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University of Kansas

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Urban Agriculture Affirmative

CASEY/COOPER LAB

CASEY/COOPER LAB ...............................................................................................................11AC URBAN AGRICULTURE .....................................................................................................41AC URBAN AGRICULTURE .....................................................................................................5

1AC URBAN AGRICULTURE .....................................................................................................61AC URBAN AGRICULTURE .....................................................................................................71AC URBAN AGRICULTURE .....................................................................................................81AC URBAN AGRICULTURE .....................................................................................................9EPA 09 (Environmental Protection Agency, “Brownfields Program Activities Under theRecovery Act ” May 22, 2009, online:http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/eparecovery/index.htm,accessed June 20, 2008) .......................9INHERENCY: TRAINING AND START UP COSTS ................................................................11INHERENCY: FOOD INSECURITY AND HUNGER ...............................................................12INHERENCY: FOOD INSECURITY AND HUNGER ...............................................................13INHERENCY: FOOD INSECURITY AND HUNGER ...............................................................14

INHERENCY: LAND TENURE .................................................................................................. 15INHERENCY: EXPANSION OF URBAN AGRICULTURE ....................................................16INHERENCY: LEGAL ACTION NEEDED ................................................................................17INHERENCY: BROWNFIELDS .................................................................................................18INHERENCY: NARRATIVE OF A URBAN FARMER’S PLEA ..............................................19INHERENCY: NARRATIVE OF A URBAN FARMER’S PLEA CONT… ..............................20INHERENCY: NARRATIVE OF A URBAN FARMER’S PLEA CONT… ..............................21Brownfields Solvency ...................................................................................................................22Brownfields Solvency ...................................................................................................................23Brownfields Solvency ...................................................................................................................24Brownfields Solvency ...................................................................................................................25

Brownfields Solvency ...................................................................................................................26Brownfields Solvency ...................................................................................................................27Brownfields Solvency ...................................................................................................................28Solvency General ..........................................................................................................................29Solvency General ..........................................................................................................................30Solvency General ..........................................................................................................................31Solvency General ..........................................................................................................................32Solvency General ..........................................................................................................................33Solvency General ..........................................................................................................................34Solvency General ..........................................................................................................................35Solvency General ..........................................................................................................................36

Solvency General ...........................................................................................................................37Food Security Solvency ................................................................................................................38Food Security Solvency ................................................................................................................39Training Solvency .........................................................................................................................40Training Solvency ..........................................................................................................................41Climate and Sprawl Solvency .......................................................................................................42Climate and Sprawl Solvency ........................................................................................................43Climate and Sprawl Solvency ........................................................................................................44Climate and Sprawl Solvency ........................................................................................................45

Climate and Sprawl Solvency ............................................................................46




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Community Adv .............................................................................................................................47Community Adv .............................................................................................................................48Community Adv .............................................................................................................................48Community Adv .............................................................................................................................49Market solvency ............................................................................................................................50

Market solvency .............................................................................................................................51Market solvency .............................................................................................................................52Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ..................................................................................53Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ...................................................................................54Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ...................................................................................56Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ...................................................................................57Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ...................................................................................58Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ...................................................................................59Brownfields Environmental Racism Adv ......................................................................................59Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ...................................................................................60Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ...................................................................................63

Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ...................................................................................65Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ...................................................................................66Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ..................................................................................67Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv ...................................................................................68Brownfields Economic Add-on ..................................................................................................... 69Brownfields Economic Add-on ..................................................................................................... 70Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................71Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................72Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................73Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................74Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................75

Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................76Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................77Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................78Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................79Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................80Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................80Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................81Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................82Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................83Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................84Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................85Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................86Food Security Adv .........................................................................................................................87Obesity Adv ...................................................................................................................................88Obesity Adv ..................................................................................................................................89Obesity Adv ...................................................................................................................................90Obesity Adv ...................................................................................................................................91

Obesity Adv ..............................................................................................................................91Obesity Adv ..............................................................................................................................93

Obesity Adv ...................................................................................................................................93Obesity Adv ...................................................................................................................................95




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Obesity Adv ...................................................................................................................................96Obesity Adv ...................................................................................................................................97Obesity Adv ...................................................................................................................................98Obesity Adv ...................................................................................................................................99Smith ’06 (Stephen, Globe staff writer, “Obesity Battle Starts Young for Urban Poor” The

Boston Globehttp://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/12/29/obesity_battle_starts_young_for_urban_poor ..................................................................................................................................................99Obesity Adv .................................................................................................................................100

Obesity Adv ............................................................................................................................100Obesity Adv .................................................................................................................................101Obesity Adv .................................................................................................................................102Climate and Sprawl Adv ..............................................................................................................103Climate and Sprawl Adv ..............................................................................................................104Climate and Sprawl Adv ..............................................................................................................106Climate and Sprawl Adv ..............................................................................................................107

Climate and Sprawl Adv ..............................................................................................................108A2: States Counterplan ...................................................................................................................................................... 109A2: States Counterplan ................................................................................................................113A2: States Counterplan ................................................................................................................114A2: States Counterplan ................................................................................................................115CAP Answers ...............................................................................................................................116CAP Answers ...............................................................................................................................117CAP Answers ..............................................................................................................................118CAP Answers ...............................................................................................................................119CAP Answers ...............................................................................................................................120

CAP Answers .............................................................................................................................121CAP Answers cont… ...................................................................................................................122CAP Answers ...............................................................................................................................123




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minor con tribution to closing the food gap-entities must make a serious commit ment to providing land

that is suitable for gardening. Most important, that land should be available for at least five years.

Adequate funding, from public or private sources, must be available to defray some of the start-up and

infrastructure costs (fencing, plumbing, and topsoil). Training and technical assistance are essential not

only to help gardeners overcome emotional setbacks such as bug-infested plants and poor-quality crops

but also to provide an appropriate amount of organizing assistance so that communi tyremains the most

important word in comm uni ty G arden . When done right, community gardening is one of the most satisfying

endeavors in life.

1AC URBAN AGRICULTURE

The status of poverty in America creates nutrition deficiencies, hunger, due to lack of economic

capital and increased oil prices

Walshe 09 (Sadhbh, a film-maker and former staff writer for the CBS,Our Daily Bread is a Luxury,http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gmg/op/view.m?id=109496&tid=34&cat=Food-Drink 21 June 2009)

“We are introduced to numerous men, women and children across America who are so impoverished thatthey are subsisting on diets that are as monotonous as they are nutritionally deficient. Many are lucky if they get to eat twice a day. They go to bed hungry, wake up hungry, go to school hungry and go to work hungry. For them milk is a rarity, eggs a luxury and meat an exotic delicacy.In a compelling narrative thattakes the reader into the lives of the working poor across the United States while simultaneously offeringa condensed economic history of America in the last century, Abramsky – a regular contributor here onCif – exposes the disturbing truth that many low-income workers in America simply do not earn enoughmoney to eat. Hunger and poverty are not new phenomenons in America , but the lot of the averageworker has considerably worsened since the early 1980s. And in the past decade, two key factors – soaring oil prices and a stagnant minimum wage – have pushed many of our poorest families over the brink. Between 2000 and 2008 oil prices quadrupled, which in turn caused food prices to escalate. Duringthe same period, the federal minimum wage , which was set at $5.15 an hour in 1997, remained stagnantfor almost 10 years. The combination of these factors has had devastating consequences for America's poorest workers, particularly those living in car-dependent regions, whose finances were already stretchedto capacity.”

Amongst all of the difficulties low income resident face they must deal with brownfields in their

neighborhoods that are a testament of urban decay and neglect to the poorest sections of cities

Stokes and Green 08( Lance and Kenneth, President and Project Director of ECI EnvironmentalConsultants & Engineers, and Kenneth Green, Project Manager for ECI, 2008, “Twenty-Five Years of ‘Change’ and Things Remain The Same,” online:http://www.ejconference2008.org/images/Green_Stokes.pdf , accessed June 23, 2009

Disadvantaged communities and neighborhoods across America, have historically been plagued by

poverty, joblessness, injustice, and lack of investment. They suffer disproportionately from the

impacts of contaminated properties, known as brownfields. It is well documented1 that people who live

in lower income communities and areas with higher percentages of people of color tend to reside in

closer proximity to hazardous waste sites, industrial facilities releasing toxic pollutants, and

facilities using toxic chemicals in industrial production. These disadvantaged communities also tend tohave more blighted areas, more abandoned gas stations and buildings, and more abandoned warehousesand vacant industrial properties. These brownfields threaten public health and the environment,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa

http://www.guardian.co.uk/profile/sashaabramsky

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/poverty

http://business.guardian.co.uk/flash/page/0,,2201400,00.html

http://www.dol.gov/esa/whd/minimumwage.htm

http://www.dol.gov/esa/minwage/chart.htm

http://www.ejconference2008.org/images/Green_Stokes.pdf











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exacerbate neighborhood blight, discourage new investment and revitalization, and accelerate

patterns of poverty and decline that continue to plague disadvantaged communities.


Advantage 1: Food Security

Food insecurity is a reality that is faced by 12 percent of Americans and feeds the food gap

Winne, 08 (Mark, Former Executive Director of the Harford Food System, 2008 “Closing the Food Gap:

Resetting the Table in the Land of the Plenty ”

This was the physical and psychological landscape that welcomed me, one that would generally

deteriorate in the years to come. More important, it formed the backdrop to what was then and,

unfortunately, remains to this day America's food gap. As in the case of supermarket abandonment of

urban (and rural) areas, the food gap can be understood as a failure of our market economy to serve the

basic human needs of those who are impov erished. But poverty contributes to this gap, creating a

situation in which a person or household simply doesn't have enough money to purchase a sufficient

supply of nutritious food.

Hunger-the painful sensation that someone feels on a regular basis due to lack of food-is a relatively rare

phenomenon in America today, but it nevertheless afflicts a small number of u.s. residents on an

intermittent basis. The more common form of food insufficiency is known as food in security, a condition

experienced by a much larger number of people who regularly run out of food or simply don't know

where their next meal will come from. As part of the annual census update, the U.S. Department of

Agriculture conducts a survey that determines the number of people who are food insecure (generally

between 10 and 12 percent of the U.S. popula tion) and severely food insecure (3 to 4 percent of the

population, until 2006 labeled "food insecure with hunger").

Abandonment of supermarkets have caused the food gap widened for low-income people


Resetting the Table in the Land of the Plenty ”

Hunger, food insecurity, and poverty present us with a chicken and egg proposition. Can we significantly

mitigate or even eliminate the first two if we eradicate the latter? Or, if the latter can never be eradicated

(that is, as Jesus said, the poor will always be with us), should we focus society's resources on hunger mitigation as the most humane and practical strategy? The manner in which we debate this question has

consequences for how society chooses to close the food gap. While the failure of supermarkets to

adequately serve lower-income communities represents a failure of the marketplace, the marketplace is

functioning rationally (as economists would say) by going to where the money is. In short, if

communities weren't poor, they would have supermarkets and, as we will see, the best and healthiest food

available. To move forward in our understanding of the food gap, we must also understand the role that

poverty has played in giving hunger and food insecurity such a firm foothold in the United States. And

we must understand as well why we have chosen to respond to poverty and hunger in the ways that we

have.




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As an up-by-the-bootstraps kind of people, Americans have always struck an uneasy balance between

poverty and the social welfare programs that have attempted to address it. In fact, many antihunger and

antipoverty advocates assert that the public and private charitable sectors have never made a concerted

and meaningful effort to eradicate domestic poverty. It is notable, in that regard, that in the course of

reforming the country's welfare system, President Bill Clinton said we were ending wel fare ,not poverty, as

we knew it. With the exception of an occasional burst of rhetorical and political fervor, such as President

Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty during the 1960s, our nation's approach to poverty has been to manage

it, not to end it. And perhaps the best examples of good poverty management practices can be found in

America's antihunger programs.


Hunger and malnutrition result from food insecurity and ensures catastrophic suffering for

millions

Keeling Buhi ’08 ( Lori Keeling, Director of Health Education at Bryan-College Station CommunityHealth Center http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/Erg-Foo/Food-Insecurity.html)

Millions of people worldwide suffer from hunger and undernutrition. A major factor contributing to thisinternational problem is food insecurity. This condition exists when people lack sustainable physical or economic access to enough safe, nutritious, and socially acceptable food for a healthy and productivelife… Food insecurity and malnutrition result in catastrophic amounts of human suffering. The WorldHealth Organization estimates that approximately 60 percent of all childhood deaths in the developingworld are associated with chronic hunger and malnutrition. In developing countries, persistentmalnutrition leaves children weak, vulnerable, and less able to fight such common childhood illnesses asdiarrhea, acute respiratory infections, malaria, and measles. Even children who are mildly to moderatelymalnourished are at greater risk of dying from these common diseases. Malnourished children in theUnited States suffer from poorer health status, compromised immune systems, and higher rates of illnesses such as colds, headaches, and fatigue.

Thus the Plan: the United States Federal Government should substantially increase social services

for persons living in poverty by providing financial and infrastructural support and agricultural

training for urban agriculture in the United States

Contention 2: Solvency

Brownfields are the best place for urban agriculture to exist once cleaned

Brown 02,( Katherine H., Community Food Security Representative, February 2002, Urban Agriculture

Committee of the CFSC (Michael Ableman, http://www.foodsecurity.org/urbanag.html#intro)

The regenerative effect of urban agriculture is especially visible when vacant lots are transformed fromeyesores-- weedy, trash-ridden, dangerous gathering places--into bountiful, beautiful and safe gardensthat feed peoples’ bodies and souls. With increasing “sprawl” into the suburbs, the last twenty years hasseen a common pattern of inner-city neglect in most cities across North America. For example, in theUnited States, “Chicago now has an estimated 70,000 vacant parcels of land. Philadelphia has 31,000,and in nearby Trenton, New Jersey, 900 acres--18 percent of it total land area--is currently vacant.Between 1950 and 1990 in the U.S., abandoned lots in inner-city areas remained vacant for between 20and 30 years in most cities. Failed businesses and homes were bulldozed, leaving relatively inexpensive

http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/Erg-Foo/Food-Insecurity.html

http://www.foodsecurity.org/urbanag.html#intro






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lots without much economic potential, except, that is, for those lots that have become fruitful examples of urban agriculture. Even some of the 130,000 to 425,000 contaminated vacant industrial sites, or brownfields, that the General Accounting Office has identified, may be safely converted to agricultural purposes when properly redeveloped.


Urban food production is key to the New Green Deal. It reduces pollution, lessens global warming and

creates jobs for the economy

Kimbrell in 08 {Andrew-attorney, author, activist, and executive director of the Center for Food Safety

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/10/101340/28/ 10 Nov 2008 Going up? Part 4 MichaelPollan and other food authors and activists offer their elevator pitches for Obama }

Food production can play a major role in the new Green Deal. It has been shown that organic agriculturenot only reduces pollution and lessens global warming but also creates many new jobs. We need to protect the organic standards and evolve the ethic by supporting local, appropriate-scale, humane, socially just, and biodiverse food production that can revitalize local communities and protect our food security.Let's get federal support for community-supported agriculture (CSAs) and urban and suburban agriculturethat, like the Victory Gardens of WWII, can make communities food sufficient and significantly lower food prices. Let's support farmers markets in economically disenfranchised urban areas that often have noaccess to supermarkets or healthy and safe food. On the governmental end, it's time to have a federalagency completely devoted to food safety and security

The federal government must shift to the mindset of liability to make urban agriculture esstential to

the growth and redevelopment of urban centers for low-income people

Kisner 08, (Corinne , Director of Operations at Climate Institute, “International Action: Green Roofs for Urban Food Security and Environmental Sustainability.” December 2008

Other obstacles arise from the dense concentration of humans, plants and animals sharing air, water andsoil resources. Misuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as well as untreated waste, can contaminatefood and water with severe environmental and public health consequences. Although problems relatingto a lack of information could be easily solved with information and extension assistance, local cityauthorities have often responded instead by destroying food crops and evicting food producers from public lands. These policies that neglect and discourage, or even repress, informal urban agriculture harmthe city’s poor. A lack of access to credit or land titles means that low-income urban producers can’t getloans and aren’t guaranteed to receive the benefits of their work. Threats from authorities may driveurban producers to use unsafe production methods. Without government support, producers are unlikelyto invest in the long-term fertility of the soil or consider the benefits of organic methods. To legitimizeurban agriculture, government opinion must shift from the mindset that it is a liability and instead learn tounderstand the environmental, social and economic benefits. Legitimacy will allow producers to haveaccess to land, credit, agricultural inputs, and needed services. Urban planning has so far addressedaccess to affordable housing, ease of public transportation, employment, and health; however, few urban planners adequately consider food security or acknowledge the importance of having a percentage of thecity’s population capable of growing food, in the case that imports are unexpectedly cut off. Policies that

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/10/101340/28/

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/10/101340/28







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educate and empower urban producers rather than ignore or impede them will allow for progress in publichealth, environmental sustainability, economic independence and food security. According to Mougeot, “Urban agriculture is most viable where it is mainstreamed into robust strategies for land use, povertyalleviation, economic development, and sound environmental management.” Governments should applylessons from local experiences to determine policies that have multiple-stakeholder governance for sustainable urban agriculture.


Brownfield cleanup will be funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

further funding is needed for urban farms

EPA 09 (Environmental Protection Agency, “Brownfields Program Activities Under the Recovery

Act ” May 22, 2009, online: http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/eparecovery/index.htm,accessedJune 20, 2008)

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will provide $100 million to the EPA Brownfields Program for clean up, revitalization, and sustainable reuse of contaminated properties. The funds will be awarded to eligible entities through job training, assessment, revolving loan fund, andcleanup grants. Communities in 46 states, four Tribes, and two U.S. Territories will share $111.9 millionin EPA Brownfields grantsThese communities will share $111.9 million in EPA Brownfields grants to help revitalize former industrial and commercial sites, turning them from problem properties to productive community use. Thegrants include $37.3 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 that PresidentObama signed into law on February 17, 2009, and $74.6 million from the EPA brownfields general

program funding. Since the beginning of the Brownfields Program, EPA has awarded 1450 assessmentgrants totaling $337.5 million, 242 revolving loan fund grants totaling $233.5 million and 538 cleanupgrants totaling $99 million.An Estimated $40 Million in Recovery Act Funds to Supplement Eligible Brownfields Revolving Loan

Fund GrantsEPA is announcing the availability of an estimated $40 million in Recovery Act funds to supplement eligible brownfields revolving loan fund(RLF) grants. Grants eligible to request Recovery Act supplemental funds are brownfields RLF grants that have been previously awardedcompetitively under Section 104(k)(3) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) or that havetransitioned to Section 104(k)(3) of CERCLA, and subject to other identified criteria. Requests for funding must be postmarked and received byemail by May 1, 2009. Specific information on eligible entities and submitting a request for Recovery Act supplemental RLF funding is availablein the Federal Register Notice, Process and Consideration Guidelines (PDF) (6 pp, 178K), or can be obtained by contacting the EPA Brownfields

Contact for your region. More information about brownfields revolving loan fund grants is available online.Recovery Act Funds to beAwarded Using FY 2009 Competition for Brownfields Assessment, Revolving Loan Fund, and CleanupGrantsIn order to ensure that money under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 is distributed

as quickly as possible, EPA will use the current Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 competition for assessment,revolving loan fund, and cleanup (ARC) grants to award Recovery Act funds and Brownfields general program funds to selected applicants. EPA plans to announce all successful ARC applicants in theFY2009 competition within the coming weeks. You can learn more about assessment, revolving loanfund and cleanup grants under the Brownfields Program on EPA's Brownfields grants and funding page.Information about all EPA efforts under the Recovery Act is also available. Job Training Grants: EPAAnnounces the Availability of an Estimated $5 Million Under the Recovery Act On March 19, 2009, EPAissued a request for applications (RFA) from eligible governmental entities and nonprofit organizations to provide environmental job training projects that will facilitate job creation in the assessment, remediation,or preparation of brownfields sites for sustainable reuse. The closing date for receipt of applications isApril 20, 2009. Information about how to apply for a Recovery Act job training grant* (PDF) (35 pgs,

http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/



http://www.recovery.gov/

http://www.epa.gov/fedrgstr/EPA-WASTE/2009/April/Day-10/f8240.htm


http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/proposal_guides/arra_09_sup_rlf.pdf



http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/corcntct.htm



http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/rlflst.htm



http://www.epa.gov/recovery/



http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/pilot.htm


http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/proposal_guides/final_arra_jt_guidelines.pdf




http://www.recovery.gov/







http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/pilot.htm






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165K, about PDF) and more information about brownfields job training grants is available online.

The EPA Brownfields Program has been in existence since the early 1990s. In 2002, the Small Business Liability Relief and BrownfieldsRevitalization Act was passed to help states and communities around the country cleanup and revitalize brownfield sites. A brownfield is a

property, the expansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.

INHERENCY: TRAINING AND START UP COSTS

Urban agriculture is in need of funding for start up costs, technical training and isn’t seen as a

priority for the politicians and officials for the urban food gap


Resetting the Table in the Land of the Plenty”

Having said that, anyone who has worked in an urban environment in some form of gardening or

agriculture is aware of the extraordinary chal lenges that city farmers face . Jerome Kaufinan and MartinBailkey identified some of these in "Farming Inside Cities."

There is a great deal of skepticism toward urban garden enthusiasts ("How can you possibly expect to

grow healthy food in the city?") and urban farming in general. In most people's minds, food pro duction is

associated with rural areas, not vacant city lots .

There is a lack of funding for urban gardening enterprises, espe cially to cover start-up expenses

associated with site improvements, which can sometimes be quite high depending on the site.

Urban gardening is rarely seen as the best use of vacant inner-city land by government officials, whose

first choice for land use is resi dential or commercial development. One of the biggest difficulties that the

Hartford Food System and Knox Parks Foundation faced was securing permanent control of, or even a

long-term lease for, a community garden site. Whether the landowner is a public or private entity, it is

rarely inclined to tie up land for a use that will generate lit tle or no income.

Toxic soils, or the fear of such, make people uneasy about using urban land for food production. Site

testing is almost always advisable for any new garden site, but there are also mitigation methods that can

make any land short of an EPA Superfund site safe for gardening.

Crime, vandalism, and petty theft can be major obstacles. There is nothing more heartbreaking than an

earnest, hardworking gardener who arrives at his plot one evening only to find all of his beautiful vine-

ripe tomatoes stolen.

Some cities, especially during much of the 1980s and 1990S, have been hard-pressed to provide even

basic services such as garbage pickup and police protection. Community gardening is regarded by some

people as a frivolous endeavor in light of more serious and pressing demands.

Gardening skills are not acquired overnight, and many first-time gardeners are discouraged when their

plants and crops don't look like those portrayed in the seed catalogs. A little technical assistance is oftennecessary to give the neophyte gardener the resolve to try gardening for at least two seasons.

I can attest to the pleasure and pain that are the opposite sides of the gardening coin. For community

gardeners to be successful in their rugged urban environments-to say nothing of making more than a

minor con tribution to closing the food gap-entities must make a serious commit ment to providing land

that is suitable for gardening. Most important, that land should be available for at least five years.

Adequate funding, from public or private sources, must be available to defray some of the start-up and

infrastructure costs (fencing, plumbing, and topsoil). Training and technical assistance are essential not

only to help gardeners overcome emotional setbacks such as bug-infested plants and poor-quality crops

but also to provide an appropriate amount of organizing assistance so that communi tyremains the most

http://www.epa.gov/epahome/pdf.html

http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/job.htm



http://www.epa.gov/brownfields/sblrbra.htm




http://www.epa.gov/epahome/pdf.html







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Tournament 2009


important word in comm uni ty G arden . When done right, community gardening is one of the most satisfying

endeavors in life.

