Intersectionality: Insights from HML’s High School Intern

The planet cannot be saved without saving the people on it. Every single thing is connected, from the organic strawberries wrapped in plastic and grown in Mexico you find at your local supermarket to the pro-choice rallies seen across the United States.

These connections may not seem obvious at first, but the interconnectedness of social, racial, class, gender, and environmental rights causes them all to fall like dominos if one begins to teeter. This is intersectionality.

Let’s take strawberries, for example. The organic strawberries you might be holding in your hand have burned 21% more fossil fuels alone than conventionally grown fruit because of their airfare and extensive land requirements.¹ This, in combination with the economic undermining farm workers receive², has turned the perfectly ripe strawberries you hold in your hand to be not only an environmental issue but one of class. If we’re thinking about the strawberries from an intersectional lens, we have to think about the health of the soil they’re grown in, the rights of hands that pick them, and if consumers have equal access to them. The intersectionality movement accounts for all of this, as it considers all events and policies equally, leading to a more informed and liberated society.

Strawberries typically take about 3 months to bear fruit, meaning 92 days of watering, weeding, and then picking before the strawberries can be shipped off across the country. Fruit farm workers are paid about $18,565 per year in California, when the average salary in California is $106,916.³ How ironic is it that the people who provide the country with food can barely provide food for themselves? And let’s face it, it isn’t just strawberries, it’s our entire agricultural system.

Aside from the economic complications within the organic food industry, organic farming does not necessarily mean sustainable practices are being used. For example, soil fumigants are a kind of pesticide used in practically every strawberry nursery.⁴ Soil fumigants are gaseous chemical compounds applied to soil to control the growth of bacteria, fungi, and nematodes. Looking deeper into this, we learn that there are five active soil fumigants and all are ruled as irritants and environmental hazards.⁵ Long term exposure to these chemical compounds have shown to lead to cancer, reproductive harm, and developmental delays in children.⁶ Soil fumigants are not only detrimental to people and other surrounding organisms, but also the soil and air.⁷ Soil fumigant residue is a consequential contributor to the buildup of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere.⁸ This means the depletion of habitats and homes, all connect back to the strawberry field workers and organic strawberry consumers –– intersectionality!

Intersectionality is especially critical when speaking about climate justice, in which people in under-resourced communities are often left in the dust or water as the sea levels rise. As sea levels rise due to thermal expansion, affordable public housing becomes increasingly limited, leaving many homeless. This in combination with the disproportionate lack of healthy food and materials for lower-income communities leaves them with polluted air, potential housing displacement, and very few routes to healthier homes.

Climate justice, to me, encompasses all people for a vast amount of reasons, rather than just focusing on certain environmental issues at hand. Environmentalism focuses on protecting the environment. It does not create space for society. Climate justice speaks to social, economic, and political rights with a focus on helping the climate for the greater good of all people and the environment.

The climate movement is strengthened by its support and leadership from young people. Lila Quinn, a high school student, was an intern with HML in the summer of 2022. We wanted to highlight some of her perspectives and insights as she dives deeper into climate justice work.

Footnotes:

1. Temple, James, “Sorry—Organic Farming Is Actually Worse for Climate Change.” n.d. MIT Technology Review. https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/10/22/132497/sorryorganic-farming-is-actually-worse-for-climate-change/

2. “The Pandemic Is No Excuse to Undermine Economic Justice.” 2021. New York Civil Liberties Union. October 25, 2021. https://www.nyclu.org/en/news/pandemic-no-excuse-undermine-economic-justice.

3. “Farmworker Wages in California: Large Gap between Full-Time Equivalent and Actual Earnings.” 2017. Economic Policy Institute. 2017. https://www.epi.org/blog/farmworker-wages-in-california-large-gap-between-full-time-equivalent-and-actual-earnings/.

4. “It’s Easy Being Green: Organic vs. Conventional Foods—the Gloves Come Off.” n.d. Center for American Progress. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/its-easy-being-green-organic-vs-conventional-foods-the-gloves-come-off/#:~:text=Conventional%20farming%20uses%20chemical%20fertilizers.

5. National Center for Biotechnology Information. PubChem Compound Database. “Dazomet”.https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Dazome

6. Humangro. “Saying Goodbye to Soil Fumigants” https://humagro.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/Saying-Goodbye-to-Soil-Fumigants-White-Paper.pdf

7. British Columbia Ministry of Agriculture. 2017. “Environmental Protection and Pesticides.” https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farming-natural-resources-and-industry/agriculture-and-seafood/animal-and-crops/plant-health/environmental-protection-and-pesticides.pdf.

8. “Impact of Sustainable Agriculture and Farming Practices.” n.d. World Wildlife Fund. https://www.worldwildlife.org/industries/sustainable-agriculture#:~:text=Agriculture%20is%20the%20leading%20source.