>