INHERENCY: TRAINING AND START UP COSTS

Community food projects are dying due to lack of funding, technical training, and support from the

government

Connelly and Ross 07 ( Phoebe, Chelsea, writers, “Farming the Concrete Jungle” August 24, 2007http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3297/farming_the_concrete_jungle/

The massive federal subsidies received by Big Ag companies help keep food prices artificially low. Thatmeans small-scale, sustainable agriculture must self-subsidize its prices to compete in the marketplace.

And as the profile of urban agriculture rises, urban farms are also confronting questions about whether to participate in the high-priced, organic farmers’ markets cropping up around the country.“It’s important tous that the food we grow here is available to people in the community,” says the Food Project’s Andrews.“That means it’s not sold at the prices it would be if it was sold downtown.” Selling at high-end marketsis an issue that the Food Project grapples with because it has the potential to allow the organization tosustain itself. Right now, the group makes around $20,000 off the produce grown on its Dorchester land.If the Food Project sold it at the Copley Square farmers’ market, opposite the Neiman Marcus, Andrewsestimates they could get twice as much. “I think there is a sense at the organization that it could lendsomething to the urban agriculture movement if we were economically sustainable.” So far, however, theFood Project is opting out. “Our community is patient with what goes along with urban agriculture.Sometimes our compost smells, or we’ll have a little rat infestation,” Andrews says. “If we were sellingdowntown, it could become uncomfortable. I don’t think it would make a whole lot of sense.”Because of funding difficulties, over the years many community food projects have died, which hurts thosecommunities that have come to rely on their resources.“Everyone keeps reinventing this thing over andover again, which tells me it has a really important function, and it should be supported,” says Lawson.“But we shouldn’t have to keep finding new land and new leaders.” For this reason, Lawson stresses landownership as one path to sustainability. “The exact audience will change over time—but the hardest thingis transforming that space, that earth,” she says. “Once you have that tillable soil, it’s there for whatever programs want to come along and claim it. The gardeners need to look at land use and ownership of sites,and work with the city to keep them permanent.” Many hold up Philadelphia as the gold standard of landstewardship. Founded in 1986, the Neighborhood Gardens Association (NGA) is a community land trustthat holds land reclaimed by gardeners in order to save it from development when property values rise.(One of the quandaries urban agriculture programs face is that when they transform previous “worthless”land, they simultaneously raise its property value and that of the surrounding area.) The NGA currentlyholds 24 plots in trust. In Chicago, a similar program called NeighborSpace has been around since 1996.Both programs focus on community gardens, but the overall aim of creating community land is one thatresonates with everyone working in urban agriculture. “If you have control over the land and the water, if you can feed yourself, you can really transform society,” says Erika Allen. “But these communities don’thave any of those things, so how can you have a just society?”

Many start up costs exist for urban farmers and must be further addressed

Brown 02 ,( Katherine H., Community Food Security Representative, February 2002, Urban AgricultureCommittee of the CFSC (Michael Ableman, http://www.foodsecurity.org/urbanag.html#intro)

Entrepreneurs and community and backyard gardeners have start-up costs that can be an obstacle to folks

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3297/farming_the_concrete_jungle/







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Tournament 2009


on limited incomes. Responses to this problem include: Tool banks, including donations of surplus tools,offer gardeners the option of borrowing tools or renting them for a low fee. Foundation and government“seed” grants provide much-needed funding for individuals and organizations. Banks and government-funded redevelopment plans have provided micro-credit to growers. Gardening supply businesses,nurseries, and seed companies donate their wares. Community kitchens, offered by churches, schools, andother organizations provide access for food preservation and small-scale value-added production projects.

Crop or harvest loans, crop insurance, liability insurance, and equipment loans can assist the beginningurban farmer

INHERENCY: FOOD INSECURITY AND HUNGER

To solve the injustices of the world requires listening rather than policy experts. The plan’s emphasis onhighlighting disenfranchised voices provides the best hope for solving the global food crisis,

protecting women’s rights, US crop dumping and WTO failures. Change begins with those whohave been fighting hardest for it

Patel in 08 { Raj-author of Stuffed and Starved : http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/10/101340/28/

10 Nov 2008 Going up? Part 4 Michael Pollan and other food authors and activists offer their elevator pitches for Obama }

But around the world, U.S. food policy makes it impossible for women to feed their families. Themajority of food eaten in developing countries is grown by women, yet U.S. agricultural policy abroadstrengthens the hand not of the poorest food producers but the richest ones. Today's U.S. agricultural policies put billions in the hands of food corporations while disenfranchising small farmers -- in the U.S., black farmers have been hit particularly hard by USDA racism. The destructive U.S.-sponsored globaltrade and intellectual property policies that lock up knowledge about seeds and drugs should beabandoned. The insane policy of growing food not to eat but to burn, the U.S. biofuels policy for whichyou've expressed great support, needs to be reversed. And we need to move towards valuing the fullenvironmental and social cost of food.

To solve the injustices in agriculture requires not the right cabal of policy experts, but an ear open to whatthose most deeply hurt by U.S. policy are saying. Under the rubric of food sovereignty, women andmen around the world have come up with effective and practical ideas about how to feed the worldsustainably. Doing that will mean ensuring women's rights, but also preventing the dumping of U.S. crops in foreign markets, the removal of agriculture from the World Trade Organization, andsupport for land reform and sustainable agriculture. These are ideas that come directly from thefields, that are part of a chorus of 150 million farmers, peasants, and landless people around theworld who have been saying 'yes we can,' despite violence and poverty, for two decades. Why notlet the change begin with the ideas of those who have been fighting hardest for it?"


http://astore.amazon.com/gristmagazine/detail/1933633492/102-1183543-3665742




http://astore.amazon.com/gristmagazine/detail/1933633492/102-1183543-3665742






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Tournament 2009



Constant population growth in urban areas presents urban centers with food insecurity, poverty,

and environmental concerns


Urbanization is changing human demands and straining natural resources. In order to support thislifestyle, cities must adapt, reconsidering food sources, water supplies, the end location of their waste, thefuel supplying their electricity, and the overall environmental sustainability of densely concentrated populations. Cities consume too many resources and produce too much waste, impacting land far outsidethe city limits. The urban heat island effect, air and water pollution, elevated food prices and higher ratesof poverty are problems endemic to cities that contribute to health concerns, economic instability, andenvironmental degradation. The current trend of urbanization means that without making our cities moresustainable, there is little hope for a sustainable world.

The past hundred years have seen the world’s urban population swell from 15% to 50% of the total global population, which itself has increased from 1.5 to well over 6 billion. According to the US NationalResearch Council, by 2030 more people will be living in urban areas (4.1 billion) than in rural areas (3.1 billion) in middle and low-income countries. In fact, the population of developing countries will expandfrom 4.9 to 6.8 billion by 2020; ninety percent of the increase will occur in urban areas, meaning thatmore than half of Africa’s and Asia’s populations will live in cities. In Latin America, over 75% of the population already lives in cities.

This high concentration of people in cities has serious consequences for poverty rates and food security. The world’s urban poor tend to lack the money to purchase food and lack the land and resources to growtheir own. More people living in cities with limited access to food will result in an increase in the level of urban poverty from 30 to a staggering 50% by 2020. To further exacerbate the economic hardship of city-dwellers in developing countries, the cost of feeding urban areas is high compared with rural areas. Not only must the food be collected from many small rural farmers, packaged, transported, anddistributed, but postharvest food losses from inadequate preservation, as well as delays at checkpointsalong poorly maintained roads increase the costs even more. “Food losses can be as high as 35 percentfor perishable food products, while transportation costs can reach as high as 90 percent of the overall foodmarketing margin.” With such complications and insecurities, many people have turned to urbanagriculture as a more dependable source of food over which they have control.




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Tournament 2009



The status of poverty in America creates nutrition deficiencies, hunger, due to lack of economic

capital and increased oil prices

Walshe 09 (Sadhbh, a film-maker and former staff writer for the CBS,Our Daily Bread is a Luxury,http://m.guardian.co.uk/ms/p/gmg/op/view.m?id=109496&tid=34&cat=Food-Drink 21 June 2009)

“We are introduced to numerous men, women and children across America who are so impoverished thatthey are subsisting on diets that are as monotonous as they are nutritionally deficient. Many are lucky if they get to eat twice a day. They go to bed hungry, wake up hungry, go to school hungry and go to work hungry. For them milk is a rarity, eggs a luxury and meat an exotic delicacy.In a compelling narrative thattakes the reader into the lives of the working poor across the United States while simultaneously offeringa condensed economic history of America in the last century, Abramsky – a regular contributor here onCif – exposes the disturbing truth that many low-income workers in America simply do not earn enoughmoney to eat. Hunger and poverty are not new phenomenons in America , but the lot of the averageworker has considerably worsened since the early 1980s. And in the past decade, two key factors –

soaring oil prices and a stagnant minimum wage – have pushed many of our poorest families over the brink. Between 2000 and 2008 oil prices quadrupled, which in turn caused food prices to escalate. Duringthe same period, the federal minimum wage , which was set at $5.15 an hour in 1997, remained stagnantfor almost 10 years. The combination of these factors has had devastating consequences for America's poorest workers, particularly those living in car-dependent regions, whose finances were already stretchedto capacity.”

Poverty and hunger need to be addressed by community gardens and other sources in the status

quo

Brown 02,( Katherine H., Community Food Security Representative, February 2002, Urban AgricultureCommittee of the CFSC (Michael Ableman, http://www.foodsecurity.org/urbanag.html#intro)

New citywide coalitions are emerging on behalf of urban food security. Health and nutrition

advocates are joining with community gardeners, university extension services, emergency food

distributors and faith communities. Community economic development organizers, as well asenvironmentalists concerned with urban waste reduction and recycling, see the potential in urbanfarming. A growing consumer demand for fresh, local and organic food in its turn creates new

markets for urban food production. With growing momentum in the last decade, individuals,organizations, communities, and governments have participated in a variety of creative efforts to developthe capacity to raise food in and around cities. Many of these efforts specifically address the needs of

urban residents who are living in poverty, and consequently at grave risk for “food insecurity” –


















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Tournament 2009


that is, threatened with hunger, poor nutrition, and frequent anxiety about not having enough to

eat.

INHERENCY: LAND TENURE

Land Tenure Challenges exist for urban farmers that governments need to address


Many involved in urban agriculture do not own the land they use to grow food. Without title or three tofive year leases, they risk losing their investment when the land is taken for other purposes. Creativesolutions to this problem include the following: Land trusts successfully secure urban and peri-urban land parcels for agricultural purposes. Conservation easements are used to delineate environmentallyvulnerable lands that then can be used for agriculture. Communities develop inventories of surplus properties that lead to the inclusion of agriculture in subsequent plans for the land. Many urban growershave been able to write medium-to-longer-term leases allowing them to plan for the futureMany forms of urban agriculture are mobile and/or require little investment, and thus are well suited toshorter-term or more uncertain leases. Some urban agriculture sites are maintained under usufructarrangements. This means that growers have the legal right to use public or private land as long as theymaintain it well.






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Tournament 2009


INHERENCY: EXPANSION OF URBAN AGRICULTURE

Urban Revolution in farming is growing to produce a multitude of issues in the urban centers of the

U.S.


“There is a quiet revolution stirring in our food system. It is not happening so much on the distant

farms that still provide us with the majority of our food; it is happening in cities, neighborhoods,

and towns. It has evolved out of the basic need that every person has to know their food, and to

have some sense of control over its safety and security. It is a revolution that is providing poor

people with an important safety net where they can grow some nourishment and income for

themselves and their families. And it is providing an oasis for the human spirit where urban people

can gather, preserve something of their culture through native seeds and foods, and teach theirchildren about food and the earth. The revolution is taking place in small gardens, under railroad tracksand power lines, on rooftops, at farmers’ markets, and in the most unlikely of places. It is a movement

that has the potential to address a multitude of issues: economic, environmental, personal health,

and cultural.”

Urban Agriculture needs support in order to expand its potential to create massive benefits for

urban dwellers Brown 02,( Katherine H., Community Food Security Representative, February 2002,Urban Agriculture Committee of the CFSC (Michael Ableman,http://www.foodsecurity.org/urbanag.html#intro)

“To grow your own food gives you a sort of power and it gives people dignity. You know exactly

what you’re eating because you grew it. It’s good, it’s nourishing and you did this for yourself,

your family and your community.”-Karen Washington Urban agriculture in the United States has beenenriched by the skills and technologies of immigrant populations, from Japanese market gardeners inCalifornia to Italian urban gardeners in the Northeast. In addition, many inner-city communities are richin social and environmental capital even while they are poor in economic resources. The urban

agriculture movement, if it is supported and expanded, can build on this existence, but until then

they remain neglected or undeveloped expertise, social relationships, and the urban landscape

itself. Often some of the most vulnerable people in cities, such as the elderly and newly arrived

immigrants and refugees, have years of experience in, and knowledge about, raising and preserving








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Tournament 2009


food. And many neighborhoods defy commonly held negative characterizations of urban life,

exhibiting instead enduring bonds of reciprocity and trust that tide family, friends, church

members, and whole communities over hard times. Local leaders are experienced in the

complexities of church and neighborhood politics, and in the often frustrating relationships

between low-income communities, social service agencies, and government. Such local leaders arefrequently the first to recognize the potential contribution of urban agriculture to their community’s food

security.

INHERENCY: LEGAL ACTION NEEDED

Legal Action is needed to sustain urban agriculture in cities from developers

Kirby and Peters 08 (Ellen, Elizabeth, Editors and Analysts of Urban Farming (Community Gardening,

Page 70)

The following steps are useful when developing a small community garden. Determine who owns the

property and acquire access. Is it legal to develop a garden on the site? Laws change between

municipalities so a call to a local planner and/or permit specialist in the building department should

clarify if gardening is an accepted use on the property and if so what permits are required. Below-the-

radar gardening can challenge restrictive policies or transform a vacant lot with an absentee owner.

However, it is not unheard of for well-established and beloved community gardens to be bulldozed by

developers because legal permissions weren't obtained. The resources expended to create a garden are

significant, and if a legal mechanism exists that will support community gardeners, it should be pursued.




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Tournament 2009


INHERENCY: BROWNFIELDS

Brownfields have been a blight to low-income residents and their current condition are a threat to

us

Green and Stokes 07 ( Kenneth,Lance President and CEO, is the Principal of ECI EnvironmentalConsultants & Engineers, LLC. and ECI consultant “Twenty-Five Years of ‘Change’ and Things RemainThe Same” 2007

Disadvantaged communities and neighborhoods across America, have historically been plagued by poverty, joblessness, injustice, and lack of investment. They suffer disproportionately from the impacts of contaminated properties, known as brownfields. It is well documented that people who live in lower income communities and areas with higher percentages of people of color tend to reside in closer proximity to hazardous waste sites, industrial facilities releasing toxic pollutants, and facilities using toxicchemicals in industrial production. These disadvantaged communities also tend to have more blightedareas, more abandoned gas stations and buildings, and more abandoned warehouses and vacant industrial properties. These brownfields threaten public health and the environment, exacerbate neighborhood blight, discourage new investment and revitalization, and accelerate patterns of poverty and decline thatcontinue to plague disadvantaged communities.




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Tournament 2009


INHERENCY: NARRATIVE OF A URBAN FARMER’S PLEA

Will Allen, Founder of Growing Power made a plea to the government for comprehensive

treatment for urban agriculture in the Status quo

Allen 09 ( Will, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Growing Power “A Good Food Manifesto for America” http://mediacompost.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/a-good-food-manifesto-for-america-by-will-

allen/ May 8, 2009

When fuel prices skyrocket, as they did last year, things go awry. When a bubble likeethanol builds and then bursts, things go haywire. When drought strikes that valley inCalifornia, as is happening right now, things start to topple. And when the wholeeconomy shatters, the security of a nation’s food supply teeters on the brink of failure.To many people, this might sound a bit hysterical. There is still food in the suburbansupermarket aisles, yes. The shelves are not empty; there are no bread lines. We haven’tread of any number of Americans actually starving to death. No, and were any of those things to happen,you can rest assured that there would be swift and vigorous action. What is happening is that manyvulnerable people, especially in the large cities where most of us live, in vast urban tracts where there are

in fact no supermarkets, are being forced to buy cheaper and lower-quality foods, to forgo freshfruits and vegetables, or are relying on food programs – including our children’s schoolfood programs – that by necessity are obliged to distribute any kind of food they canafford, good for you or not. And this is coming to haunt us in health care and social costs. No, we are not suddenly starving to death; we are slowly but surely malnourishingourselves to death. And this fate is falling ever more heavily on those who were alreadystressed: the poor. Yet there is little action. Many astute and well-informed people beside myself, mostnotably Michael Pollan, in a highly persuasive treatise last fall in the New York Times, have issued thesesame warnings and laid out the case for reform of our national food policy. I need not go onrepeating what Pollan and others have already said so well, and I do not wish merely toadd my voice to a chorus. I am writing to demand action.It is time and past time for this nation, this government, to react to the dangers inherent

in its flawed farm and food policies and to reverse course from subsidizing wealth tosubsidizing health. We have to stop paying the largest farm subsidies to large growers of unsustainableand inedible crops like cotton. We have to stop paying huge subsidies to Big Corn, Big Soyand Big Chem to use prime farmland to grow fuel, plastics and fructose. We have to stopusing federal and state agencies and institutions as taxpayer-funded research arms for thevery practices that got us into this mess.We have to start subsidizing health and well-being by rewarding sustainable practicesin agriculture and assuring a safe, adequate and wholesome food supply to all our citizens. And we need to start this reform process now, as part of the national stimulus




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Tournament 2009


toward economic recovery. In my organization, Growing Power Inc. of Milwaukee, we have always before tried tobe as self-sustaining as possible and to rely on the market for our success. Typically, Iwould not want to lean on government support, because part of the lesson we teach is to be self-reliant.But these are not typical times, as we are now all too well aware.As soon as it became clear that Congress would pass the National Recovery Act, I andmembers of my staff brainstormed ideas for a meaningful stimulus package aimed at

creating green jobs, shoring up the security of our urban food systems, and promotingsound food policies of national scope. The outcome needed to be both “shovel-ready” for immediate impact and sustainable for future growth.We produced a proposal for the creation of a public-private enabling institution calledthe Centers for Urban Agriculture. It would incorporate a national training and outreach

INHERENCY: NARRATIVE OF A URBAN FARMER’S PLEA CONT…

center, a large working urban farmstead, a research and development center, a policyinstitute, and a state-of-the-future urban agriculture demonstration center into which all of these elements would be combined in a functioning community food system scaled to the

needs of a large city.We proposed that this working institution – not a “think tank” but a “do tank” – be based in Milwaukee, where Growing Power has already created an operating model on just two acres. But ultimately, satellite centers would become established in urban areasacross the nation. Each would be the hub of a local or regional farm-to-marketcommunity food system that would provide sustainable jobs, job training, food production and food distribution to those most in need of nutritional support and security.This proposal was forwarded in February to our highest officials at the city, state andfederal level, and it was greeted with considerable approval. Unfortunately, however, itsoon became clear that the way Congress had structured the stimulus package, with fundsearmarked for only particular sectors of the economy, chiefly infrastructure, affordedneither our Congressional representatives nor our local leaders with the discretion todirect any significant funds to this innovative plan. It simply had not occurred to anyone

that immediate and lasting job creation was plausible in a field such as community-basedagriculture. I am asking Congress today to rectify that oversight, whether by modifying the currentguidelines of the Recovery Act or by designating new and dedicated funds to thedevelopment of community food systems through the creation of this national Centers forUrbanAgriculture.Our proposal budgeted the initial creation of this CUA at a minimum of $63 millionover two years – a droplet compared to the billions being invested in other programs bothin the stimulus plan and from year-to-year in the federal budget.Consider that the government will fund the Centers for Disease Control at about $8.8 billion this year, and that is above the hundreds of millions more in research grants toother bio-medical institutions, public and private. This is money well spent for importantwork to ensure Americans the best knowledge in protecting health by fighting disease; but surely by now we ought to recognize that the best offense against many diseases is

the defense provided by a healthy and adequate diet. Yet barely a pittance of CDC moneygoes for any kind of preventive care research. In 2008, the Department of Homeland Security approvedspending $450 million for a new National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility at Kansas State University, inaddition to the existing Biosecurity Research Institute already there. Again, money well spent to protect our food supply from the potential of a terrorist attack. But note that thesehundreds of millions are being spent to protect us from a threat that may never materialize, while we seem to trivialize the very real and material threat that is upon usright now: the threat of malnourishment and undernourishment of very significantnumber of our citizens. Government programs under the overwhelmed and overburdened departments of Agriculture and of Health and Human Services do their best to serve their many masters,




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Tournament 2009


but in the end, government farm and food policies are most often at odds between theneeds of the young, the old, the sick and the poor versus the wants of the super-industrythat agriculture has become. By and large, the government’s funding of nutritional health comes down tospending millions on studies to tell us what we ought to eat without in any way guaranteeing thatmany people will be able to find or afford the foods they recommend. For instance, foodstamps ensure only that poor people can buy food; they cannot ensure that, in the food

deserts that America’s inner cities have become, there will be any good food to buy.We need a national nutrition plan that is not just another entitlement, that is not a matter of shipping surplus calories to schools, senior centers, and veterans’ homes. We need a plan that encourages a return to the best practices of both farming and marketing, thatrewards the grower who protects the environment and his customers by nourishing hissoil with compost instead of chemicals and who ships his goods the shortest distance, notthe longest. If the main purpose of government is to provide for the common security of its citizens,

INHERENCY: NARRATIVE OF A URBAN FARMER’S PLEA CONT…

surely ensuring the security of their food system must be among its paramount duties.And if among our rights are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, we are denied all

those rights if our cities become prisons of poverty and malnutrition.As an African-American farmer, I am calling on the first African-American president of the United States to lead us quickly away from this deepening crisis. Demand, PresidentObama, that Congress and your own Administration begin without delay the process of reforming our farm and food policies. Start now by correcting the omission in your economic stimulus and recovery act that prevented significant spending on creating newand sustainable jobs for the poor in our urban centers as well as rural farm communities.It will be an irony, certainly, but a sweet one, if millions of African-Americans whosegrandparents left the farms of the South for the factories of the North, only to see thosefactories close, should now find fulfillment in learning once again to live close to the soiland to the food it gives to all of us. I would hope that we can move along a continuum to make sure thatall of citizens have access to the same fresh, safe, affordable good food regardless of their cultural, social

or economic situation.




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Tournament 2009


Brownfields SolvencyBrownfield redevelopment solves many urban problems, including environmental justice.

Walker 04 [Kristi, Ph.D., Public Policy Administration, “Locating Opportunities for BrownfieldRedevelopment in St. Louis,” July,http://www.ewgateway.org/pdffiles/library/blueprint/brownfieldredevinurbanstlouis.pdf ]

In 1995, the GAO estimated that approximately 150,000 to 300,000 brownfield sites exist nationwide. To

date the EPA estimates the number of brownfields to range from 500,000 to one million nationwide

(White House Press Release, 2002 January 11). Brownfield sites and the associated disinvestment withinurban neighborhoods are the product of multiple social, political, and economic forces. These include theloss of population from central cities to suburbs, the expansion of transportation routes, advancements in

technology and global competition (mobile capital), the persistence of racially and economicallysegregated communities, and lack of regional planning, (EPA 1999, Orfield 2002, Jackson 1985).Brownfield sites in the City of St. Louis range from abandoned gas stations in urban neighborhoods,underutilized industrial property, to the redevelopment of asbestos and lead contaminated buildings intodowntown hotels and residential lofts. Brownfields may also be found in the midst of residential areas inthe form of vacant lots, vacant housing units, and vacant and vandalized buildings. Brownfield

redevelopment is more than just removing barriers and recycling underutilized land. Additional

goals of brownfield redevelopment include: smart growth, pollution prevention, sustainable

development, encouragement of green business development, small business development, and the

application of environmental justice principles to redevelopment strategies (EPA 1999, NEJAC1996, Swearengen 1999)

Brownfields can be used to create green space that encompasses urban farms with the potential tofeed and employ the poor



In addition to supplying low-income residents with healthier and more nutritious food, communitygardens have been tagged with many other beneficial characteristics by their advocates. Among thosecited by Jerome Kaufman and Martin Bailkey in their paper "Farming Inside Cities" are reducing theamount of vacant and unproductive urban land, improving the public image of troubled neighborhoods,increasing the amount of neighborhood green space, developing pride and self -sufficiency among inner-city residents who grow their own food, and pro viding jobs for youths and adults.

The assumptions about vacant land and job Opportunity benefits are interesting. They suggest that anactivity such as community gardening is designed to assist poor people or the neighborhood where theyreside and that it is based on the need to put something that is of no value to anyone else to use. Indeed,the amount of vacant land in many of America's cities is, according to Kaufman and Bailkey, astoundingand a painful testament to the decline of urban areas in this country. In 2000, Philadelphia had 3 0,900 vacant lots, an increase of almost 100 percent since 1992. New Or leans had 14,000 vacant lots, and atleast one-quarter of the properties in most of Chicago's poorest areas were abandoned. With the loss of half a million people since World War II, St, Louis has assumed control of 13,000 tax-delinquent parcelstotaling 1,200 acres. Americans abhor waste, whether it's land, food, or simply open space, and what better way to use something that has fallen outside the standard utilitarian economic model than to feed or employ the poor?

http://www.ewgateway.org/pdffiles/library/blueprint/brownfieldredevinurbanstlouis.pdf

http://www.ewgateway.org/pdffiles/library/blueprint/brownfieldredevinurbanstlouis.pdf




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Tournament 2009


Brownfields Solvency

Brownfield redev solves multiple economic problems, benefits outweigh economic risks

Meyer, Van Landingham 00 (Peter B and H. Wade, Director, Center for Environmental Policy andManagement and Assoc. CEPM , “Reclamation and Economic Regeneration of Brownfields”, August,http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:Z0iHkcWafUIJ:www .eda.gov/PDF/meyer.pdf+%22Brownfield+Sites:+Causes,+Effects,+and+Solutions%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us)Local communities and EDOs have many reasons to want to redevelop brownfields despite the

obstacles involved. Not only may such redevelopment promote new economic activity and jobs, but italso helps to reduce negative neighborhood spillover effects. Without redevelopment, many such

sites become “attractive nuisances,” providing locations for drug-related or other undesirable

activities. Moreover, businesses and residents in the areas immediately adjacent to brownfields often

suffer lost revenues and declining property values due to the stigma associated with pollution. Thisis especially problematic because brownfields are often located in older areas with low income andminority residents suffering from economic decline and environmental justice problems. EDOredevelopment planning, if based on traditional industrial development approaches with minimalcommunity consultation and input, however, may raise similar environmental justice concerns associatedwith cleanup standards and proposed new land uses. The benefit of redevelopment of brownfields extends beyond the site itself to the wider community (33, 64, 86, 125). Redevelopment of brownfield sites in poor areas offers many opportunities including: -the possibility of new employment for local

residents, -reduced risks from past contamination and a lower likelihood of additional pollution,

-increases in the tax base associated with new activities and, -increased attractiveness of the

community at large to other new businesses. Hence, when measuring the costs and benefits of

brownfields redevelopment, the public sector should look beyond the site-specific impacts to

consider the broader community impacts as well (63, 74, 105). Many of the case studies profiled inAppendix B offer descriptions of the wider community benefits associated with such projects

Brownfield remediation solves tax base, health, crime problems

Felten 6 (Jennifer, Former President of the Ventura County Escrow Association, “BROWNFIELDREDEVELOPMENT 1995-2005: AN ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE SUCCESS STORY?”, RealProperty, Probate and Trust Journal. Chicago: Winter 2006. Vol. 40, Iss. 4; pg. 679, 26 pgs, proquest)

Abandoned sites abound in poor and minority communities. Unremediated Brownfields

create many negative financial effects on their communities. The underutilization of these sitesreduces the tax base, which can reduce the amount of funds available for other services.10

Brownfields also tend to reduce property values for the surrounding community, whichadversely affects the municipality and the local residents." Redevelopment, on the other

hand, helps to increase the tax base and can attract businesses to an area.12

Abandoned sites also have negative health consequences on the surrounding communities.

Contaminants present on a site, if untreated, may leech into the air and water, affecting thehealth of those in a surrounding community.13 The abandoned sites may also attract children,

who have few play areas available to them. '4 Furthermore, an abandoned site can be quite

appealing to criminals looking for a place to sell drugs or conduct other types of illegal

activities.15 Brownfield redevelopment generally helps alleviate these problems.16

http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=318&pmid=13381&TS=1215548436&clientId=10553&VInst=PROD&VName=PQD&VType=PQD



http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=572&VType=PQD&VName=PQD&VInst=PROD&pmid=13381&pcid=17926141&SrchMode=3







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Cleaning brownfields is key to revitalize urban economies, promote human health, and protect

ecosystems

Peter Meyer, consultant for E.P. Systems Group, a consulting firm specializing in brownfieldsredevelopment, December 1999, “Assessment of State Initiatives to Promote Redevelopment of Brownfields,” online: http://www.huduser.org/publications/econdev/assess.html, accessed July 9, 2008

The economic development of distressed neighborhoods and communities is a multifaceted challenge

but one issue lies at its core: the difficulty of redeveloping many previously used sites intoemployment, housing and community facilities that will help to bring about a transformation of these

areas as economic centers. Central to the prospects for economic development efforts is the

environmental condition of these properties, because many past uses have resulted in on-site

contamination that threatens human health and ecosystems. The importance of environmental issuesin site re-use first came to the fore in national policy with the 1980 passage of the ComprehensiveEnvironmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, (CERCLA), or the Superfund law. The latter half of the 1990's has witnessed a widespread effort on the part of state legislatures to respond to localredevelopment barriers posed by past pollution in relation to CERCLA requirements. State after state promulgated “voluntary cleanup programs” (VCPs) intended to relieve developers of uncertain liabilityrisks and otherwise support regeneration efforts. Over 90 percent of states have some form of VCP in place as of late 1999. Many of these programs combine regulatory flexibility and liability relief withvarious forms of financial support for redevelopment. Some are targeted specifically at individualcontaminated sites or neighborhoods in which such sites are common. The sites are often labeled as“brownfields” and can be characterized as abandoned, idled or underutilized industrial or

commercial facilities, where redevelopment or expansion is complicated by suspected or identified

past pollution. A large proportion of brownfields have been contaminated by leaking storage tanksfor fuel and other petroleum products that, while excluded from CERCLA requirements, still pose

problems for redevelopment, especially when groundwater pollution and in-soil migration of liquid

contaminants has occurred. The redevelopment problem also arises from contamination of property previously committed to residential uses, where exceptional costs may arise from cleanup of lead,asbestos, PCBs, and other dangerous substances.

Urban agriculture bring economic development and promotion of property values

Mazereeuw 05 (Bethany, Health Promotion Officer for Region of Waterloo November 10th 2005; UrbanAgriculture Report PAGE 12)

The circle of prosperity considers economic and financial aspects of a community such as employmentand unemployment. Urban agriculture initiatives provide economic benefits to communities. Communitygardens can boost economic development and tourism in a community. Gardens attract businesses and promotion of inner-city revitalization. In one study of community gardens, realtors and enhancedneighborhood desirability for residents and businesses, this increased property values. The same studyalso found that community gardens likely contribute more to the upgrading of property values than theytake away by not producing taxes.




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Urban agriculture hones the economic potential of past vacant lots and provide local fresh food to

communities

Hurdle 08, (Jon “Where Industry Once Hummed, Urban Garden Finds Success” National Desk; Pg. 18May 20, 2008

Amid the tightly packed row houses of North Philadelphia, a pioneering urban farm is providing freshlocal food for a community that often lacks it, and making money in the process. Greensgrow, a one-acre plot of raised beds and greenhouses on the site of a former steel-galvanizing factory, is turning a profit byselling its own vegetables and herbs as well as a range of produce from local growers, and by running anursery selling plants and seedlings. The farm earned about $10,000 on revenue of $450,000 in 2007, andhopes to make a profit of 5 percent on $650,000 in revenue in this, its 10th year, so it can open another operation elsewhere in Philadelphia.In season, it sells its own hydroponically grown vegetables, as well as peaches from New Jersey, tomatoes from Lancaster County, and breads, meats and cheeses from smalllocal growers within a couple of hours of Philadelphia.The farm, in the low-income Kensington section,about three miles from the skyscrapers of downtown Philadelphia, also makes its own honey -- marketedas ''Honey From the Hood'' -- from a colony of bees that produce about 80 pounds a year. And it makes biodiesel for its vehicles from the waste oil produced by the restaurants that buy its vegetables. Amongurban farms, Greensgrow distinguishes itself by being a bridge between rural producers and urbanconsumers, and by having revitalized a derelict industrial site, said Ian Marvy, executive director of Added Value, an urban farm in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn.It has also become a model for others by showing that it is possible to become self-supporting in a universe where many rely on outside

financial support, Mr. Marvy said.Mary Seton Corboy, 50, a former chef with a master's degree in political science, co-founded Greensgrow in 1998 with the idea of growing lettuce for the restaurants indowntown Philadelphia.Looking for cheap land close to their customers, Ms. Corboy and her business partner at the time, Tom Sereduk, found the site and persuaded the local Community DevelopmentCorporation to buy it and then rent it to them for $150 a month, a sum they still pay.They made an initialinvestment of $25,000 and have spent about $100,000 over the years on items that included the plastic-covered greenhouses and the soil that had to be trucked in to cover the steel-and-concrete foundation of the old factory site.




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Tournament 2009



Urban gardens create the potential to reduce crime in urban areas

Mazereeuw 05 (Bethany, Health Promotion Officer for Region of Waterloo November 10th 2005; UrbanAgriculture Report PAGE 16)

Reduced crime has been associated with communities that have community gardens. The mere

presence of people spending time outside in community gardens may discourage crime. In fact,

widely-spaced vegetation, such as a community garden, can deter crime by increasing surveillance

and mitigating some of the psychological precursors to violence. When people have invested in a

community garden, they are present in it (providing surveillance) and they are more apt to want to

protect it from crimes such as vandalism. Community gardens also provide safe places for residentsin high-risk communities, including places for children to play and learn. A local example of how

community gardens can decrease crime is the Victoria Hills neighborhood of Kitchener. After a

community garden was established on a vacant lot in the centre of that community, police incidents

decreased by 30% the first summer, and almost 56% by the end of the third summer. In addition to

these statistics, people from the community have also indicated that they felt safer in their

community after establishment of the community garden. Reasons for this feeling of safety included

“the physical presence of people in the garden late into the evening”; the fact that they “knew more

people in their neighborhood”; and the feeling that “neighbors were also watching out for them,

their children and property”.




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The regenerative effect of urban agriculture is especially visible when vacant lots are transformed fromeyesores-- weedy, trash-ridden, dangerous gathering places--into bountiful, beautiful and safe gardensthat feed peoples’ bodies and souls. With increasing “sprawl” into the suburbs, the last twenty years hasseen a common pattern of inner-city neglect in most cities across North America. For example, in theUnited States, “Chicago now has an estimated 70,000 vacant parcels of land. Philadelphia has 31,000,and in nearby Trenton, New Jersey, 900 acres--18 percent of it total land area--is currently vacant.Between 1950 and 1990 in the U.S., abandoned lots in inner-city areas remained vacant for between 20and 30 years in most cities. Failed businesses and homes were bulldozed, leaving relatively inexpensivelots without much economic potential, except, that is, for those lots that have become fruitful examples of urban agriculture. Even some of the 130,000 to 425,000 contaminated vacant industrial sites, or brownfields, that the General Accounting Office has identified, may be safely converted to agricultural purposes when properly redeveloped.

Brownfield redevelopment is a critical for environmental justice – it spills over to empower

communities and raise standards for environmental equality

EPA 8 (Environmental Protection Agency, “Brownfields and Environmental Justice,” February 5, 2008,online: http://www.epa.gov/region8/land_waste/bfhome/bfej.html, accessed July 9, 2008)

Environmental justice, by definition, means no community should be subject to a disproportionate

amount of environmental hazards such as toxic emissions or excessive noise from factories, airports,highways, and other facilities. In other words, being poor or a minority shouldn't justify one having to

live in a dangerous environment. The environmental justice movement's goal is to promote

awareness and public dialogue so communities can be players in the cleanup and development

process. If communities know what is going on, then they can make informed decisions about whether they want a facility in their neighborhood. For more information on environmental justice and numerousrelated links, visit the Region 8 Environmental Justice Web site. Environmental Justice and BrownfieldsRedevelopment

Environmental justice is also becoming an increasingly important component of brownfields

redevelopment.Since Brownfields are generally concentrated in communities of color and other

low-income areas, stakeholder involvement in such projects is inherently an environmental justice

issue. As cities become aware of the effect that abandoned industrial sites have had on the residentialcommunities in which they are located, brownfields redevelopment offers the city and the community


http://www.epa.gov/region8/land_waste/bfhome/bfej.html







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Tournament 2009


a chance to reverse patterns of neglect in inner city neighborhoods. It is important to remember thatredevelopment does not happen in a vacuum. Site plans should reflect the community's opinion of the

impact of development on the community. The bottom line is to give the people who will be most

impacted by future land uses the chance to reach a majority consensus on how those land uses will

affect the community.


Brownfield redevelopment empowers communities to take back their localities and remedy

environmental injustice

EPA 8 (Environmental Protection Agency, “Brownfields and Environmental Justice,” February 5, 2008,online: http://www.epa.gov/region8/land_waste/bfhome/bfej.html, accessed July 9, 2008)

Former EPA Administrator Carol Browner characterizes the initiative as one that . . . "bring[s] all the

people to the table and give[s] them an opportunity to shape the decisions that will affect the

community they live in." In order for the Brownfields projects to be responsive to communities, it isimportant that the affected community be informed and consulted throughout the process. It is alsoimportant to look for creative uses for existing resources in order to maximize the effect achieved. These

resources provide a vehicle to provide information and education to the pertinent stakeholders

resulting in more effective community input into the process, and tools which may allow the lead

agency to address community concerns. EPA is not only interested in bringing in the environmentalactivists to the table -- everyone should be involved. Enhanced stakeholder involvement, in the oversightof both cleanup and development, is imperative, both to ensure that Brownfields revitalization servesaffected neighborhoods and to reduce the likelihood that projects will face serious health, economic,

legal, and political obstacles after significant decisions and investments have been made. Thesecommunities see brownfields as providing an opportunity to get involved early in the process and address problems in the city, an opportunity for jobs and a chance to reverse the fiscal deterioration that hasdrained resources from their neighborhoods. Furthering environmental justice goes hand in hand with

brownfield redevelopment. By ensuring that environmental justice has to be considered in the

permitting process and bringing affected communities to the table, residents are learning that they

can take over their own communities and bring in clean industries.







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Tournament 2009


Solvency General

Urban Farming has been tested and is proven to work to clean up urban environments and produce

currency and fresh produce

Urban Agriculture Committee of the Community Food Security Coalition ’02http://www.foodsecurity.org/urbanagpaper.pdf

In Santa Cruz, CA the Homeless Garden Project raises vegetables, herbs and flowers on 3.5 acres. Daily,25 garden workers eat lunch freshly made from the garden’s produce. The remaining vegetables are soldwholesale, distributed to their community supported agriculture (CSA) subscribers, and donated to a soupkitchen and an AIDS project. Their estimated annual income from all sales, including dried flower

wreaths and other crafts as well as fresh produce, is $26,000. In Holyoke, MA, Freshmarket Aquafarmraises tilapia fish in tanks. The company projects a market goal of 100,000 pounds of live fish per year sold regionally through ethnic markets, fish markets, and groceries. In Buffalo, NY Village Farms, ownedand operated by a New Jersey-based for-profit corporation, sold 7-8 million pounds of tomatoes grownoff-soil on 35 acres of “brownfields”, contaminated industrial land, using hydroponic techniques andgreenhouses. In Chicago, IL youth with the Ivy Crest Garden Project cleared away 3000 tires on ninecontiguous vacant lots to build an organic flower and vegetable market garden where 30 ducks provide pest control and fertilizer.

http://www.foodsecurity.org/urbanagpaper.pdf





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Tournament 2009


Solvency General

Low-income communities with lack of access to fresh food build social connections and address the

issue of privilege


Moreover, organic food is still largely inaccessible to low-income communities and communities of color.And the costs associated with being certified organic have led many urban agriculture programs to shyaway from being certified. “We are what most folks would consider organic, but we’re not certified,” theFood Project’s Burns says. “That’s not as important to us. We’re in the community; folks can just come

by and see our practices. It’s about transparency.”Accessibility is at the heart of what these groups callfood security. “It’s about everyone having access to culturally appropriate and nutritional food at alltimes,” says Danielle Andrews, who heads up farming for Food Project’s Dorchester plots. “We’re usingfood to make social connections,” says Growing Power’s Allen. “It’s not just about growing food—it’sabout practices and how people form relationships, get comfortable with each other and learn tocommunicate through really owning the food system.”

Forming such sustainable relationships inherently requires addressing issues of privilege. Growing Power manages a farm on the edge of Cabrini Green, Chicago’s most notorious housing project. The site isowned by Fourth Presbyterian Church, the wealthiest congregations in the city. “The work that we’redoing is social justice work,” says Allen, who is bi-racial. “For white folks to support and ally with peopleof color and communities that are struggling, they have to understand that it’s not just about knowing how

to grow lettuce. It’s important that people doing these projects are very transparent about why they’rethere.”






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Tournament 2009


Solvency General

The growing urban population and its youth can be aided by the use of urban gardens that give

access to jobs and fresh food


“The biggest crisis in our food system is the lack of access to good, healthy, fresh food, for people livingin cities, particularly in low-income communities,” says Anna Lappé, co-founder with her mother FrancesMoore Lappé of the Small Planet Institute. “Urban agriculture work is one of the most powerful solutions,

because it brings food directly into the communities.” In her book, City Bountiful: A Century of Community Gardening In America, Laura Lawson charts a movement that stretches back to the 1880s.Lawson, a professor of landscape architecture at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, says thaturban gardening programs have had three missions: bringing nature to the city, offering educationalopportunities to low-income and immigrant children, and cultivating a self-help ethos in a democraticspace. “The garden itself,” she writes, “is rarely the end goal but rather facilitates agendas that reach beyond the scope of gardening.” The Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC), a food policyorganization with more than 200 member groups, defines urban agriculture as “the growing, processing,and distribution of food and other products through intensive plant cultivation and animal husbandry inand around cities.” It divides urban agriculture into commercial farms, community gardens and backyardgardens. But programs like Boston’s Food Project have begun to collapse such distinctions. They runcommercial farms, but they also invest in their communities and create local supply networks. According

to the 2000 Census, 80 percent of the U.S. population lives in cities or suburbs. Food travels 25 percentfarther that it did in 1980, and fruits and vegetables spend up to 14 days in transit. The CFSC notes,“Most fruit and vegetable varieties sold in supermarkets are chosen for their ability to withstand industrialharvesting equipment and extended travel, not for their taste or nutritional quality.” The Food Project began on Ward Cheney’s farm in Lincoln, Mass., about 24 miles west of Boston, with the goal of strengthening young people’s connection to the land. They started by busing city kids out to the country, but the group now farms five urban plots—a total of 2.5 acres. Each summer the Food Project employs 60kids to work on both the urban and rural farms. After the summer, the youth can return as interns to learnhow to run the project’s farmers’ markets and commercial kitchen






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Tournament 2009


Solvency General

Food projects around the nation are having successful results to fight obesity, economic hardship

and health concerns

Mark 07 ( Jason E., “Street Beets: Urban Farmers Get Hip to Growing ” The Environmental Magazine,Mar/Apr2007, Vol. 18, Issue 2)

It's a chilly December day in Oakland, California — overcast and gray — and most folks are stayingindoors. But outside a modest bungalow on the city's impoverished West Side, three young womenvolunteers are busy building a backyard garden for a local resident. They dump loads of dark, rich soil

into a three-foot by eight-foot planter bed. Fruit and vegetable shoots sitting on the ground offer a glimpseof harvests to come — strawberries and chard, lettuce, herbs and shelling peas.The backyard gardenconstruction is a project of City Slicker Farms, a local nonprofit that provides fresh food to aneighborhood better known for its railyards and warehouses than for its green spaces. In just seven years,City Slicker has become a vital part of the West Oakland landscape. Its six market gardens grow a rangeof organic fruit and vegetables, eggs and honey for sale at a neighborhood produce stand. Judging by thereception from neighborhood residents, the program is a success. "I buy all my vegetables here, and sodoes my wife," says Tony Lejones, a local truck driver, as he perused the offerings at the City Slicker stand. "The whole neighborhood comes here — black, white and brown," he says. "They do a fine job."City Slicker Farms is not alone. Across the U.S., an urban agriculture movement is flowering. InBirmingham, Alabama, Jones Valley Urban Farm is reclaiming abandoned lots and using them to groworganic produce and flowers. Chicago's Ken Dunn takes over unused parking lots and uses the sites to

grow heirloom tomatoes. In St. Louis, a housing developer, Whittaker Homes, is setting up an organicfarm within a new subdivision.Veteran environmental activists and community organizers say the recentincrease in urban food production marks a real change. "Whether it's the Food Project or Redhook Farmor countless other projects, urban agriculture is definitely increasing," says Betsy Johnson, executivedirector of the American Community Gardeners Assocation (ACGA). "I think the trend is very positive."There are several concerns propelling the renaissance in city agriculture: the country's obesityepidemic, the drive for more sustainable economies and the fact that horticulture — with its regular,seasonal rewards — is an ideal vehicle for community organizing, especially when it comes to youth."Thedrivers come from the public health community and the urban planning community that wants to greencities," says Tom Forster, policy director of the Community Food Security Coalition. "And I think theother big driver is homeland security, which now embraces food production at the local level."Suchworries are motivating more urban food production in Houston, according to Bob Randall, who directs an

organization there called Urban Harvest. The group sponsors a series of vegetable growing classes, aswell as a permaculture design course. Urban Harvest also launched Houston's first farmers' market, andorganizes a yearly fruit tree sale that brings in nearly $50,000 in revenue over a weekend. Randall saysincreased interest in their programs is in part due to the promise of fossil-free local food production.




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Tournament 2009


Solvency General

Urban food production keys the New Green Deal. It reduces pollution, lessens global warming and creats jobs for the economy

Kimbrell in 08 {Andrew-attorney, author, activist, and executive director of the Center for Food Safety

http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/10/101340/28/ 10 Nov 2008 Going up? Part 4 MichaelPollan and other food authors and activists offer their elevator pitches for Obama }

Food production can play a major role in the new Green Deal. It has been shown that organic agriculturenot only reduces pollution and lessens global warming but also creates many new jobs. We need to protect the organic standards and evolve the ethic by supporting local, appropriate-scale, humane, socially just, and biodiverse food production that can revitalize local communities and protect our food security.Let's get federal support for community-supported agriculture (CSAs) and urban and suburban agriculturethat, like the Victory Gardens of WWII, can make communities food sufficient and significantly lower food prices. Let's support farmers markets in economically disenfranchised urban areas that often have noaccess to supermarkets or healthy and safe food. On the governmental end, it's time to have a federalagency completely devoted to food safety and security.

We cannot effectively explore the issue of food and agricultural policy without first attaining a

baseline of cultural competency. The plan is a precursor to manifest the historic opportunity for

fair and equitable food systems to be developed in the nation

Allen in 08, {Erika-Chicago Projects Manager, Growing Power:http://gristmill.grist.org/story/2008/11/10/101340/28/ 10 Nov 2008 Going up? Part 4 Michael Pollan

and other food authors and activists offer their elevator pitches for Obama}

With this hope, let's get moving! As an African-American woman of mixed heritage, born out of the civilrights movement, I would like to see our true diversity represented in our nation's capital to providemuch-needed perspective to our leadership. We also must take a more active role in forming andinfluencing the new policies and programs that impact our environment and food system with arealization that our actions impact our brothers and sisters globally. This takes on more relevance when itis claimed and worked on by members of the communities most affected. For it is clear that the re-education of our communities, in terms of food and taste literacy, should coincide with our efforts torebuild our family farms and food systems, and to do so, we must attain a baseline of cultural competencyand reckoning of the baggage many of our constituents face on a daily basis. This is an opportunity for

communities of color and the impoverished to grow fair and equitable local food and community foodsystems for the first time in our nation's history.




http://www.growingpower.org/





http://www.growingpower.org/






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Tournament 2009


Solvency General

The federal government must shift to the mindset of liability to make urban agriculture esstential to

the growth and redevelopment of urban centers for low-income people


Other obstacles arise from the dense concentration of humans, plants and animals sharing air, water andsoil resources. Misuse of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, as well as untreated waste, can contaminate

food and water with severe environmental and public health consequences. Although problems relatingto a lack of information could be easily solved with information and extension assistance, local cityauthorities have often responded instead by destroying food crops and evicting food producers from public lands. These policies that neglect and discourage, or even repress, informal urban agriculture harmthe city’s poor. A lack of access to credit or land titles means that low-income urban producers can’t getloans and aren’t guaranteed to receive the benefits of their work. Threats from authorities may driveurban producers to use unsafe production methods. Without government support, producers are unlikelyto invest in the long-term fertility of the soil or consider the benefits of organic methods.

To legitimize urban agriculture, government opinion must shift from the mindset that it is a liability andinstead learn to understand the environmental, social and economic benefits. Legitimacy will allow producers to have access to land, credit, agricultural inputs, and needed services. Urban planning has so

far addressed access to affordable housing, ease of public transportation, employment, and health;however, few urban planners adequately consider food security or acknowledge the importance of havinga percentage of the city’s population capable of growing food, in the case that imports are unexpectedlycut off. Policies that educate and empower urban producers rather than ignore or impede them will allowfor progress in public health, environmental sustainability, economic independence and food security.According to Mougeot, “Urban agriculture is most viable where it is mainstreamed into robust strategiesfor land use, poverty alleviation, economic development, and sound environmental management.”Governments should apply lessons from local experiences to determine policies that have multiple-stakeholder governance for sustainable urban agriculture.




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Tournament 2009


Solvency General

Urban farming is necessary to extract the multiplicity of solvency mechanisms for the environment,

food insecurity, and urban low-income plight


Across North America, city dwellers have increasing access to a variety of foods raised in all manner of urban sites. Urban agriculture includes greenbelts around cities, farming at the city’s edge, vegetable plotsin community gardens, and food production in thousands of vacant inner-city lots. Further, urbanagriculture comprises fish farms, farm animals at public housing sites, municipal compost facilities,schoolyard greenhouses, restaurant-supported salad gardens, backyard orchards, rooftop gardens and beehives, window box gardens, and much more. Urban farming includes horticulture, aquaculture,arboriculture, and poultry and animal husbandry. The potential for food production in cities is great, anddozens of model projects are demonstrating successfully that urban agriculture is both necessary andviable.2 New citywide coalitions are emerging on behalf of urban food security. Health and nutritionadvocates are joining with community gardeners, university extension services, emergency fooddistributors and faith communities. Community economic development organizers, as well asenvironmentalists concerned with urban waste reduction and recycling, see the potential in urban farming.

A growing consumer demand for fresh, local and organic food in its turn creates new markets for urbanfood production. With growing momentum in the last decade, individuals, organizations, communities,and governments have participated in a variety of creative efforts to develop the capacity to raise food inand around cities. Many of these efforts specifically address the needs of urban residents who are living in poverty, and consequently at grave risk for “food insecurity” – that is, threatened with hunger, poor nutrition, and frequent anxiety about not having enough to eat.






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Tournament 2009


Solvency General

City dwellers gain advantages to their health, environment, raise revenue for local economies, and

help people increase safe farming practices with urban farming

McLaughlin 08 ( Lisa, Time Editor, Time Magazine: “Inner-City Farms” Vol. 172, Issue 5

These days, urban gardeners are waging lots of different wars--against global warming, foreign-oildependence, processed food, obesity and neighborhood blight. Turning an old parking lot into a workingfarm not only helps reduce a city's carbon footprint but can also generate revenue for a down-and-out part

of town. To demonstrate how much food can be grown in a small space, a 2006 pilot project on a sub-acrelot on the outskirts of Philadelphia hauled in $67,000 from crops like salad greens and baby vegetables. InMilwaukee, a 1-acre (0.4 hectare) farm filled with greenhouses, tilapia tanks and poultry pens grossedmore than $220,000."It's a way to address a lot of pressing urban issues," says John Bela, a landscapearchitect who is designing the garden at San Francisco's city hall. He's also working with a group calledSF Victory Gardens 2008+ to coordinate a backyard-garden program aimed at increasing access tohealthier food among lower-income families.There was a time when city dwellers could more or less provide for their own food needs, but since the Industrial Revolution, the distance from field to fork hasgreatly increased--the average meal now travels 1,500 miles (2,400km) to reach your plate. And, notesBela, "the hidden cost of the food chain is the transport." Thus urban agriculture aims to help people savemoney as well as the environment. The trend toward city farming is already big in Canada and Europeand is gaining ground in the U.S. amid escalating concerns about the environment, pesticides and food

safety in general. "Knowing exactly where your food comes from is a concern for a lot of people in theface of salmonella and E. coli scares," says Johanna Rosen of West Philadelphia's Mill Creek Farm. AsRosen and other activists can attest, horticulture (urban agriculture)--with its regular, seasonal rewards--isalso an ideal vehicle for community-organizing. For instance, in Portland, Ore., where vacant lots arescarce, an ad on Craigslist asking for unused land gave rise to City Garden Farms, a quarter acre (0.1hectare) spread out over 12 backyards. Not much arm-twisting was involved. "This adds to the value of our community," says co-founder Martin Barrett. Indeed, edible gardens have become so trendy that in St.Louis, Mo., a housing developer is including an organic farm as a subdivision amenity, and in Queens, N.Y., the current exhibition at P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center is a stylish farm.




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Tournament 2009


Solvency General

Growing Power engages in sustainable farming practices that are passed on to other to maximize

their social, political, and economic benefits of urban agriculture

Bonfiglio 09 ( Olga, Professor and acting Chairperson of the Education Department at KalamazooCollege “Milwaukee's urban farmer” in The Christian Science Monitor Jan 29, 2009. pg. 25.

Whenever Will Allen arrives in a neighborhood, scores of curious children seem to come out of nowhereto see what he's about. His pickup truck carries spades, hoes, earthworms, seeds, and a truckload of compost - all the components needed to make a garden. Mr. Allen knows a garden not only gives inner-city kids something to do, but it can also feed them good, nutritious food and invigorate the community atthe same time. This vision of symbiosis between an urban setting and locally grown food is what prompted Allen, a 6 ft., 7 in. former professional basketball player, to purchase the last three farm acres inMilwaukee 16 years ago and invite inner-city youth to help him grow vegetables."Food is at the veryfoundation of community development," Allen says. His efforts have paid off in significant ways. Todayhis nonprofit, Growing Power, operates a handful of urban farms and community growing centers aroundMilwaukee and downtown Chicago. In addition, Growing Power is helping to develop urban gardeningsites and training centers in several other states and two international centers in Kenya and Ukraine. Its

website, www.growingpower.org, posts research on its farming techniques as well as various how-togardening videos. Allen's low-tech, low-cost farming approach has earned him a reputation as a leader inthe urban gardens and sustainability movement and a "genius grant" from the John D. and Catherine T.MacArthur Foundation.

Yet Allen doesn't want to just grow food, he wants to build healthy communities. The strength of Growing Power's success is centered on the philosophy that a community must literally be grown fromthe ground up."Every human being should have access to affordable food," he explains. Around thisconcept of good food for all, Allen has built a network of relationships among neighborhoods, schools,universities, government, and funding agencies. "Everyone has to be involved. Everyone!" he says.

To achieve an organic label for its produce, Growing Power makes 6 million tons of compost for its soil

each year from the collected food wastes of grocery stores, wholesale produce companies, and moldy hay.But the success of Growing Power relies on more than just rich soil. Its programs are a shining exampleof "sustainability," a key buzzword in the local-food movement. In addition to providing local alternativesto processed food found at corner stores, its viable urban farms create jobs, develop small businesses, andkeep precious dollars in the community, says Jerry Kaufman, a professor emeritus of urban planning atthe University of Wisconsin-Madison.

http://www.kzoo.edu/educ/

http://www.kzoo.edu/













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Tournament 2009


Food Security SolvencyTo solve the food deserts urban agriculture provides better food for healthy diets and gardening

programs


In West Oakland, home to City Slickers and People’s Grocery, liquor stores outnumber grocery stores 40to one. The most readily available food is fried. On the other side of the country, in Added Value’sBrooklyn neighborhood, the last grocery store shut its doors in 2001. Federal studies classify suchcommunities as “food insecure,” but they are popularly known as “food deserts.” A study in the June

2001 Journal of Nutrition found that women living in “food insecure” areas were more likely to beoverweight and thus at risk for obesity-related illnesses like diabetes and heart disease.

To counter the harm caused by food deserts, urban agriculture focuses on high-density food production— optimizing the amount of food grown on the least amount of land. City Slicker grew 6,500 pounds of produce last year on less than one acre of land. “If the average person eats three to four hundred poundsof produce per year, that doesn’t feed that many people,” says City Slicker’s Rosenthal. “But I’m notsaying it’s insignificant, because those couple dozen people improved their diet.”

These projects also help people sustain themselves. Both City Slicker and Food Project run backyardgardening programs that provide lead testing to determine the safety of soil, wooden planters, seeds,seedlings and ongoing assistance for the life of the garden.

Urban agriculture reduces travel distances for food and provides essential produce for a healthy

diet


What does small-scale farming contribute to food security in the United States? It provides a more

adequate income to the farmers themselves, thereby diminishing their food insecurity. Local fresh

vegetables and fruit can have twice the vitamins and essential micro-nutrients available from stalesupermarket produce at the same price. Local and regional food is safer and more secure than the

products of industrial agriculture that typically travel long distances. Urban agriculture produces

a range of products well matched to the food needs and demands of diverse urban populations, thus

assuring them of a more balanced diet. In addition, farming in the city conserves natural resources

and contributes to a healthy environment for living.








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Tournament 2009


Food Security Solvency

Organic food grown from urban farms helps create better health for children and adults in urban

settings

Furhman 05 (Joel , Nutritionist 2005; Urban Farming (Facts on Hunger,http://www.urbanfarming.org/hunger.htm)

The office of Children's Health Protection at the Environmental Protection Agency declares that:

"Children are at greater risk of pesticide exposure than most adults" and goes on to warn that AND

"pesticides may cause a range of harmful health effects" including cancer, and injury to thenervous system, lungs and immune system. Eating organic decreases pesticide levels in kids; a

recent study by Environmental Health Perspectives (March, 2003) found that children who ate

primarily organic fruits, vegetables and juice had one-sixth the level of pesticide byproducts in their urine compared with children who ate non-organic food.THE Levels of antioxidants including vitamin

C are about 30% higher in organic vegetables and fruit than vegetables and fruit sprayed with

pesticides. Average levels of essential minerals were much higher in organically grown fruits andvegetables than conventionally grown produce. Organically grown food averages over 60% higher

levels of calcium, over 70% higher in iron, over 115% higher in magnesium, over 90% higher in

phosphorus, over 123% higher in potassium and 60% higher in zinc. The organically raised food alsoaveraged 29% lower in mercury than conventionally grown food.

Urban farming has an array of mechanisms to solve for the food gap crisis in the U.S.


Across North America, city dwellers have increasing access to a variety of foods raised in all manner

of urban sites. Urban agriculture includes greenbelts around cities, farming at the city’s edge,

vegetable plots in community gardens, and food production in thousands of vacant inner-city lots.Further, urban agriculture comprises fish farms, farm animals at public housing sites, municipal compostfacilities, schoolyard greenhouses, restaurant-supported salad gardens, backyard orchards, rooftopgardens and beehives, window box gardens, and much more. Urban farming includes horticulture,

aquaculture, arboriculture, and poultry and animal husbandry. The potential for food production

in cities is great, and dozens of model projects are demonstrating successfully that urban

agriculture is both necessary and viable.

http://www.urbanfarming.org/hunger.htm


http://www.urbanfarming.org/hunger.htm





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Tournament 2009


Training Solvency

Technical training and resources to potential urban farmers proves to be successful, Harford

proves

Winne, 08 (Mark, Former Executive Director of the Harford Food System, 2008 “Closing the Food

Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of the Plenty”

Starting in the 1970s, community gardening in Hartford was sup ported by the Knox Parks Foundation,

which secured sites, made minimal physical improvements (such as bringing in an initial load of topsoil

and compost), and organized the allocation of plots. Including Knox in the Hartford Food System was an

attempt to give all its members access to Knox's technical expertise, while also putting more resources

and effort into expanding gardens into underserved low-income communities. Lerza projected thatgardens would save their participants money on food, while also providing seasonal jobs for youths,

whose wages would be paid by city and nonprofit agencies (which usually received funding for summer

youth employment programs from the federal government). The hope was that community gardening in

Hartford would join the expanding national gardening movement and begin to close the food gap,

improve residents' quality of life, and create educational and employment opportu nities for unemployed

or underemployed people, primarily youths.

The hope exemplified by Hartford was not unlike the quasi-utopian vision that often propelled

community gardening enthusiasts and their more ambitious cousins, urban farmers. Their language and

dreams often suggested that rubble-strewn lots could be turned into oases where the urban desert could

bloom. Although something approximate to this has happened on occasion over the years, the reality has

generally been less paradisiacal. Granted, a little patch of green sprouting in an otherwise un forgiving

urban landscape is desirable for many reasons, not the least of which is the relief it gives the eye. But asJack Hale of the Knox Parks Foundation readily admits, Hartford's community gardens have made only a

marginal contribution to the city's food security, with the exception of a relatively small number of ardent

gardeners who have significantly augmented their food supplies. That being said, it has proven

worthwhile for communities to make a public commitment to providing land, horticultural training, soil

and compost, and other means of support to enable people who want to garden to do so. Whether people

are motivated by the myth of self-reliance, the fear of a cataclysmic event, or simply the wish to make

something ugly into something beautiful, society should permit them to stand in humble repose on their

own tiny plots of land and to make what magic they can of it. Doing so affords them the opportunity to

come together in community to grow plants and to experience for themselves the pulse of the seasons

marked by the productions of the earth.




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Training Solvency

Urban farming helps to gear youth toward gaining social and other beneficial skills for life

Bonfiglio 09 ( Olga, Professor and acting Chairperson of the Education Department at KalamazooCollege “Milwaukee's urban farmer” in The Christian Science Monitor Jan 29, 2009. pg. 25.

Children are the immediate beneficiaries of urban gardens. By involving scores of youngsters in his projects, Allen hopes to give them a sense of purpose and belonging as an alternative to joining gangs.Through Growing Power programs young people gain practical skills such as operating power tools andteamwork. They learn marketing by selling their produce at farmers markets. And they absorb gardening

know-how such as building "hoop houses" (greenhouses with arched roofs) and raised beds, vermiculture(worm farming), and composting. Applying their reading and math skills in the garden also helps toimprove their grades at school. As a result, an increasing number of schools are signing up for GrowingPower's six-week hands-on courses to learn about sustainable farming methods, entrepreneurial skills, andhealthy eating habits.The simplicity and practicality of Growing Power's mission has attracted attentionfrom the halls of higher education as well. College students from Grinnell in Iowa and Oberlin in Ohiohave worked in Growing Power's greenhouses, milked goats, fed animals, and made compost.TheUniversity of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Great Lakes WATER Institute consults with Allen's aquaculture(fish farming) operation, which raises 10,000 yellow perch and tilapia a year on its urban farms. Allen'ssystem costs $3,000 to build, as opposed to a $50,000 conventional system."You need an engineeringdegree to operate one of these [conventional] systems. I can teach you our system in a five-hour workshop," says Allen, who also consults Madison's microbiology department. "Our object is to make itas simple as possible."Urban farming has its challenges, and the key to its success is the soil, especiallywhen the land may be contaminated from past uses, he says. "Without good soil, crops don't get enoughof the nutrients they need to survive. When plants are stressed, they are more prone to disease and pest problems."














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Climate and Sprawl SolvencyThe benefits of urban agriculture are numerous, spanning the economic, social, and environmental

sectors to create sustainable urban communities for the poor that need access to better food


According to estimates by the United Nations Development Program, 800 million people partake in urbanagriculture worldwide, producing 15% of the world’s food. The motives are various, with formal andinformal agriculture for subsistence or supplemental food production, depending on the distance to ruralfarmlands and the ease of food transport to the city. The methods are also various , ranging fromcooperative community gardens, private backyard plots, or public institutional gardens managed byschools, hospitals, prisons or factories. Urban agriculture is necessarily opportunistic, making use of anyavailable plot of land on rooftops, in window boxes, in vacant lots, and beside railroads. A supply of homegrown food, and especially fresh nutritious vegetables, makes a difference in the lives of the urban poor, not only contributing to improved nutrition but allowing families to spend more of their incomes onother expenses, such as education.

The benefits of urban agriculture are numerous, spanning the economic, social, and environmentalsectors. Urban agriculture contributes to the greening of cities, curbs air pollution, increases humidity,lowers temperatures, and reduces the number of trucks entering the city to deliver food. Convertingorganic waste to manure helps improve the ecosystem’s health in an otherwise environmentally degradedurban area. Urban agriculture provides the urban poor with a fresh source of local food that costs less byeliminating transportation costs and price increases due to middlemen. It also closes the gap between theconsumer and producer of food, solving the consumer’s ignorance about the origin of their food andcreating personal interest and investment in food production. Furthermore, money spent on producegrown locally and sold in farmer’s markets stays in the community, raising incomes and creating jobs. Lastly, women, the predominant urban producers, gain access to income and control over householdresources and decisionmaking. These positive aspects of urban agriculture contribute directly to theUnited Nations’ Millennium Development Goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger andachieving environmental sustainability.




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Climate and Sprawl Solvency

Urban agriculture allows individuals to feed themselves, rather than solely depend on industrial

farms and transforms pockets of cities into productive green spaces.


As developed and developing countries alike face the consequences of climate change, their governmentsmust adapt policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The current system of industrial agriculture isunsustainable and needs significant reforms. Although there is clearly an enormous number of people tofeed worldwide, the high yields associated with monocropping are not worth the long-term environmentaland health costs of using fossil fuels and degrading the soil with chemical inputs. Society does not placea monetary value on preserving the environment, so there are still economic incentives to produce foodunsustainably. However, individuals and governments are now realizing the short-sightedness of spewing

greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and have therefore begun to change their habits, seeking another way to feed the growing population. Urban agriculture allows individuals to feed themselves, rather thandepend on industrial farms. It transforms the endless concrete of cities into productive green spaces. It provides a viable means for small-scale organic agriculture, producing vegetables using local resourcesfor a local market. It combats the urban heat island effect, lowering temperatures and purifying the air city-dwellers breathe. Although there are numerous benefits to urban agriculture, it will not be widelyimplemented in cities across the world without government support and individual dedication. Withgovernment policies that provide financial incentives for long-term environmental conservation, urbanagriculture will be one of many methods to make the lifestyle of the billions of people sharing one planetmore sustainable. Urban agriculture is not only advantageous but crucial in efforts to reduceenvironmental stress, combat hunger and poverty by providing food security for the urban poor, and makecities more livable for future generations.




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Urban agriculture complements rural food supplies to produce the maximum food production and

reduces the concrete jungle effect to ensure our survival


A report by the International Food Policy Research Institute found that "urban agriculture complements,rather than supplants, rural supplies and imports of food and will continue to do so. Cities will continue todepend largely on rural agriculture for bulkier, less perishable foodstuffs. But urban agriculture can provide significant amounts of food at small scales and for specific items. It can generate goods valued attens of millions of dollars in any given major city. By growing their own food, cities lower their fooddeficits and obtain an important source of fruits and vegetables and livestock products, including dairy.Urban agriculture provides an estimated 15 percent of all food consumed in urban areas and is likely todouble that share in the next couple of decades.”

Whether driven by the need to provide food for a city’s poor or by the desire to mitigate climate change,urban agriculture is logical and beneficial. It uses otherwise neglected spaces, such as vacant lots or roofs, which previously produced nothing for the city. The opportunistic ideology of capitalizing onevery available plot of land in a city is becoming increasingly necessary as urban populations surge andcities grow crowded. Planting vegetation in cities helps to cancel the concrete jungle effect, whereintemperatures rise, polluted air isn’t filtered, and rainwater isn’t absorbed into the ground. In the future,cities will house over half of the world’s population; urban agriculture is one way to maintain aconnection with the environment despite the dense living conditions humans are increasingly favoring. Bringing plants back into cities is important to remind people of the inherent value of preserving natureand of the invaluable services that the environment performs. Without a regard for that which sustains us, there is little hope for future generations’ survival.

Phytoremediation and bioremediation can be used as a mechanism to clean up brownfields

Zizel 08 ( Lovén, Changing Brown to Green, Time Magazine, Vol. 55, Issue 4, May2008)

Shuttered industrial operations often leave behind land poisoned with toxic substances, particularly leadand mercury. These "brownfields" are now being rehabilitated using nature's own cleaning crew: plantsand microbes. Phytoremediation and bioremediation, as these processes are called, not only make the sitessafer; they are reclaiming the land for ecologically vital open spaces and even urban farms.In the past,

most brownfield sites simply deteriorated into eyesores. A few were "capped and covered"; that is, turnedinto parking lots and the like. At best, the contaminated soil was excavated and replaced with cleanfill.Now, carefully selected plants and microbes are used to extract, filter, or bind up toxins in the soil. InHartford, Connecticut, for instance, at the site of a former paint store, students from Trinity College usedmustard plants to extract lead from the soil. A garden and a soup kitchen turned the space back into avaluable community asset, says Diane Kelley, the EPA's brownfields coordinator for NewEngland.Mustard is one of the most commonly used plants in brownfields, as are poplar and willow trees.The trees are effective because they "grow rapidly, have many and deep roots, and take up large quantitiesof water," report Lynne M. Westphal and J. G. Isebrands (now retired) of the USDA Forest Service.




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Urban biodiversity and cleaner air result from urban agriculture that are able to curb the impacts

of climate changeBellows, Brown, and Smit 2004 (Anne C., Kathrine,Jac, Representatives from the Community FoodSecurity Coalition's North American Initiative on Urban Agriculture “Health Benefits of Urban

Agriculture” A paper from members of the Community Food SecurityCoalition's North American Initiative on Urban Agriculture. 2004Gardeners and farmers “create nature” and enjoy being “in nature” within urban builtenvironments. They work hard to improve the physical environment of their neighborhoods andcommunities.86 The beauty gardeners develop enhances their physical environment that in turnadvances gardeners’ psychosocial87 as well as physical health. One study found that access togardens, along with improved housing fixtures and dwelling type, location and adequacy of housing space was positively associated with how respondents self-assessed their health.88Urban area gardens and farms improve air quality. On the local level, plant foliage reduces

carbon dioxide, ozone concentrations (heavy, low-lying gas), and lowers urban masstemperatures.89 On a more macro scale, locally grown food reduces the present average of 1300less polluting, and has a relevant and substantial impact on our health.90Urban gardens and farms increase urban bio-diversity. They attract beneficial soilmicroorganisms, insects, birds, reptiles, and animals. Gardens play a role in species preservationfor birds and butterflies by providing food, resting spaces, and protection along migratory flight paths.91Urban food production improves urban and urban fringe soils. Rooted plants stabilize theground and reduce soil erosion. Cared-for soils absorb rainfall that then does not run over exposed, compacted dirt and pavement absorbing toxic debris and dumping it into storm drains.Urban compost systems can transform significant amounts of a city’s waste (organic waste fromyards, parks, food establishments, etc.) for beneficial re-use.9

Urban agriculture allows for a decrease and travel costs and increases food security and access to

fresh produce for urban dwellers

Mazereeuw 05 (Bethany, Health Promotion Officer for Region of Waterloo November 10th 2005; UrbanAgriculture Report page 11,)Citizens in a community can benefit from increased space for urban agriculture. Initiatives such ascommunity or rooftop gardens contribute to urban food self-sufficiency and food security by

helping to provide all citizens with increased access to nutritious foods. Urban sprawl has

contributed to a loss of productive agricultural land. Compounding this loss, a growing urban

population contributes to increased food demand. Growing food in urban areas plays a role in local

food security by providing much needed space to grow produce. The food produced in community

gardens or rooftop gardens are local sources of food that require minimal travel distance to reach

consumers. This reduction of food-travel to reach the consumer results in improved food quality,fewer greenhouse gas emissions, and often reduced costs. In terms of volume of food, one studyestimated that if 6% of rooftops in Toronto were ‘greened’ and only 10% of these rooftops grew food, ayeild of 4.7 million kilograms of produce per year would be generated. It has also been documented

that community gardeners consume more fruits and vegetables than non gardeners. A diet high infruit and vegetables has been linked to numerous health benefits. Food produced in urban gardens can

also benefit citizens who cannot afford fresh produce. For instance, food produced can feed citizens

who live on low income bracket or could supply local soup kitchens. Rooftop gardens have also been

used for commercial food production. Such commercial food production has the associated benefit

of food cost savings that result in increased profit. For instance, the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel inToronto saves an estimated $30,000 annually in fresh vegetable and herb costs.




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Urban heat islands are an environmental threat to urban dwellers that can be solve with urban

agriculture

Mazereeuw 05 (Bethany, Health Promotion Officer for Region of Waterloo November 10th 2005; UrbanAgriculture Report PAGE 11)Another environmental benefit associated with green roofs is the reduction of the urban heat island effect.The urban heat island effect is when a metropolitan area is significantly warmer than its surroundings-nearby rural areas or countryside. On hot summer days and nights, temperatures in urban centers can beanywhere from 2 to 6°C warmer than the surrounding countryside. There are several causes of urban heatisland, one of which is directly surrounding countryside. There are several causes of urban heat island,one of which is directly attributed to vegetation being replaced by asphalt and concrete for roads, buildings, and other structures necessary to accommodate growing populations. The expanse of hard and

reflective surfaces, such as roofs, absorbs solar radiation and re-radiates it as heat. A consequence of thisurban heat island is increased energy requirements for cooling like air conditioning and refrigeration,especially in peak times. This, in turn, results in increased air pollution. Another consequence is increasesin heat-related illness and mortality. Heat islands are considered a growing concern for urbanized centers.Green roofs and rooftop gardens work to reduce the urban heat island effect by reducing the area of harddark surfaces that tend to attract heat. Instead of such concrete building surfaces absorbing the sun’s raysand converting it to thermal energy, green roofs or rooftop gardens allow for the majority of solar radiation to be absorbed by the vegetation and used for photosynthesis. Green roof or rooftop garden sunabsorption therefore limits solar radiation release into the surrounding environment that would havecontributed to temperature increases. It has been suggested that in Toronto, covering only 6% of rooftopswith vegetation would result in a 1 to 2°C (1.7 to 3.6°F) reduction of the heat island effect. Although itcan be very difficult to calculate the energy cost saving derived from reducing the urban heat island

effect, green roofs are considered to be a powerful way to counteract the urban heat island effect andachieve related environmental and energy-saving goals.




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Community Adv

A tighter knit community brought by the urban gardens has benefits for urban dwellers

Ellen Kirby and Elizabeth Peters, 2008; Editors and Analists (Community Gardening, Page 8)

Community gardening has been a lifesaver for many people. Over half of the world's people now live inlarge cities. Increasing density within these cities leads residents to seek space where they can enjoy thesatisfaction of gardening, grow food, and interact with others in a safe environment. Exercise, stressreduction, nutrition edu cation, and recreation all take place in community gardens. Community gardenscan be neighborhood crossroads. Gardens (They) foster bonds of friendship and support among diverse people, shape the life of a neighborhood, and provide needed community services. Residual benefitsinclude safer neighborhoods, leadership development, and economic revitalization. (Also) Studies haveshown that crime is lower in areas that have community gardens, largely due to the fact that more peopleare "out on the street" and aware of negative behavior. Good neighborhood communication systems grow

out of a garden; likewise gardens provide a chance for plain old friendship and the evolution of neighborhood support groups.

Urban agriculture causes the growth of social capital and low income people’s access to fresh and

local produce

Bellows, Brown, and Smit 2004 (Anne C., Kathrine,Jac, Representatives from the Community FoodSecurity Coalition's North American Initiative on Urban Agriculture “Health Benefits of Urban

Agriculture” A paper from members of the Community Food Security Coalition's North AmericanInitiative on Urban Agriculture. 2004Urban agriculture contributes to community food security.41 Times of war and conflict render tenuous

our dependence on distant food sources, especially in this post-9/11 world.42 A local agri-food system provides a relatively secure and more locally controlled source of food. Better interaction between localconsumers and farmers increases awareness of local food options. Enhanced communication alsoaugments knowledge and commitment to healthy, sustainable, and secure food products and practices.43Urban gardening contributes to local food security. Gardeners report that sharing food with friends,families, neighbors, and/or needy members of their community in need is one of the important reasonsthat they grow produce.44 This generosity has been organized into programs that maximize contributionsto soup kitchens and pantries, for example, through the “plant-arow” project that encourages gardeners toset aside a specific space for donations.Strategies to buy locally have surged.46 States and regions haveinstituted “buy local” policies.47 Community supported agriculture (CSA) has linked buyer collectiveswith local farmers; some CSAs strive to make opportunities available to low-income groups.48 Localfarmers are in such demand that many large and small towns now compete to have farmers participate in

their farmers markets.49 Low income group access to fresh and local produce is increasinglyaddressed.50 U.S. federal programs encourage direct marketing of fresh produce through farm stands andfarmers markets. Many of these programs also incorporate voucher and electronic benefits transfer (EBT)redemption programs51 at the markets to augment fruit and vegetable consumption in vulnerable population groups -- seniors, low-income, and single parent families. Through donations and gleaningopportunities, urban area farmers contribute to urban food banks and emergency food assistance programs.52




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Community Adv

Urban agriculture can transform communities into beds of social capital and safe havens for lowincome people that occupy urban centers

Bellows, Brown, and Smit 2004 (Anne C., Kathrine,Jac, Representatives from the Community FoodSecurity Coalition's North American Initiative on Urban Agriculture “Health Benefits of Urban

Agriculture” A paper from members of the Community Food SecurityCoalition's North AmericanInitiative on Urban Agriculture. 2004 Gardens and farms enhance the informal and the formal economies of social environment The effort todevelop and sustain urban food production inside cities builds social capital – trust, civic engagement, thedevelopment of community leaders, and the sharing of goods (“vegetable capital”), services, andinformation.73 Bringing people together, building community, andimproving neighborhoods are some of the reasons gardening empowers its participants.74 Socialengagement is positively correlated with personal attention to health care and wellness.75 Food production teaches job skills and offers

entrepreneurial opportunities.76 Reports find that lowincome communities particularly value thecommunity building benefits of urban agriculture.77 Innovative prison garden programs strive to improve personal health and mental outlook through pride in nurturing the life of a garden and understanding andconnecting nutrition and bodily self-respect.78 Urban community gardens and farms help overcomesocial, health, and environmental justice challenges.79 Safe and pleasant neighborhoods promote activelifestyles and outdoor exercise that counteract the physical passivity associated with the obesity epidemic.Participating in beautifying a neighborhood builds a constructive, collective consciousness. The presenceof vegetable gardens in inner-city neighborhoods is positively correlated with decreases in crime, trashdumping, juvenile delinquency, fires, violent deaths, and mental illness. Gardens link different sectors of a city—youth, elders, and diverse race, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups.81 Gardeners, especially older ones, feel safe and have a purpose for leaving their households and engaging in a wider landscape; theyliterally and figuratively broaden their horizons.82 Adults feel more secure allowing young persons to

move freely in safe, green, cared-for, and populatedenvironments.

Community Adv




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Urban agriculture would provide more recreational and leisure space for urban residents for

community building

Mazereeuw 05 (Bethany, Health Promotion Officer for Region of Waterloo November 10th 2005; UrbanAgriculture Report PAGE 9-10)Urban agriculture initiatives can improve aesthetic value of a community and provide more outdoor spacefor residents and visitors. Rooftop gardens provide a pleasing and convenient space for residents. Studies

show that leisure activities in natural settings such as gardens and parks are important for helping peoplecope with stress and in meeting other non-stress related needs. Widespread implementation of rooftopgardens and community gardens could potentially provide more recreational and leisure space for urbanresidents. Green space is also increasingly being recognized as a vital component to improved quality of life. In one study, low crime with safe streets and access to greenery and open space where he major elements cited as crucial for a satisfactory quality of life. In fact, the 1995 New York Governor’s Report on Open Space recommended a minimum of 2.5 acres for open space per 1000 people. Other organizations, including the Council on the Environment, the Neighborhood Open Space Coalition, andthe Trust for Public Land, have asserted that open space is crucial to quality of life of city residents. TheRegion of Waterloo has recognized the importance of green space and has responded by developing andimplementing a Green lands Strategy which seeks to balance anticipated growth with the environmental planning and stewardship. As demonstrated by using this healthy community’s framework, urban

agriculture has the potential to positively impact a community’s health environmentally, socially, andeconomically.

Community empowerment and self determinate can be created due to production of one’s own food

system


Urban farming is an essential tool that addresses a number of these problems in agricultural efforts togreen cities. Economic development and community innovative ways. Environmental stewardship isenhanced through urban revitalization are also achieved through urban farming when neighborhoods takenew pride in a community garden, when inner-city residents gain the ability to grow and market their own

food, when inner-city farmers’ markets provide new opportunities for entrepreneurs and commercialfarmers. Individual health and a sense of empowerment and well-being are created when urban dwellershave access to local food and greater control over their own food system. Urban farming takes account of the real cost of food, and the real benefits from local and regional food.

Community Adv

Organizing around urban issues is an effective way to commit to community






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Community development is deeply rooted in the civil rights and political empowerment movements,

and it has typically focused on deficiencies: what is wrong, missing, inequitable, or needed? Once the

field identified needs, such as poor housing or high crime, it employed programmatic approaches,

often based in organizing and advocacy, to develop targeted services. The strategies were primarily political and

social, commensurate with the original barriers they sought to address. Even when the strategies focused on economic needs, they

rarely sought to understand the local economic failure or to intervene to affect the market economy. During the last several

decades, the field has gradually added a different, asset-based approach. Addressing poverty requires

creating wealth, and wealth is created in poor communities just as it is anywhere else: by identifying

and investing in assets. Practitioners, therefore, shifted focus from deficiencies to assets. Strategies

now focused not only on establishing a formal right to a piece of the pie (civil rights), or on taking a piece

through the political process (empowerment), but also on how to make a “bigger pie” by creating new wealth in

poor communities. 7 Community development practitioners thus began focusing on economic assets, giving rise to the field of

community economic development, and particularly asset-based development. This asset-based approach offers several benefits. It

focuses on the positive features of lower-income communities rather than perpetuating negative stereotypes. It recognizes that

temporary services or even income, as important as they are, do not create the long-term wealth

necessary to climb out of poverty that asset accumulation does. It reconnects poorer communities to

the mainstream rather than creating alternative, programmatic “solutions” that further isolate and 4 stigmatize them. Finally, it

aligns the interests of economic development and business organizations because deploying previously

underused assets also provides new opportunities for market expansion and profitable investments,

increasing the overall efficiency of the economy. This alignment of business and community interests

creates opportunities for new partnerships and increases business engagement. 9 Although the focus shifted to assets,in its early stages the work often remained centered on organizing and advocacy. The field may have focused on economic assets, but it

barely applied economics. Advocates for affordable housing or for better job training programs often had only limited understanding

of how the economy might be tapped to achieve their objectives10 —with good excuse: the field of economics, by and

large, had little to offer, given its limited interest in inner-city development and its theoretical directions, which

did not lend themselves to the analysis of economic activity across small geographies. 11 Fortunately, a few decades of community

economic development work have brought the field a long way. 12 Focusing on strengths, rather than weaknesses, of

distressed neighborhoods, companies such as Shorebank and others have shown that disinvested communities do

indeed offer undervalued real estate, business and human assets, and opportunities for individual,

business, and community wealth creation. These companies have pioneered business and market-based approaches to

identifying and investing in those assets, demonstrating both the profit opportunity and the potential for these

businesses to bring jobs, business opportunity, and economic growth to inner-city neighborhoods . As

the field demonstrates the efficacy of an asset- and business-based approach to community development, its focus on economic assets (housing or employment, for example) and attracting investment in assets has increased interest in economics and, at the systemic level, in how wealth is created.Despite the anecdotal successes of varied businesses and the practices of innovative companies like Shorebank in inner-city markets, it is clear from the

extent of underinvested assets that conventional markets are still not functioning well in many urban neighborhoods. Remarkably little is known, either bycommunity development practitioners or by economists, about how neighborhood assets get connected, or not, to the broader economic systems that could

fully realize their value. To understand this, we must develop a more sophisticated understanding of markets,

and particularly of how they can be influenced to include nner-city assets. In other words, we need to

put more economics in the practice of community economic development.

Market solvency

Community development programs build up the assets that neighborhoods need to

empower themselves.

Rubin 95 (Herbert J., Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Northern Illinois University, “Renewing Hope in the Inner city: conversations with

community-based development practitioners,” Administration & Society 27:1, 127)

Business disinvestment from communities of the poor has deprived individuals of meaningful jobs, while the

callousness of slumlords and the virtual termination of federal housing efforts has reduced the stock of

affordable, decent housing. In response to these desperate circumstances, development activists have reenergized the




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community-based development movement. Community-based development organizations (CBDOs) and community development

corporations (CDCs) are nonprofit organizations whose missions are to build homes, offices, and commercial

centers, and to increase job opportunities within communities of the poor. Development organizations package business and

housing projects by combining their own equity, government and foundation subsidies, and private investments, often supplemented with the "sweat equity" or voluntary labor contributions from community members. In addition, CBDOs establish profit-making subsidiaries; own, manage, rehabilitate, and market housing; provide entrepreneurial training; teach people job skills; and broker economic development deals. In many neighborhoods, CBDOs assist small businesses, either through administering revolving loan funds or by providing technical assistance to would-be community entrepreneurs (Dreier, 1989; Kelly, Kelly, & Marciniak,1988; Peirce & Steinbach, 1987, 1990; Perry, 1987; Shavelson, 1990; Vidal 1989). The first CBDOs were formed in the early 1960s as part of the War on Poverty.

With a few notable exceptions, the movement had been stagnant until the last decade and a half (Peirce & Steinbach, 1987; Zdenek, 1990). Since then, CBDOs havedeveloped "320,000 units of affordable housing" while "creating and retaining almost 90,000 permanent jobs." In addition, community-based developmentorganizations have supported microenterprises and aided in "implementing comprehensive social and economic approaches to community renewal" (National

Congress for Community Economic Development [NCCED], 1991b, p. 1). Community-based development organizations are niche

organizations that link public and private funders and investors to projects within communities from which

resources have been withdrawn. As part of this bridging role, CBDO leaders try to reconcile the production orientation held by government,

foundations, and capitalistic investors with the nonprofit's ideological goals of bringing about community empowerment and local economic transformation. Researchon nonprofits based upon the new institutionalism paradigm suggests that under such circumstances, nonprofits will adopt the values of their funders, but do sothrough ongoing negotiations (Powell & DiMaggio, 1991). This article examines three ways in which funder pressures create value conflicts for directors of CBDOs.The article suggests how CBDOs attempt to accommodate to pressures from funders without surrendering their social transformation goals. The discussion is based onextensive ethnographic interviews with leaders of community-based organizations, supplemented by observations of conferences sponsored by their trade associations.(1) NICHE ORGANIZATIONS AND VALUE CONFLICTS CBDOs work in markets from which many for-profit firms and investors have withdrawn. They do sowith small staffs, with inadequate administrative budgets, and without extensive internal expertise. They are financially dependent on other organizations, surviving inlarge part through packaging resources from government and foundations with investment funds provided by the for-profit sector (Vidal, 1989). In many cities,CBDOs receive aid from developmental partnerships that act as conduits for funds and technical assistance from government, corporations, and foundations. Inaddition, national intermediaries such as the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) package funds from banks, corporations, and foundations for CBDOs(NCCED, 1991b; Peirce & Steinbach, 1990). The economic contribution of intermediaries is dramatic; for example, "during its first decade, LISC alone assembled$300 million, leveraging over $1.3 billion of direct investment for 760 CBDOs" (NCCED, 1991a, p. 4). Aid from partnerships and intermediaries is vital for the work

of CBDOs, yet there is a negative side, as these larger organizations attempt to set the developmental agendas for the CBDOs. THE IDEOLOGY OF SOCIAL

CHANGE Many CBDOs are descendants of neighborhood associations or protest groups of the 1960s that determined that empowerment is better

obtained through control of the economic resources within their communities rather than through advocacy

tactics. Whereas CBDOs concentrate on building homes or creating jobs, to activists, community-based

development is far more than bricks-and-mortar enterprises. It is a political and social movement that

reaffirms the possibility for renewed hope in poor communities. Community-based development enables the

deprived to control material assets and allows the poor to gain respect and dignity as players in the economic and housing field. Community-based development organizations focus on restoring places that the

conventional development industry has ignored. During a postconvention tour of a declining neighborhood, one community development

corporation (CDC) director was asked why he picked a particular derelict building to redevelop, rather than adjacent property in somewhat better condition. Heanswered, summarizing much of the philosophy of the movement: Because that is where the CDC should be, where the private sector, where the private market

doesn't operate, doesn't function. The buildings are abandoned and we are trying to acquire them. If the CDC can resurrect the worst

properties, others from the for-profit sector may try to improve the rest. Anyone can market decently

maintained properties or create commercial successes in vibrant communities. In contrast, Non-profit development

corporations . . . can do the deals that might be marginal. Can do the deals that can save the neighborhood. They can do the deals to lead the way and provide thewindow of opportunity for private development to take place. . . . Because we are not in it solely for the tangible numbers or money profit. Further, there is a moralobligation to take up the efforts where others have abandoned hope; where for-profits fear to go, not-for-profits have an obligation to try. It is a tough row to hoethese days, especially since financing has just dried up . . . that is why we are doing it. That is why not for profits do it, because it is tough, because the for-profits

won't do it. CBDOs do more than work in places that for-profits avoid. They work to balance the bricks-and-

mortar projects with activities that empower individuals. For example, one CDC orchestrated a development

program that taught community members how to repair homes, then repaired the homes to the standards

required for certification for home day care centers. Simultaneously, the CDC taught women who were on AFDC to become home day

care providers, helped them obtain ownership of the homes, started them in the day care business, and encouraged the newly employed women to form a workers'cooperative so they would learn how to manage their own business (Rubin, 1993). This is far more than simply physical development; it is working to achieve anempowerment- and capacity-building agenda.

Market solvency

Market based approaches to community development are critical in developing the assets these

communities need to empower themselves.

Helling et al 05 (Louis, Rodrigo Serrano, and David Warren, Staff Writers for the Social ProtectionDiscussion Papers for the Worldbank, “Linking Community Empowerment, DecentralizedGovernance, and Public Service Provision Through a Local Development Framework,”




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Despite progress in research, planning, and policy, low-income and people of color

neighborhoods and their residents suffer from greater environmental risks than the larger

society. For example, lead poisoning continues to be the number-one environmental health threat tochildren in the United States, especially poor children, children of color, and children living in

older housing in inner cities. n20 "Black children are five times more likely than white children to have lead poisoning"

n21 and "one in seven black children living in older housing has elevated blood lead levels." n22

About 22% of African American children and 13% of Mexican American children living in pre-1946 housing suffer from lead poisoning, compared with 6% of white children living in comparable types of housing. n23 Recent [*378] studies suggest that a young person's lead burden is linked to lower IQ, lower high school graduation rates, and increased delinquency. n24 Lead poisoning causesabout two to three points of IQ lost for each 10 ug/dl lead level. n25

The nation's environmental laws, regulations, and policies are not applied uniformly,

resulting in some individuals, neighborhoods, and communities being exposed to elevated

health risks. In 1992, staff writers from The National Law Journal uncovered glaring inequities in the way the federal EPA

enforces its laws. n26 The authors write:

There is a racial divide in the way the U.S. government cleans up toxic waste sites and

punishes polluters. White communities see faster action, better results and stiffer penalties

than communities where blacks, Hispanics and other minorities live. This unequal protectionoften occurs whether the community is wealthy or poor. n27

These findings suggest that unequal protection is placing communities of color at special risk.The National Law Journal study supplements the findings of earlier studies and reinforces what many grassroots leaders have been

saying all along: namely, people of color are differentially impacted by industrial pollution and theyalso can expect different treatment from the government. Environmental decision making

operates at the juncture of science, economics, politics, special interests, and ethics. The

question of environmental justice is not anchored in a debate about whether or not decision

makers should tinker with risk management. The framework seeks to prevent environmentalthreats before they occur. n28 The U.S. Government Accountability Office (formerly the U.S. General Accounting Office) estimatesthat there are up to 450,000 brownfields (abandoned waste sites) scattered throughout the

urban landscape from New York to California - most of which are located in or near low

income, working class, and people of color communities. n29 More than 870,000 of the 1.9

million housing units for the poor, who are mostly minorities, sit "within about a mile of

factories that reported toxic emissions to the Environmental Protection Agency." n30

More than 600,000 students in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Michigan, and California attend nearly 1200 public schools -with [*379] populations largely made up of African Americans and other children of color - that are located within a half mile of federal

Superfund or state-identified contaminated sites. n31 An astounding "68 percent of African Americans live within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant - the distance within which the maximum effects of the smokestack plume are expected to occur" - compared with56% of white Americans. In September 2005, the Associated Press (AP) released results from its analysis of an EPA research project

showing African Americans are "79 percent more likely than whites to live in neighborhoods

where industrial pollution is suspected of posing the greatest health danger." n33 Using EPA'sown data and government scientists, the AP study, More Blacks Live with Pollution, revealed that"in 19 states, blacks were more than twice as likely as whites to live in neighborhoods where

air pollution seems to pose the greatest health danger." n34 Hispanics and Asians also are

more likely to breathe dirty air in some regions of the United States.

Brownfields= Environmental Racism Adv

Brownfields cause a domino effect of urban decay throughout inner cities, causing crime,

pollution, and the destroying urban tax base. Incentives are critical to reversing this trend

Joel Wimbiscus –J.D. candidate at the University of Memphis school of law- 2008- Remediating the Brownfield Brownout: Why

Brownfield Legislation Falls Short and How a Clustered Approach Can Online-http://www.abanet.org/environ/committees/lawstudents/pdf/Wimbiscus.pdf

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines brownfields as “abandoned, idled, or under-used

industrial or commercial facilities where expansion or redevelopment is complicated by real or perceived environmental

contamination.”1 Brownfields may be abandoned factories, office buildings, gas stations, dry cleaners, parking lots or other facilities




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that potentially have contaminated the underlying soil. All abandoned properties are possible brownfields where

testing is needed to determine the level of contamination. Only a minority of properties qualify for the Superfund

National Priorities List, which contains properties with such severe contamination that immediate remediation is necessary.2

However, while the majority of brownfields do not qualify for this list, they still must undergo costly testing and remediation before

they can be reused.3 If contamination is present, it may seep into the ground water and present health risks to nearby residents. 4 If

the site is not cleaned up, contamination may spread to neighboring properties .5 In addition to the

environmental risks, brownfields worsen a city’s social and economic troubles. Contamination lowers the property values

of a brownfield because potential buyers are wary of purchasing a property that must undergo assessment

and remediation. Many brownfield owners simply abandon the property instead of paying for assessment and

cleanup costs.6 Abandoned properties are not maintained and bring down the value of the surrounding

properties because people do not want to live next to an eyesore.7 This devaluation is a double-edged sword as it

creates a decline in the income tax base due to the loss of jobs and a decline in the property tax

revenue due to the drop in property value. Social decline often comes hand in hand with the economic

decline. Vacant properties may draw arson, loitering, drug activity or prostitution. Vacant properties frequently

become a canvas for area graffiti artists. Such activity drives away present and prospective homeowners. The domino effect

created by brownfields produces a cycle that is difficult to stop. The loss of industry lowers the tax

base which lowers funding for the local schools, police force, and other city services. The abandoned

property has the effect of a black hole, sucking the vitality, safety and property value out of the

surrounding neighborhood. This process encourages those residents who are able to relocate to move to “greener” pastures.

New industry is discouraged from reusing the abandoned properties because of extensive assessment and cleanup costs.8 Brownfields,

while not the only cause of suburban sprawl, have greatly contributed to the settlement and asphalting of outlying rural areas.Federal tax money is diverted from the inner city to the new suburbs in order to build new roads,

sewers, and schools.9 This duplication of infrastructure not only leads to higher taxes, but also leaves the urban infrastructure to

rot. Furthermore, this sprawl extends cities, disperses the population and creates greater traffic congestion and longer commutes.

Additionally, sprawl’s effect is more damaging because it is becoming so exacerbated at a time when the

world’s ability to supply petroleum is declining. In order to stop this cycle, the government must

create an incentive to curtail contamination, redevelop and repopulate these areas.




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Environmental Racism marks inner city areas as human sacrifice zones- relegating

residents of the inner city to sub human status

Robert Doyle Bullard - Robert professor at Georgia's Clark Atlanta - -1993- Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from theGrassroots- p. 11- 12

The practice of targeting communities of color for the siting ofunpopular industrial facilities is a form

of environmental racism . Government has been slow to address environmental and other formsracism. Part of the problem lies in

the continued denial of the existenceof racism by government officials and policymakers. Who benefits from and who pays for our

modern industrial society? Environmental and health costs are localized: risks increase withproximity to the source and

are borne by those living nearby, while thebenefits are dispersed throughout the larger society. Communities thathost

hazardous waste disposal facilities (importers) receive fewer economic benefits (jobs) than do communities that

generate the waste(exporters). The people who benefit the most bear the least burden. Persons of color who live in

contaminated areas are often victims of a "double whammy" in that they are exposed to elevated risks,

while at the same time they often have problems getting access to health and medical facilities. East St Louis,

Illinois, typifies this (Kozol 1991). In general, inner-city hospitals are closing in record numbers, while environmental

and health problems in these areas are on the rise. Thefederal government has made only minimal attempts to level the

playingfield. Communities of color are still confronted with rules, regulations, andpolicies governing them that are not applied uniformly

across the board. A case in point is the conditions under which farmworkers mustlabor. Thousands of migrant farm workers (over 90 percent of whom areperson of color) and their children are poisoned by pesticides sprayed on crops. These individuals are 'second-class"workers and are considered expendable. Of course, there is no uniform set of standards sped-ered expendable. Of course, there is nouniform set of standards speci-fying "acceptable" levels of pesticide exposure for plant workers whomanufacture the pesticides, nearbycommunity residents who are ex-posed to plant emissions, farmworkers who apply the pesticides, andconsumers who eat the food onwhich pesticide residue may be found.Yet the health and safety of farmworkers and their families receive theleast amount of

consideration and protection (Moses 1989). Millions of inner-city children (many of whom are African-American

and Latino) are poisoned by lead-based paint from old houses, drinking water from lead-soldered pipes

and old water mains, soilcontaminated by industry, and air pollutants from smelters. Lead poisoning is considered the number one

environmental health problemfacing children in the United States (Agency for Toxic Substances andDisease Registry 1988). Yet,

little has been done over the past 20 yearsto rid the nation of this preventable childhood disease.The nation is also now

faced with a garbage and hazardous waste crisis. States are grappling with the question of what to do with their

mounting wastes and the federal government is confronted with mounting nuclear and toxic wastes from its weapons and militaryinstallations.Tougher environmental regulations and increased public oppositionhave made it difficult to site any new waste management

facilities,ranging from recycling centers and garbage incinerators to radioactivestorage dumps. Communities of color have

become prime targets as asolution to the facility siting gridlock (Angel 1992). Some communities have

been turned into "human sacrificezones? Places like Chicago's South Side. Louisiana's "Cancer

Alley,"and East LosAngeles share two common characteristics 1) they alreadyhave more than their share of

environmental problems and polluting industries, and 2) they are still attracting new polluters. Past

discriminatory facility-siting and land-use practices appear to guide future publicpolicy decisions. Site

selection is rationalized by arguing that an areaalready has multiple facilities. Of course, any saturation policy derivedfrom

past siting practices perpetuates and worsens environmental inequities (Bullard 1990).




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Urban minority communities are being left to die on the front lines of America’s war against the

planet

Wiley 06 (Maya, Director of the Center for Social Inclusion, Summer 2006, “Overcoming Structural Racism,” Race, Poverty, and the

Environment, Vol. 13, No. 1, online: http://www.urbanhabitat.org/node/504, accessed July 12, 2008

When entire communities of color are marginalized and excluded from a region’s civic and political life, they

become invisible to the white communities. Whites will fight tooth and nail against the location of a waste

treatment facility or an incinerator in their own neighborhoods, but accept their location in the “invisible”

poor neighborhoods. (One example of an environmental insult is the attempt to create a landfill in the East NewOrleans wetlands, strongly opposed by the Black and Vietnamese communities who wish to rebuild their homesthere.)9 These privileged communities are thus able to avoid the questions raised by their unbridled consumerismand its effect on the environment.

On the other hand, if the government works to reduce poverty in urban communities of color, it has the effect

of creating more jobs and reducing poverty in surrounding regions.10 When communities of color are able to participate in civic and political life, they are better able to attract investments to build and strengthen localeconomies and defend themselves against environmental insults.Racialized Poverty and Global Warming

At a recent conference on the racial and socio-economic implications of the rebuilding of the Gulf Coast, LaurieDavid, a Hollywood producer and tireless anti-global warming activist, spoke passionately about the climate

crisis we face and the importance of U.S. leadership on carbon emissions reduction. When asked about the roleof racialized poverty in New Orleans, David responded that the reality of global warming was such that a lot of

people will get hurt. David is certainly right, and we all have to care about climate change. But we also need to

have a better answer to the question of race and poverty in global warming.The floodwaters of Lake Ponchartrain washed away any illusions of a racially equitable society. Although about 28 percent of New Orleans’ population was poor, there were many more poor African Americans (35 percent) than poor Whites (11.5 percent).11 And of all city dwellers, nearly one-third of all Black households did not have accessto a car while only 10 percent of White households lacked auto access.13 While there were no evacuation plans for the poor, the elderly, and the disabled either, it was common knowledge that the lowest ground in New Orleans wasoccupied by communities of color, which made up nearly 80 percent of the population in these floodedneighborhoods.14 It is no wonder then that most of the faces in the Superdome were Black.

Racialized poverty puts the poor communities of color at the frontlines of our war with our planet. They are,as Professor Lani Guinier points out, our miner’s canaries. Their vulnerabilities shine a light on everyone’svulnerabilities and we should pay careful attention to them when dealing with our public resources.How do our Gardens Grow?The environmental justice community understands that racial inequity is one of the biggest barriers to

healthy communities and a healthy nation.15 Nature is not bound by governmental jurisdiction. It may, however, be influenced by race and political privilege. So it is up to the privileged, the resourced, and the included, to

work with communities of color, and not just for them. It requires funders to resource communities of color

for civic engagement. It also requires us to build a public will for a government that will strengthen the social

safety net for our most vulnerable communities and rein in corporate prerogative.




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Federal Government directly involved in racist expansion by subsidizing white flight. core

capitalist suburban hubs preserved at the expense of inner city populations - must accept

their status on periphery of "urban wastelands" not worthy of economic inclusion or

empowerment

Muhammed Asadi, 2000, "Constructing a global ghetto: racism, the west and the third

world, http://www.geocities.com/globalghetto/The US federal government was directly involved in the segregation process. To increase employment

in the construction industry and increase home ownership, the Home Owners Loan Corporation

(HOLC) was started. The HOLC initiated the process of redlining . Those who resided in the redlined

areas almost never got loans and could never move out. How the World Bank and the IMF divides up countries of the

world into zones and ratings is alarmingly similar to HOLC practices. By giving a twenty five to thirty five year loan with a 90%

guaranteed collateral payment, the FHA (Federal Housing Administration) and VA (Veteran's Administration),

during the 1950s and 1960s, encouraged selective out-migration of middle class whites to the suburbs, leading

to a decline in the economic base of the city and the expansion of the ghetto. In giving out loans, the FHA determined minimumeligibility requirements for lot size, which effectively eliminated inner city homes, thus forcing those who had got the loan to move out.

Black migration to U.S northern cities during the early 1900s related inversely with the ebb and flow

of European migration. When the economy in Europe was booming, European immigrants would

move back home creating a shortage of labor in the North. This would boost black migration to the

North. In bad times, the inverse would happen. Blacks were also not allowed membership in white unions and as such were used as

‘strike breakers’ by employers. As the numbers of black migrants increased in northern cities, institutionalized methods were adopted

to check the expansion of black settlements. These methods, like red lining, zoning, legalized violence, private

contracts etc, made sure that African American populations got concentrated in “ghettos” that were

homogeneous, and completely isolated from the main economy (Massey & Denton 1996:31-35).



The regenerative effect of urban agriculture is especially visible when vacant lots are transformed fromeyesores-- weedy, trash-ridden, dangerous gathering places--into bountiful, beautiful and safe gardensthat feed peoples’ bodies and souls. With increasing “sprawl” into the suburbs, the last twenty years hasseen a common pattern of inner-city neglect in most cities across North America. For example, in theUnited States, “Chicago now has an estimated 70,000 vacant parcels of land. Philadelphia has 31,000,and in nearby Trenton, New Jersey, 900 acres--18 percent of it total land area--is currently vacant.Between 1950 and 1990 in the U.S., abandoned lots in inner-city areas remained vacant for between 20and 30 years in most cities. Failed businesses and homes were bulldozed, leaving relatively inexpensivelots without much economic potential, except, that is, for those lots that have become fruitful examples of urban agriculture. Even some of the 130,000 to 425,000 contaminated vacant industrial sites, or brownfields, that the General Accounting Office has identified, may be safely converted to agricultural purposes when properly redevelop






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Environmental Racism is an extension of America’s historically racist treatment of

minorities

Bullard 93(Robert professor at Georgia's Clark Atlanta - -1993- Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots- p. 15-

18 The history of the United States has long been grounded in whiteracism. The nation was founded on the

principles of "free land" (stolenfrom Native Americans and Mexicans), "free labor" (cruelly

extractedfrom African slaves), and "free men" (white men with property). Fromthe outset, institutional

racism shaped the economic, political, andecological landscape. and buttressed the exploitation of both

land andpeople. Indeed, it has allowed communities of color to exist as internalcolonies characterized by dependent (and unequal)

relationships withthe dominant white society or "Mother Country." In their 1967 book.Black Power, Carmichael and Hamilton wereamong the first to explorethe "internal" colonial model as a way to explain the racial inequality,political exploitation, and social isolation

of African Americans. As Car-michael and Hamilton write: The economic relationship of America's black

communities [to white society] ... reflects their colonial status. The political power exercised over those

communities goes hand inglove with the economic deprivation experienced by theblack citizens. Historically, colonies have existed for the sole purposeof enriching, in one form or another, the "colonizer"; theconsequence is to maintain the economic dependency of the"colonized" (pp. 16-17). Generally, people of color in the United States-like their counter- parts in formerly colonized lands of Africa,Asia, and Latin America- have not had the same opportunities as whites. The social forces thathave organized oppressed coloniesinternationally still operate in the"heart of the colonizer's mother country" (Blauner 1972, p. 26). ForBlauner, people of color are

subjected to five principal colonizing pro-cesses: they enter the "host" society and economy involuntarily;theirnative culture is destroyed; white-dominated bureaucracies imposerestrictions from which whites

are exempt the dominant group usesinstitutionalized racism to justify its actions; and a dual or "split

labormarket" emerges based on ethnicity and race. Such domination is alsobuttressed by state

institutions. Social scientists Omi and Winant (1986,pp. 76-78) go so far as to insist that "every state institution is a

racialinstitution." Clearly, whites receive benefits from racism, while peopleof color bear most of the cost. Racism plays a key

factor in environmental planning and decisionmaking. Indeed, environmental racism is reinforced by govern- merit,

legal, economic, political, and military institutions. It is a fact oflife in the United States that the mainstream environmental movementisonly beginning to wake up to. Yet, without a doubt, racism influencesthe likelihood of exposure to environmental and health risks and

theaccessibility to health care. Racism provides whites of all class levelswith an "edge' in gaining access to a

healthy physical environment Thishas been documented again and again. Whether by conscious design or institutional neglect,

communities of color in urban ghettos, in rural "poverty pockets" or on economically impoverished

Native-American reservations face some of theworst environmental devastation in the nation. Clearly,

racial discrimi-nation was not legislated out of existence in the 1960s. While somesignificant progress was made during this decade,

people of colorcontinue to struggle for equal treatment in many areas, including envi-ronmental justice. Agencies at all levels of government, including thefederal EPA, have done a poor job protecting people of color from theravages of pollution and industrial

encroachment. It has thus been anup-hill battle convincing white judges, juries, government officials,

andpolicymakers that racism exists in environmental protection, enforce-ment, and policy formulation. The most

polluted urban communities are those with crumbling infrastructure, ongoing economic disinvestment, deteriorating housing, inadequateschools, chronic unemployment, a high poverty rate, and an overloaded health-care system. Riot-tom South Central Los Angeles typifiesthis urban neglect. It is not surprising that the "dirtiest" zip code in California belongs to the mostly African-American and Latino neigh-

borhood in that part of the city (Kay 1991a). In the Los Angeles basin, over 71 percent of the African Americans and

50 percent of the Latinos live in areas with the most polluted air, while only 34 percent of the white

population does (Ong and Blumenberg 1990; Mann 1991). This pattern exists nationally as well. As researchers Wernette

and Nieves note: In 1990, 437 of the 3,109 counties and independent cities failed to meet at least one of the EPA ambient air qualitystandards... 57 percent of whites, 65 percent of AfricanAmericans, and 80 percent of Hispanics live in 437 countieswith substandard air

quality. Thepercentage living in the 29 counties designated as nonattain-ment areas for three or more

pollutants are 12 percent ofwhites 20 percent of African Americans, and 31 percent ofHispanics (pp. 16-

17).

Brownfields Environmental Racism Adv




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Brownfields are located along class and racial lines – their continued neglect ratifies environmental

racism and inequality toward the poor

Lance Stokes, President and Project Director of ECI Environmental Consultants & Engineers, and

Kenneth Green, Project Manager for ECI, 2008, “Twenty-Five Years of ‘Change’ and Things RemainThe Same,” online: http://www.ejconference2008.org/images/Green_Stokes.pdf , accessed July 9, 2008

Disadvantaged communities and neighborhoods across America, have historically been plagued by

poverty, joblessness, injustice, and lack of investment. They suffer disproportionately from the

impacts of contaminated properties, known as brownfields. It is well documented1 that people who live

in lower income communities and areas with higher percentages of people of color tend to reside in

closer proximity to hazardous waste sites, industrial facilities releasing toxic pollutants, and

facilities using toxic chemicals in industrial production. These disadvantaged communities also tend tohave more blighted areas, more abandoned gas stations and buildings, and more abandoned warehousesand vacant industrial properties. These brownfields threaten public health and the environment,

exacerbate neighborhood blight, discourage new investment and revitalization, and accelerate

patterns of poverty and decline that continue to plague disadvantaged communities.


Environmental justice must become the overriding imperative– systematic environmental racism ensures

global environmental collapse and the total destruction of humanity






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Bunyan Bryant, Professor in the School of Natural Resources and Environment, and an adjunct professor in theCenter for Afro-American and African Studies at the University of Michigan, 1995, Environmental Justice: Issues,Policies, and Solutions, p. 209-212Although the post-World War II economy was designed when environmental consideration was not a problem,today this is no longer the case; we must be concerned enough about environmental protection to make it a part of our economic design. Today, temporal and spatial relations of pollution have drastically changed within the last 100

years or so. A hundred years ago we polluted a small spatial area and it took the earth a short time to heal itself.Today we pollute large areas of the earth – as evidenced by the international problems of acid rain, the depletion of the ozone layer, global warming, nuclear meltdowns, and the difficulties in the safe storage of spent fuels fromnuclear power plants. Perhaps we have embarked upon an era of pollution so toxic and persistent that it will

take the earth in some areas thousands of years to heal itself .To curtail environmental pollutants, we must build new institutions to prevent widespread destruction from pollutants that know no geopolitical boundaries. We need to do this because pollutants are not respectful of international boundaries; it does little good if one country practices sound environmental protection while itsneighbors fail to do so. Countries of the world are intricately linked together in ways not clear 50 years ago; they

find themselves victims of environmental destruction even though the causes of that destruction originated in

another part of the world. Acid rain, global warming, depletion of the ozone layer, nuclear accidents like theone at Chernobyl, make all countries vulnerable to environmental destruction.The cooperative relations forged after World War II are now obsolete. New cooperative relations need to be agreedupon – cooperative relations that show that pollution prevention and species preservation are inseparably linked

to economic development and survival of planet earth. Economic development is linked to pollution preventioneven though the market fails to include the true cost of pollution in its pricing of products and services; it fails to place a value on the destruction of plant and animal species. To date, most industrialized nations, the high polluters,have had an incentive to pollute because they did not incur the cost of producing goods and services in anonpolluting manner. The world will have to pay for the true cost of production and to practice prudent stewardshipof our natural resources if we are to sustain ourselves on this planet. We cannot expect Third World countries to participate in debt-for-nature swaps as a means for saving the rainforest or as a means for the reduction of greenhouse gases, while a considerable amount of such gases come from industrial nations and from fossil fuelconsumption.

Like disease, population growth is politically, economically, and structurally determined. Due to inadequate incomemaintenance programs and social security, families in developing countries are more apt to have large families notonly to ensure the survival of children within the first five years, but to work the fields and care for the elderly. As

development increases, so do education, health, and birth control. In his chapter, Buttel states that ecologicaldevelopment and substantial debt forgiveness would be more significant in alleviating Third World environmentaldegradation (or population problems) than ratification of any UNCED biodiversity or forest conventions.Because population control programs fail to address the structural characteristics of poverty, such programs for developing countries have been for the most part dismal failures. Growth and development along ecological lineshave a better chance of controlling population growth in developing countries than the best population control programs to date. Although population control is important, we often focus a considerable amount of our attentionon population problems of developing countries. Yet there are more people per square mile in Western Europe thanin most developing countries. “During his/her lifetime an American child causes 35 times the environmental damageof an Indian child and 280 times that of a Haitian child (Boggs, 1993: 1). The addiction to consumerism of highlyindustrialized countries has to be seen as a major culprit, and thus must be balanced against the benefits of population control in Third World countries.Worldwide environmental protection is only one part of the complex problems we face today. We cannot

ignore world poverty; it is intricately linked to environmental protection. If this is the case, then how do wedeal with world poverty? How do we bring about lasting peace in the world? Clearly we can no longer afford aSouth Africa as it was once organized, or ethnic cleansing by Serbian nationalists. These types of conflicts bankruptus morally and destroy our connectedness with one another as a world community. Yet, we may be headed on acourse where the politically induced famine, poverty, and chaos of Somalia today will become commonplace andworld peace more difficult, particularly if the European Common Market, Japan, and the United States trade primarily among themselves, leaving Third World countries to fend for themselves. Growing poverty will lead

only to more world disequilibrium to wars and famine – as countries become more aggressive and crossinternational borders for resources to ward off widespread hunger and rampant unemployment. To tackle these problems requires a quantum leap in global cooperation and commitment of the highest magnitude; it requiresdevelopment of an international tax, levied through the United nations or some other international body, so that the




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world community can become more involved in helping to deal with issues of environmental protection, poverty,and peace.Since the market system has been bold and flexible enough to meet changing conditions, so too must public

institutions. They must, indeed, be able to respond to the rapid changes that reverberate throughout the world.

If they fail to change, then we will surely meet the fate of the dinosaur. The Soviet Union gave up a system thatwas unworkable in exchange for another one. Although it has not been easy, individual countries of the former

Soviet Union have the potential of reemerging looking very different and stronger. Or they could emerge lookingvery different and weaker. They could become societies




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Brownfields= Environmental Racism Advthat are both socially and environmentally destructive or they can become societies where people have decent jobs, places to live, educational opportunities for all citizens, and sustainable social structures that are safe and nurturing.Although North Americans are experiencing economic and social discomforts, we too will have to change, or we

may find ourselves engulfed by political and economic forces beyond our control. In 1994, the out-sweeping of Democrats from national offices may be symptomatic of deeper and more fundamental problems. If the mean-spirited behavior that characterized the 1994 election is carried over into the governance of the country, this mayonly fan the flames of discontent. We may be embarking upon a long struggle over ideology, culture, and the veryheart and soul of the country. But despite all the political turmoil, we must take risks and try out new ideas –

ideas never dreamed of before and ideas we thought were impossible to implement. To implement these ideaswe must overcome institutional inertia in order to enhance intentional change. We need to give up tradition and

“business as usual.” To view the future as a challenge and as an opportunity to make the world a better place, we

must be willing to take political and economic risks.The question is not growth, but what kind of growth, and where it will take place. For example, we can maintaincurrent levels of productivity or become even more productive if we farm organically. Because of ideologicalconflicts, it is hard for us to view the Cuban experience with an unjaundiced eye; but we ask you to place politicaldifferences aside and pay attention to the lyrics of organic farming and not to the music of Communism. In other

words, we must get beyond political differences and ideological conflicts; we must find success stories of healingthe planet no matter where they exist – be they in Communist or non-Communist countries, developed or underdeveloped countries. We must ascertain what lessons can be learned from them, and examine how they would benefit the world community. In most instances, we will have to chart a new course. Continued use of certain

technologies and chemicals that are incompatible with the ecosystem will take us down the road of no return.

We are already witnessing the catastrophic destruction of our environment and disproportionate impacts of

environmental insults on communities of color and low-income groups. If such destruction continues, it willundoubtedly deal harmful blows to our social, economic, and political institutions.As a nation, we find ourselves in a house divided, where the cleavages between the races are in fact getting

worse. We find ourselves in a house divided where the gap between the rich and the poor has increased. We findourselves in a house divided where the gap between the young and the old has widened. During the 1980s, therewere few visions of healing the country. In the 1990s, despite the catastrophic economic and environmental resultsof the 1980s, and despite the conservative takeover of both houses of Congress, we must look for glimmers of hope.

We must stand by what we think is right and defend our position with passion. And at times we need to slow downand reflect and do a lot of soul searching in order to redirect ourselves, if need be. We must chart out a new courseof defining who we are as a people, by redefining our relationship with government, with nature, with one another,and where we want to be as a nation. We need to find a way of expressing this definition of ourselves to one another.Undeniably we are a nation of different ethnic groups and races, and of multiple interest groups, and if we cannotlive in peace and in harmony with ourselves and with nature it bodes ominously for future world relations.Because economic institutions are based upon the growth paradigm of extracting and processing natural

resources, we will surely perish if we use them to foul the global nest. But it does not have to be this way .Although sound environmental policies can be compatible with good business practices and quality of life, we mayhave to jettison the moral argument of environmental protection in favor of the self-interest argument, therebydemonstrating that the survival of business enterprises is intricately tied to good stewardship of natural

resources and environmental protection. Too often we forget that short-sightedness can propel us down a

narrow path, where we are unable to see the long-term effects of our actions.The ideas and policies discussed in this book are ways of getting ourselves back on track. The ideas presented herewill hopefully provide substantive material for discourse. These policies are not carved in stone, nor are they meantto be for every city, suburb, or rural area. Municipalities or rural areas should have flexibility in dealing with their site-specific problems. Yet we need to extend our concern about local sustainability beyond geopolitical

boundaries, because dumping in Third World countries or in the atmosphere today will surely haunt the worldtomorrow. Ideas presented here may irritate some and dismay others, but we need to make some drastic changes

in our lifestyles and institutions in order to foster environmental justice.Many of the policy ideas mentioned in this book have been around for some time, but they have not beenimplemented. The struggle for environmental justice emerging from the people of color and low-income

communities may provide the necessary political impulse to make these policies a reality. Environmental

justice provides opportunities for those most affected by environmental degradation and poverty to make

policies to save not only themselves from differential impact of environmental hazards, but to save those




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Tournament 2009


responsible for the lion’s share of the planet’s destruction. This struggle emerging from the environmentalexperience of oppressed people brings forth a new consciousness – a new consciousness shaped by immediatedemands for certainty and solution. It is a struggle to make a true connection between humanity and nature. Thisstruggle to resolve environmental problems may force the nation to alter its priorities; it may force the nation toaddress issues of environmental justice and, by doing so, it may ultimately result in a cleaner and healthier environment for all of us. Although we may never eliminate all toxic materials from the production cycle, we shouldat least have that as a goal.




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Tournament 2009


Brownfields= Environmental Racism AdvEndemic racial and class inequity forces minority populations into lives of environmental harm –

refusing the politics of environmental sacrifice zones is the only way to generate equality

Bullard 99 (Robert D, Ware Distinguished Professor of Sociology and Director of the EnvironmentalJustice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, “Dismantling environmental racism in the USA”,Local Environment, Feb99, Vol. 4, Issue 1, Academic Search Premier)Both race and class factors place low-income and people of colour communities at special risk.

Unequal political power arrangements have also allowed poisons of the rich to be offered as short-

term economic remedies for poverty of the poor. However, there is little or no correlation between the proximity of industrial plants in communities of colour and the employment of nearby residents. Havingindustrial facilities in one's community does not automatically translate into jobs for nearby residents.More often than not, communities of colour are stuck with the polluting industries and poverty,

while other people commute in for the jobs.Governments must live up to their mandate of protecting all peoples and the environment. The call

for environmental and economic justice does not stop at US borders but extends to all communities

and nations that are threatened by hazardous wastes, toxic products and environmentally unsound

technology. The environmental justice movement has set out the clear goal of eliminating the unequalenforcement of environmental, civil rights and public health laws, the differential exposure of some populations to harmful chemicals, pesticides and other toxins in the home, school, neighbourhood andworkplace, faulty assumptions in calculating, assessing and managing risks, discriminatory zoning andland-use practices, and exclusionary policies and practices that limit some individuals and groups from participation in decision-making.The solution to environmental injustice lies in the realm of equal protection for all individuals,

groups and communities. Many of these problems could be eliminated if existing environmental, health,housing and civil rights laws were vigorously enforced in a non-discriminatory way. No community,

rich or poor, urban or suburban, black or white, should be allowed to become a 'sacrifice zone' or

dumping ground.




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Tournament 2009



The biopolitical racism of the status quo will not cease its authoritarian genocide untilthere is a complete elimination of the racial other

Giroux 06 (Henry, the Global TV Network Chair Professorship at McMaster University in the English and Cultural Studies Department,

“Reading Hurricane Katrina: Race, Class, and the Biopolitics of Disposability,” College Literature, Vol. 33, No. 3)

Within the last few decades, matters of state sovereignty in the new world order have been retheorized so as to

provide a range of theoretical insights about the relationship between power and politics , the political nature of social and cultural life, and the merging of life and politics as a new form of biopolitics. While the notion of biopolitics differs significantly among its most prominent theorists, including Michel Foucault (1990, 1997),Giorgio Agamben (1998, 2002, 2003), and Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri (2004), what these theorists share is anattempt to think through the convergence of life and politics, locating matters of “life and death within our ways of thinking about and imagining politics” (Dean 2004, 17).Within this discourse, politics is no longer understood

exclusively through a disciplinary technology centered on the individual body—a body to be measured,

surveilled, managed, and included in forecasts, surveys, and statistical projections. Biopolitics points to newrelations of power that are more capacious, concerned not only with the body as an object of disciplinary

techniques that render it “both useful and docile” but also with a body that needs to be “regularized,” subject

to those immaterial means of production that produce ways of life that enlarge the targets of control and

regulation (Foucault 1997, 249). This shift in the workings of both sovereignty and power and the emergence of biopolitics are made clear by Foucault, for whom biopower replaces the power to dispense fear and death “with

that of a power to foster life—or disallow it to the point of death. . . . [Biopower] is no longer a matter of

bringing death into play in the field of sovereignty, but of distributing the living in the domain of value and

utility. Its task is to take charge of life that needs a continuous regulatory and corrective mechanism”(Ojakangas 2005, 6). As Foucault insists, the logic of biopower is dialectical, productive, and positive 178 CollegeLiterature 33.3 [Summer 2006] (1990, 136).Yet he also argues that biopolitics does not remove itself from

“introducing a break into the domain of life that is under power’s control: the break between what must live

and what must die” (1997, 255). Foucault believes that the death-function in the economy of biopolitics is

justified primarily through a form of racism in which biopower “is bound up with the workings of a Statethat is obliged to use race, the elimination of races and the purification of the race, to exercise its sovereign

power” (258).




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Tournament 2009



State racism gives way to the mindset of disposability, causing genocide and a multiplicity of other

negative impacts

Giroux 06 (Henry, the Global TV Network Chair Professorship at McMaster University in the Englishand Cultural Studies Department, “Reading Hurricane Katrina: Race, Class, and the Biopolitics of Disposability,” College Literature, Vol. 33, No. 3)

With the social state in retreat and the rapacious dynamics of neoliberalism, unchecked bygovernment regulations, the public and private policies of investing in the public good aredismissed as bad business, just as the notion of protecting people from the dire misfortunes of poverty, sickness, or the random blows of fate is viewed as an act of bad faith. Weakness is now a

sin, punishable by social exclusion. This is especially true for those racial groups and

immigrant populations who have always been at risk economically and politically.Increasingly, such groups have become part of an evergrowing army of the impoverished and

disenfranchised—removed from the prospect of a decent job, productive education, adequate

health care, acceptable child care services, and satisfactory shelter. As the state is

transformed into the primary agent of terror and corporate concerns displace democraticvalues, dominant “power is measured by the speed with which responsibilities can be escaped”(Qtd. in Fearn 2006, 30).With its pathological disdain for social values and public life and itscelebration of an unbridled individualism and acquisitiveness, the Bush administration does morethan undermine the nature of social obligation and civic responsibility; it also sends a message to

those populations who are poor and black—society neither wants, cares about, or needs you

(Bauman 1999, 68-69). Katrina revealed with startling and disturbing clarity who these individualsare: African- Americans who occupy the poorest sections of New Orleans, those ghettoized

frontier-zones created by racism coupled with economic inequality. Cut out of any long term

goals and a decent vision of the future, these are the populations, as Zygmunt Bauman pointsout, who have been rendered redundant and disposable in the age of neoliberal global

capitalism. Katrina reveals that we are living in dark times.The shadow of authoritarianism

remains after the storm clouds and hurricane winds have passed, offering a glimpse of itswreckage and terror. The politics of a disaster that affected Louisiana, Alabama, andMississippi is about more than government incompetence, militarization, socio-economic

polarization, environmental disaster, and political scandal. Hurricane Katrina broke through

the visual blackout of poverty and the pernicious ideology of color-blindness to reveal the

government’s role in fostering the dire conditions of largely poor African-Americans, who

were bearing the hardships incurred by the full wrath of the indifference and violence at

work in the racist, neoliberal state. Global neoliberalism and its victims now occupy a space

shaped by authoritarian politics, the terrors inflicted by a police state, and a logic of

disposability that removes them from government social provisions and the discourse and

privileges of citizenship. One of the most obvious lessons of Katrina—that race and racism stillmatter in America—is fully operational through a biopolitics in which “sovereignty resides in the

power and capacity to dictate who may live and who may die” (Mbembe 11-12).Those poor minorities of color and class, unable to contribute to the prevailing consumerist ethic, are vanishinginto the sinkhole of poverty in desolate and abandoned enclaves of decaying cities, neighborhoods,and rural spaces, or in America’s ever-expanding prison empire. Under the Bush regime, a

biopolitics driven by the waste machine of what Zygmunt Bauman defines as “liquid modernity”registers a new and brutal racism as part of the emergence of a contemporary and savage

authoritarianism.




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Tournament 2009



Racism allows minorities to be designated as disposable, resulting in genocide and the mobilizationof a portion of the population for death.

Giroux 06 (Henry, the Global TV Network Chair Professorship at McMaster University in the Englishand Cultural Studies Department, “Reading Hurricane Katrina: Race, Class, and the Biopolitics of Disposability,” College Literature, Vol. 33, No. 3)Under the logic of modernization, neoliberalism, and militarization, the category “waste” includes

no longer simply material goods but also human beings, particularly those rendered redundant in

the new global economy, that is, those who are no longer capable of making a living, who are unable toconsume goods, and who depend upon others for the most basic needs (Bauman 2000, 2003, 2004).Defined primarily through the combined discourses of character, personal responsibility, and

cultural homogeneity, entire populations expelled from the benefits of the marketplace are reified

as products without any value to be disposed of as “leftovers in the most radical and effective

way:we make them invisible by not looking and unthinkable by not thinking (2004, 27). Even when

young black and brown youth try to escape the biopolitics of disposability by joining the military,

the seduction of economic security is quickly negated by the horror of senseless violence

compounded daily in the streets, roads, and battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan and made concrete

in the form of body bags, mangled bodies, and amputated limbs —rarely to be seen in the narrowocular vision of the dominant medi




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Tournament 2009


Brownfields Economic Add-on

The economic and health impacts of brownfields are dangerous and unethical, they deny

communities basic health standards Ding 08 (Eric L, Research Fellow, Harvard School of Public Health, “Brownfield Remediation for Urban

Health: A Systematic Review and Case Assessment of Baltimore, Maryland”, The Journal of YoungInvestigators, http://www.jyi.org/research/re.php?id=630)

From a simple perspective, one might ask: what exactly is so dangerous and unethical about leaving

a former-industrial property idle? While it may seem that these unused lands do not cause harm,

the truth is that the continued existence of fallow brownfields has major detrimental effects on

human health and the economy.

Because brownfields may potentially be contaminated by industrial wastes and toxic chemicals,

there is reasonable biologic plausibility that such pollutants may harm humans. This can potentiallyoccur through increased local exposures to volatile chemicals emanating from a contaminated site,

leaching of toxins into the surrounding soil, which vegetable gardens of local residents may absorb,

or perhaps through children exploring and playing on the brownfield site and directly coming into

contact with such chemicals and industrial wastes. Any such hazardous exposures may result in

serious detrimental effects on the health of local residents.

Such scenarios of exposures from industrial sites and toxicological effects have not only been

affirmed by experts as plausible and likely (Evans 2002), but they have also indeed been

corroborated by research and historical events. One study found that increased residential proximity to industrial sites

contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) is associated with higher rates of low-birth-weight infants (Baibergenova 2003). PCBs were,in fact, one of the categories of toxins found by researchers analyzing Baltimore brownfields (Litt & Tran 2002). Additionally, other research byDing et al. (2005) has shown that such environmental pollutants found in brownfields may contribute to the high infant mortality rate inBaltimore, MD.

Brownfields are responsible for spirals of neglect and harm in disadvantaged communities

Greenberg, Lee, Powers 98 (Michael, Charles and Charles, Graduate, Center for Brownfields Research,Rutgers University; United Church of Christ’s Commission on Racial Justice; Institute for ResponsibleManagement, American Journal of Public Health December 1998, Vol. 88, No. 12,http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1509054&blobtype=pdf )

The bonds between public health, civil engineering, and city planning gradually weakened as each fieldformed its own professional identity.3'4 Many environmental health problems of the late 20th century-for example, sick-building syndrome and groundwater contamination- can be at least partly attributed tooverspecialization. These and other issues prompt strong consideration of closer cooperation amongspecialists. Today, an even greater challenge looms in integrating public health, environmental

quality, economic redevelopment, and protection of civil rights. The deterioration and

contamination of buildings and properties has left up to 450 000 so-called "brownfield" properties

in tens of thousands of American neighborhoods, mostly in poor communities of color. Brownfields

are usually eyesores, lowering nearby property values, driving away investors, and requiring local

governments to cordon them off to protect the public. In the worst cases, brownfields are the

neighborhood equivalent of cancer: abandoned properties become the center of illegal drug-related

activities and dumping grounds for all sorts of hazardous products. Some brownfields are sodistressing that nearby residents with any viable options leave the neighborhood; this process escalatesand leads to more property abandonment and brownfield formation. Brownfields hurt local economies

because mothballed properties do not collect sufficient tax revenues. Abandonment of properties is

exacerbated by a reduction in police, fire, sanitation, and other services. In neighborhoods

dominated by brownfields, AIDS, homicide, infant mortality, teenage pregnancy, and tuberculosis

are high because only the poorest and sickest remain in these communities.

http://www.jyi.org/research/re.php?id=630


http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1509054&blobtype=pdf







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Tournament 2009


Brownfields Economic Add-on

Undeveloped brownfields cost $26 million for Baltimore alone, cause unemployment,

decrease property values

Ding 8 (Eric L, Research Fellow, Harvard School of Public Health, “Brownfield Remediation for UrbanHealth: A Systematic Review and Case Assessment of Baltimore, Maryland”, The Journal of YoungInvestigators, http://www.jyi.org/research/re.php?id=630)

While health impact may be a speculated consequence of brownfields, there is virtually no debate

regarding the economic ramifications of idle brownfields. According to official EPA estimates("Brownfields 2003 Grant Fact Sheet" 2003), Baltimore loses approximately $26 million a year in lost

tax revenues from abandoned and underused brownfield land.

Such a tremendous loss of economic potential from brownfields takes into account the estimated

loss of income from commercial property tax, loss of economic development investment, and loss of

production of goods and services. Additionally, the economy in Baltimore also suffers from loss of

employment and social revitalization as result of brownfield underdevelopment. Moreover, vacant

lots and fallow brownfields without economic vitality also decrease local property values (England-Joseph 1995; Greenberg 2002).From an investment perspective, brownfields impose two additional barriers to redevelopment. First, thepotential of dangerous contamination is enough to discourage companies from being willing to

develop and reuse the brownfield land (Schoenbaum 2002). Second, even if companies are willing to

invest in cleanup and redeveloping brownfield land, financial institutions, insurance companies and

other creditors are unlikely to be willing to provide loans and funding for such projects out of fears

of hazard liability (England-Joseph 1995). Thus, fallow brownfields likely have adverse implications

on the economics of the local geography.

Brownfields cause a variety of public ills – including poor education.

Pepper 98 [Edith M., “Strategies for Promoting Brownfield Reuse in California A Blueprint for PolicyReform,” October, http://www.cclr.org/pdfs/PolPaper02.pdf ]

Left unaddressed, brownfields pose lingering public health threats, exacerbate neighborhood blight,

and serve as magnets for drug dealing and other criminal activity. They typically generate little if

any local tax revenues, causing area schools and public services to suffer greatly. When brownfieldslanguish for years, the surrounding neighborhood eventually begins to erode as well – a process that

is often characterized by the deterioration of older infrastructure, such as roads and water and

sewer lines.

The trend in California and elsewhere has been to leave these struggling areas behind and push

outward to ever greener pastures, installing new infrastructure and schools in emerging

communities while turning our back on existing ones. This pattern is not sustainable from an

economic or environmental standpoint over the long haul. In recent years, the plight of brownfieldshas captured the national spotlight. At every level of government, it seems, there is a growing recognitionthat through brownfield redevelopment, we can begin to chip away at a host of pressing andseemingly entrenched urban problems – crime, poor housing, unemployment, poverty – while alsohelping to curb the pace of urban sprawl.



http://www.cclr.org/pdfs/PolPaper02.pdf


http://www.cclr.org/pdfs/PolPaper02.pdf




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Tournament 2009


Food Security AdvMalnutrition cause harmful effects to the development of children

Myron Winick and Pedro Rosso, 1969, Department of Pediactrics, Cornell University Medical College,University of Chile, http://www.pedresearch.org/pt/re/pedresearch/pdfhandler.00006450-196903000-00010.pdf;jsessionid=KCLTJ1XhqpTt1Whc5qSkjSjxvTVRLTHtL3BPypWCGrDdz7rjkSbF!-847254088!181195628!8091!-1

At present there is growing concern that malnutrition early in life may impede normal

development. Studies conducted in Africa, in South America, in Mexico, in Guatemala, and inour own country suggest that this is true. Impeded brain growth has also been suspected in

malnourished children. The decreased head circumference often noted has been cited as

evidence for retardation in brain growth. Although numerous chemical changes secondary

to under nutrition have been shown in brain of animals, similar studies have not been availablein human brain. This study demonstrates such changes and establishes that cell division is

curtailed in human brain by severe early malnutrition. The data provide yet another link in

the ever lengthening chain of evidence linking malnutrition to faulty brain growth and

development.




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Tournament 2009


Food Security Adv

Food insecurity substantially stunts the social potential for children and increase health costs formany

Weill 08 ( James D., President of Food Research and Action Center “THE EFFECTS OF HUNGER

AND FOOD INSECURITY IN AMERICA” July 23, 2008

http://agriculture.house.gov/testimony/110/h80723a/Weill.pdf

Long-term solutions are essential because the damage from hunger and food insecurity toindividuals and families, to schools and the health care system, and to our economy as awhole is so great. I am just going to summarize how the harms play out, and then focus briefly on a couple of particular points.Food insecurity among very young children can causestunted growth, iron deficiency anemia and delayed cognitive development. Cognitive delays

then can last well beyond the period of nutritional deficiency – the resulting impaired IQ, motor skills and coordination can last into the elementary school years and beyond. Food insecurityharms children’s physical growth and immune systems, and causes weakened resistance toinfection. Food insecure children are far more likely to be reported in poor health, to catch colds, and to have stomach aches,headaches, ear infections and asthma. Food insecurity in both earlychildhood and the school years means that children lag their peers and learn less, and theselearning deficits cumulate. School-agechildren who are food insecure are more likely to be absentfrom school, behyperactive; behave poorly; be held back; do worse on tests; and be placedinspecial education. All of these consequences of hunger and food insecurity result in increasedhealth, mental health, hospitalization, educational, juvenile justice and other costs. As just oneexample,among children under age 3, according to one study, those who are food insecure are90percent more likely to be in poor health and 30 percent more likely to require hospitalization.







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Tournament 2009


Food Security AdvEliminating food insecurity is the most important impact to address pressing societal issues facing

the U.S. Government

Weill 08 ( James D., President of Food Research and Action Center “THE EFFECTS OF HUNGER



What all this comes down to is that hunger and food insecurity not only are unnecessary andimmoral in our wealthy nation, but they are vastly counter-productive in every important realm.They are a hindrance to our accomplishment of a range of essential national goals: At a timewhen the nation is looking for strategies to broaden health insurance coverage and improve

quality of health care while controlling costs, eliminating food insecurity is a necessary part of aneffective and cost-effective national health strategy. As the nation struggles to address its obesityepidemic, establishing food security and assuring that families have resources adequate to purchase a healthy diet are essential components of a successful anti-obesity strategy. At a timewhen our scientific knowledge of the critical importance of early childhood development has been growing by leaps and bounds – although our policy development is having trouble keeping pace – eliminating food insecurity is a prerequisite to the strongest possible early childhood policy. As the nation struggles with education policy and the reauthorization of the No Child LeftBehind Act, eliminating food insecurity is a compelling and cost effective strategy to improveschools and student performance. And as we struggle to restore economic growth, boost productivity, improve our competitiveness, and keep deficits under control, eliminating foodinsecurity is one important key to improving the nation’s economic and fiscal futures







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Tournament 2009


Food Security Adv

Food insecurity is a reality that is faced by 12 percent of Americans and feeds the food gap

Winne, 08 (Mark, Former Executive Director of the Harford Food System, 2008 “Closing the Food

Gap: Resetting the Table in the Land of the Plenty ”

This was the physical and psychological landscape that welcomed me, one that would generally

deteriorate in the years to come. More important, it formed the backdrop to what was then and,

unfortunately, remains to this day America's food gap. As in the case of supermarket abandonment

of urban (and rural) areas, the food gap can be understood as a failure of our market economy toserve the basic human needs of those who are impov erished. But poverty contributes to this gap,

creating a situation in which a person or household simply doesn't have enough money to purchase

a sufficient supply of nutritious food.

Hunger-the painful sensation that someone feels on a regular basis due to lack of food-is a

relatively rare phenomenon in America today, but it nevertheless afflicts a small number of u.s.

residents on an intermittent basis. The more common form of food insufficiency is known as food

in security, a condition experienced by a much larger number of people who regularly run out of

food or simply don't know where their next meal will come from. As part of the annual census

update, the U.S. Department of Agriculture conducts a survey that determines the number of

people who are food insecure (generally between 10 and 12 percent of the U.S. popula tion) and

severely food insecure (3 to 4 percent of the population, until 2006 labeled "food insecure withhunger").




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Tournament 2009


Food Security Adv

The risk of starvation is prevalent without the fair access to healthy food to curb world hunger

Lamsal 07(Yuba Nath a senior journalist from Nepal “Agriculture, food security and poverty

alleviation “ http://www.groundreport.com/Lifestyle/Agriculture-food-security-and-poverty-alleviationApril 10, 2007

The global food production is sufficient to feed the world population. But hunger exists and tensof thousands of people die of hunger and malnutrition annually in the world. A part of the worlddumps the surplus food into the ocean while other parts of the world starve and suffer fromchronic hunger. It is not the question of how much the world produces but it is the issue thatrequires judicial distribution of food to all and fair access to production resources for the peoplefrom the lowest economic strata. The global food balance sheet shows that over 850 million people in the world are undernourished. To look at the present pattern of food consumption, 15 per cent people consume more than 60 per cent food in the world, while 85 per cent people liveon less than 40 per cent of food the world produces. The situation, thus, underscores the dire needfor taking more concerted and effective measures for food security to ensure that poor people getfood even at a time of crisis and save tens of thousands lives, who otherwise would die of starvation.

http://www.groundreport.com/Lifestyle/Agriculture-food-security-and-poverty-alleviation






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Tournament 2009


Food Security Adv

Current food assistance programs are not enough there needs to be jobs that help the economic

conditions of the low-income houses

LeBlanc, Kuhn, Blaylock 05 (Michael , Betsey, James “Poverty amidst plenty: food insecurity in theUnited States” Agricultural Economics , 2005, vol. 32, issue s1, pages 159-173

The United States faces domestic food security issues that differ from those encountered by manycountries. Yet, in 2001, 10.7% of U.S. households were estimated to be food insecure at some point during the year. Food security, poverty, and food insecurity are strongly linked by economicconditions. Job transitions, layoffs, and family disruptions result in periods of low income andvulnerability to food insecurity. Economic and food assistance programs have helped protectmany U.S. households when the market economy has failed to do so. These programs havereduced vulnerability to falling income and food insecurity during economic downturns in the business cycle. However effective food assistance programs have been for reducing short-term

vulnerability, they do not enhance a household's ability to achieve sustainable food security.Prospects for improving long-term food security are tied to the same economic forces shaping ahousehold's income and budget, particularly those related to labor productivity and wages.

http://econpapers.repec.org/article/blaagecon/






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Tournament 2009


Food Security Adv

There is massive food insecurity in America where households can’t afford enough food

Nord, Andrews, and Carlson ’07( Mark, Margaret, Steven, USDA economists,United StatesDepartment of Agriculture “Household Food Security in the United States, 2007”http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR66/ERR66b.pdf

About 89 percent of U.S. households were food secure throughout the entire year 2007 (fi g. 1,table 1A). “Food secure” means that all household members had access at all times to enoughfood for an active, healthy life. The remaining 13 million U.S. households (11.1 percent of allhouseholds) were food insecure at some time during the year. That is, they were, at times,uncertain of having, or unable to acquire, enough food for all household members because theyhad insufficient money and other resources for food. About two-thirds of food-insecurehouseholds avoided substantial reductions or disruptions in food intake, in many cases by relyingon a few basic foods and reducing variety in their diets. But 4.7 million households (4.1 percentof all U.S. households) had very low food security—that is, they were food insecure to the extentthat eating patterns of one or more household members were disrupted and their food intakereduced, at least some time during the year, because they couldn’t afford enough food.

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR66/ERR66b.pdf

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR66/ERR66b.pdf




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Tournament 2009


Food Security Adv

Poverty is directly related to food insecurity

(USDA)United States Department of Agriculture ’07 United States Department of Agriculture “Who HasTrouble Putting Food on Their Table.” Economic Research Service

http://www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/eib48/spreads/3/index.htm

Over the past decade, the prevalence rate of food insecurity has generally tracked the povertyrate. Both fell in the 1990’s, increased beginning with the recession in 2001, and leveled off or declined slightly after 2004. Currently about 37% of families below the poverty line have low or very low food security.

Food Security Adv

Malnutrition leads to death for unhealthy children at increased rates

Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN 02 (“The State of Food Insecurity in the World” 2002http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y7352e/y7352e03.htm#P0_0)


http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y7352e/y7352e03.htm#P0_0


http://www.fao.org/docrep/005/y7352e/y7352e03.htm#P0_0




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Tournament 2009


Even mild-to-moderate malnutrition greatly increases the risk of children dying from commonchildhood diseases. Overall, analysis shows that the risk of death is 2.5 times higher for childrenwith only mild malnutrition than it is for children who are adequately nourished. And the risk increases sharply along with the severity of mal nutrition (as measured by their weight-to-ageratio). The risk of death is 4.6 times higher for children suffering from moderate malnutrition and

8.4 times higher for the severely malnourished.

Food Security Adv

Urban Farming is main source of food security for many that allows access

Armar-Klemesu and Maxwell 00 (Margaret; Daniel G.Urban Agriculture as an Asset Strategy, S incomeand Diets.” In: Growing cities, growing food: urban agriculture on the policy agenda, p. 203-208. 2000DSE, GTZ, CTA, SIDA)

Urban agriculture was identified as an important element for a study on livelihoods, food andnutrition in Greater Accra. Different farming types were distinguished and analysed with regardto food security, household economics, health ecology and gender. Farming is done for threemain reasons dependent on the farming type: cash income, food subsistence and assets strategyfor emergencies. Men and women do have different roles in urban agriculture whereby women’sactivities tend to contribute more to household food security than men’s and women dominate themarketing of crops. Urban agriculture improves food security in terms of availability and access.Crops were analysed to assess health risks and it was found that for rural and urban crops themain source of bacterial contamination is in the transport of the crops. Main issues for urban




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Tournament 2009


farmers are land, theft and marketing. Urban agriculture is still missing from municipal planning.The loss of agricultural land is a major reason for concern.

Food Security Adv

Food insecurity is bad for the quality of life of urban dwellers


Food insecurity, whether related to actual food insufficiency, nutritional quality, or anxiety abouta future lack of food, affects the quality of life of urban residents in far-reaching ways. Inadequatenutrition is clearly associated with school and work absences, fatigue, and problems withconcentration. Hunger and poor nutrition are also linked to the increased incidence and virulenceof infectious diseases, many of which-- such as TB--are on the rise in US cities. Furthermore, the

lack of a nutritious diet is a well-known risk factor for any number of chronic diseases such asdiabetes, hypertension, and heart failure.






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Tournament 2009


Food Security Adv

Hunger and malnutrition result from food insecurity and ensures catastrophic suffering

Lori Keeling Buhi ’08 ( Lori Keeling, Director of Health Education at Bryan-College Station CommunityHealth Center http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/Erg-Foo/Food-Insecurity.html)

Millions of people worldwide suffer from hunger and under nutrition. A major factor contributingto this international problem is food insecurity. This condition exists when people lack

sustainable physical or economic access to enough safe, nutritious, and socially acceptable foodfor a healthy and productive life… Food insecurity and malnutrition result in catastrophicamounts of human suffering. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 60 percent of all childhood deaths in the developing world are associated with chronic hunger andmalnutrition. In developing countries, persistent malnutrition leaves children weak, vulnerable,and less able to fight such common childhood illnesses as diarrhea, acute respiratory infections,malaria, and measles. Even children who are mildly to moderately malnourished are at greater risk of dying from these common diseases. Malnourished children in the United States suffer from poorer health status, compromised immune systems, and higher rates of illnesses such ascolds, headaches, and fatigue.






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Tournament 2009


Food Security Adv

Local grown food produced by urban gardens provides essentials for alleviating poverty and its

effects

Kisner 08, (Corinne , Director of Operations at Climate Institute, “International Action: Green Roofs for

Urban Food Security and Environmental Sustainability.” December 2008

The food security that urban agriculture provides is essential as people cannot rely on industrialfarms for continuous and affordable production. Especially in cities with high rates of poverty ,such as Harare, it is imperative that people maintain control of their food supply by growing their own vegetables, so as not to face scarcity and hunger if their access to imported food isunexpectedly cut off or if they can no longer afford market prices for food commodities. Community gardens foster a sense of responsibility and communal ownership over thevegetables’ success and can bring individuals together in an often isolating urban setting. With a personal stake in the long-term fertility of the land, urban farmers will have incentives to chooseorganic fertilizers and pesticides that will preserve their plot’s productivity. This connection tothe environment’s health has positive benefits for human health as well, as it eliminates the need

for the harmful chemicals that pollute water supplies. Urban agriculture allows people to eat thefruits of their labor and provides a steady, nutritious, and affordable source of food.




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Tournament 2009


Food Security Adv

Political action is required to destroy the effects of food insecurity which will assure optimal

development and healthy food access to low-income people

COOK AND FRANK 08 ( JOHN T. DEBORAH A., Department of Pediatrics, Boston University

School of Medicine Doctors, at Boston University “Food Security, Poverty, and Human

Development in the United States” 2008

http://www.childrenshealthwatch.org/upload/resource/cook_frank_annals_08.pdf

Access to food is essential to optimal development and function in children and adults. Foodsecurity, food insecurity, and hunger have been defined and a U.S. Food Security Scale wasdeveloped and is administered annually by the Census Bureau in its Current Population Survey.The eight child-referenced items now make up a Children’s Food Security Scale. This reviewsummarizes the data on household and children’s food insecurity and its relationship withchildren’s health and development and with mothers’ depressive symptoms. It is demonstrable

that food insecurity is a prevalent risk to the growth, health, cognitive, and behavioral

potential of America’s poor and near-poor children. Infants and toddlers in particular are

at risk from food insecurity even at the lowest levels of severity, and the data indicate an

“invisible epidemic” of a serious condition. Food insecurity is readily measured and rapidly

remediable through policy changes, which a country like the United States, unlike manyothers, is fully capable of implementing. The food and distribution resources exist; the only

constraint is political will. Optimal physiological, cognitive, and emotional development and

function in children and adults requires access to food of adequate quantity and quality at

all stages of the lifespan. Efficient epidemiological measurement of access to food by U.S. populations has challenged researchers since the 1980s. Lack of access to adequate food by U.S.households because of constrained household financial resources has been measured by questionsassessing “hunger,” “risk of hunger,” “food insufficiency,” and most recently “food insecurity.”In 1990 an expert working group of the American Institute of Nutrition developed the followingconceptual definitions of food security, food insecurity, and hunger, which were published by theLife Sciences Research Office of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology.Food security: “Access by all people at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life. Food

security includes at a minimum: (1) the ready availability of nutritionally adequate and safe

foods and (2) an assured ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways (e.g.,without resorting to emergency food supplies, scavenging, stealing, or other coping strategies).”

Food insecurity. “Limited or uncertain availability of nutritionally adequate and safe foods or limited or uncertain ability to acquire acceptable foods in socially acceptable ways.” Hunger.“The uneasy or painful sensation caused by a lack of food. The recurrent and involuntary lack of access to food. Hunger may produce malnutrition over time. . .. Hunger . . . is a potential,although not necessary, consequence of food insecurity… Food insecurity and hunger, as

measured by the FSS, are specifically related to limited household resources. Thus, by

definition they are referred to as “resource-constrained” or “poverty-related” conditions.






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Food Security Adv

Urban farming solves for food insecurity and contributes to the urban and natural environment


What does small-scale farming contribute to food security in the United States? It provides amore adequate income to the farmers themselves, thereby diminishing their food insecurity. Local

fresh vegetables and fruit can have twice the vitamins and essential micro-nutrients availablefrom stale supermarket produce at the same price. Local and regional food is safer and moresecure than the products of industrial agriculture that typically travel long distances. Urbanagriculture produces a range of products well matched to the food needs and demands of diverseurban populations, thus assuring them of a more balanced diet. In addition, farming in the cityconserves natural resources and contributes to a healthy environment for living.






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Food Security Adv

Urban farming guarantees better quality foods in absence of the best supermarkets and increases

affordable food in urban settings


Even when cash is available to low-income urban residents, food is not always so readilyaccessible. Many supermarkets have closed or moved from the inner city due to complex marketforces related to the increasing impoverishment of their clientele and the deterioration and

depopulation of once vibrant communities. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for many remaininginner-city grocery and convenience stores to hike prices, even on basic foods. “A study in Detroitfound that grocery stores near downtown and closer to lower-income neighborhoods charged onaverage 10 percent more than those on the beltway. Another study of all food stores in three low –income zip codes in Detroit found that only four out of five stores carried a minimal “healthyfood basket” (with products based on the food pyramid).”8 Low-income consumers have lessfood shopping choices than middle-income consumers across the country: they have fewer retailoptions, limited transportation options, and often face higher prices at chain supermarkets.9 Thusironically, people on limited incomes in cities are likely to pay more for their food than wealthier shoppers in higher income neighborhoods. The range, freshness, and quality of foods are alsooften compromised in inner-city groceries, thus further limiting customers’ maximal choices for nutritious and affordable meals. As the locus of poverty shifts to urban areas, an expanded urban

agriculture program could build community food security by improving the quantity, quality,regularity and nutritional balance of food intake, thereby reducing hunger and improvingnutrition.






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Obesity Adv

Obesity has serious effects on the heart and cardiovascular health even death Kirkey 08 (Sharon,

health journalist “Obesity harms heart more than smoking, study

finds”http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=d3ea6f54-8e3a-4ce2-842b-

f36d6a8dcba2 September 22, 2008 MondayHeart attacks are hitting the overweight more than a decade sooner than "normal" weight people,researchers are reporting. A study of more than 111,000 people is one of the first to put realnumbers to the risk of obesity and suggests "excess adiposity" - fat tissue - is more dangerous tothe heart than smoking. "The leading theory in cardiology right now is that the fat tissue isactually producing factors that precipitate heart attacks," said lead author Peter McCullough,consultant cardiologist and chief of nutrition and prevention medicine at William BeaumontHospital in Royal Oak, Mich. The theory is that cholesterol builds up in the coronary arteries andinflammatory or other chemicals produced by fat cells trigger the plaque to suddenly rupture,causing a blood clot to form and unleashing an acute heart attack. Earlier studies "just didn't haveenough patients of different body sizes having their first heart attack to really evaluate" whether obesity is associated with premature heart attacks, McCullough said. His team analyzed data from

a nationwide U.S. registry of people hospitalized for heart attack and unstable angina, or chest pain, from 2001 to 2007. A total of 111,847 men and women who had experienced a first heartattack were included in the analysis. They were grouped according to their body mass index, or BMI, a measure of body fat based on height and weight. Researchers found that, the heavier the person, the younger the age of a first heart attack. The most obese people had their heart attackswhen they were 59, on average. That compares with about 75 for the leanest group (average bodyweight of about 103 pounds, meaning they were considered underweight), and 71 for people of "normal" weight, where the average weight is about 142 pounds. The most obese group had aBMI of 40 or more and weighed on average 280 pounds. The rate of diabetes was 17 per cent inthe leanest group, and 49 per cent in the most obese. "You can get a feeling of how obesity-drivendiabetes is," McCullough said. All the patients, regardless of body size, had about the same levelof LDL cholesterol, the so-called bad cholesterol thought to be a major risk factor for heart

attacks. That means the excess fat is causing heart disease in other ways, McCullough said. Ratesof smoking were equal across the board: "We really can't blame it on smoking." "Those patientsat the highest body weight on average lost 12 years of life before their first heart attack." Thesecond most important factor was smoking, "where they lost just under 10 years of life before afirst heart attack. "This is really the first study that shows that some factors are more powerfulthan smoking in terms of the prematurity of myocardial infarction (a heart attack)," McCulloughsaid. The study involved a type of heart attack called non-ST-segment elevation myocardialinfarction. They always require hospitalization and have an in-hospital fatality rate of about 10 per cent, and about 20 per cent over the next six months, McCullough said. "They are not trivialevents. They account for a leading cause of patients to lose time away from work and actuallyseek medical disability." The study clearly shows "that, contrary to some of the arguments outthere about whether or not excess weight may be protective ... there is a tremendous risk

difference in terms of having your first heart attack if you are overweight or obese," said. AryaSharma, chair of obesity research and management at the University of Alberta in Edmonton."You're having a heart attack a decade before those who don't have a weight problem," Sharmasaid. "And 59 is actually a very young age. These are people who aren't even close to retirement."McCullough says people could reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease by losing weight and body fat. According to the Canadian Community Health Survey, 23 per cent of Canadians 18 andolder are obese. The study appears in the most recent issue of the Journal of the AmericanCollege of Cardiology.

http://www2.canada.com/windsorstar/news/story.html?id=d3ea6f54-8e3a-4ce2-842b-f36d6a8dcba2








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Obesity Adv

Hunger, food insecurity, poverty, and obesity are interlinked and disproportionally effect low-

income communities amidst lack of access to supermarkets

Winne, 08 (Mark, Former Executive Director of the Harford Food System, 2008 “Closing the Food Gap:Resetting the Table in the Land of the Plenty”

As our knowledge of the connection between diet and health has increased, the food gap has

taken on yet another dimension, one that, iron ically, includes the overconsumption of food. By

overconsumption we generally mean a combination of eating too much of the wrong thing and

too little of the right thing. Overweight and obese Americans now make up more than 60 percent

of the population. Because of their association with the nation's increased diabetes rate and other

diet-related illnesses, obesity and overweight are conditions that threaten the public health in

ways that generally surpass the effects of hunger and food insecurity. As such, they have become

central components of this country's food gap.

Yet as we will see, hunger, food insecurity, poverty, and overweight' obesity often have

overlapping associations and connections, and as with supermarket abandonmel1t, thecommunity or environmental context is just as important as the income of an individual

household. What we now call "food deserts," for instance, are places with too few choices of

healthy and affordable food, and are often oversaturated with unhealthy food outlets such as

fast-food joints. People who live in or near food deserts tend to be poorer and have fewer healthy

food options, which in turn contributes to their high overweight/obesity rates and diet-related

illnesses such as diabetes.




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Obesity Adv

Billions of dollars in healthcare is squandered on obesity with not many effective strategies to

counteract persuasive advertisements of fast-food restaurants



Today, 60 percent of Americans are obese or overweight, with the rate of diabetes soaring in

every category of race, ethnicity, and age, especially among children. The cost of our rapid

weight gain is now estimated by the Institute of Medicine at between $98 billion and $Il7 billion

per year. Obe sity is a major risk factor for high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes,

certain types of cancer, arthritis, and breathing problems. The impact of obesity and its related

health complications are so severe that the U.S. surgeon general has expressed concern that this

generation of children may be the first in u.s.history to have a shorter life span than their parents.

Lack of exercise, too much television, and an obsession with computer technology have turnedAmericans into a race of 250-pound weaklings. One of the biggest culprits is fast food. As Eric

Schlosser pointed out in his book Fast Food Nation, “1970 Americans spent about $6 billion on

fast food; in 2000 they spent more than $110 billion. Americans now spend more money on fast

food than on higher education, personal computers, software, and new cars.” Why? Fast food is

easy, cheap, and readily available, especially in low-income communities. In 2000, the fast food

industry spent $3 billion a year on television advertising, much of it targeted at children.

McDonald’s operates more than 8,000 playgrounds at its U.S. restaurants to lure children onto the

premises.

The role of advertising, information/misinformation and other persuasive mechanisms that

disable our rational decision-making processes is apparent in the fast food industry’s growth andthe concomitant increase in our waistlines. In lower-income communities, lower education levels

and the lack of healthy food choices make households easy targets for fast food messages,

images, and hidden persuaders. Although efforts restrict junk food advertising directed at children

have had some success, there is still not the political will or public budget to compete with the

mountains of promotional cash that junk food purveyors have available. Whereas McDonald’s

spent $500 million on its “We love to see you smile” campaign in 2000, federal spending on the

“5 A Day” campaign peaked at only $3 million the same year.




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Obesity Adv

Obesity in children, fast-food persuasion, and soaring health costs are damaging the livelihood of

many low income Americans that acquire unhealthy tastes



Children eat too much fast food; that's a fact. Do we blame them, their parents, or the

seductive scent of greasy burgers wafting across our com mercial landscape? Every day, nearly

one-third of American children ages four to nineteen eat fast food, according to one study from

Children's Hospital Boston. Fast-food consumption has increased an alarming five fold since

1970. The study estimated that the consumption off at and sugar associated with such frequent

use of fast-food restaurants adds six pounds per child per year and increases the risk of obesity. In

the classic struggle between supply and demand, one could argue that the industry is only

expanding to keep pace with demand. The Children's Hospital study's findings, however, suggest

that the increase in demand is more likely due to the increase in the number of fast-food

restaurants and the amount of fast-food marketing. There is also a relationship between theincrease in the consumption of unhealthy food and the decrease in the consumption of healthy

food. Obesity is highest among people who eat very few fruits and vegetables, and only one in

five Americans is eating the recommended five or more servings of produce each day. Our sense

of taste is complex and has been dissected by researchers and journalists alike. Michael Pollan

has provided one of the better discussions in T h eBotany of Des i re .But surely it doesn't take a panel

of Ph.D.'s to determine that a child raised on a steady diet of Big Macs will require an

uncommonly creative and patient parent to also hook him or her on broccoli. While there is still

value in debating the causes of obesity and determining the best interventions, the costs and the

consequences of doing nothing are readily apparent. A 2005 study by H eal th Af fa i rs ,an online jour

nal of health policy and research, found that the cost of obesity-related care to private health

insurers rose tenfold between 1987 and 2002. In 2002, that amounted to $36.5 billion and

represented almost 12 percent of total health care spending. On average, treating an obese person

in 2002 cost $1,244 more than treating a healthy-weight person. In 1987, that gap was only $272.

And these are just the costs borne by health insurers and their members. About half of the $98

billion to $Il7 billion in obesity related costs every year are paid for by the public in the form of

Medicare and Medicaid payments. Poor diet takes a grisly toll on the human body, but it's also

taking a financial toll on private insurers and taxpayers.

Obesity Adv




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The location of many fast-food restaurants instead of supermarkets in urban areas contribute to

diet related diseases and a spiral of disadvantages, Harford proves



At first glance, given the city's high poverty rates, cheap fast food should be a blessing. If thereare no supermarkets within easy reach, peo ple should be grateful for the clean, well-lit places that proffer nicely pack aged, brand-name merchandise. But in fact, such establishments thrive in areasof poverty and low education. While they presumably serve a com munity's immediate need for calories, they actually prey upon those who are weakened by insufficient money, choices, andknowledge. As a result of these factors, Hartford's major food problem shifted from hunger toheart disease, diabetes, and obesity. In light of the soaring rates of diet related diseases across thenation as well as in Hartford, the high preva lence of unhealthy food outlets became a serious public health issue. On Saturday, March 3 1, 2001, more than twenty University of Connecticutdietetics students fanned out across Hartford and two of the city's affluent adjoining suburbs,Wethersfield and West Hartford, to inventory and analyze the contents of two hundred restaurantsand small grocery stores. The distribution of fast-food restaurants and other low-quality retail

food outlets also was revealing. By mapping the locations of the region's fast-food outlets, thesurvey found that a very high concentration of them were crouched like predatory cats withineasy walking distance of most of Hartford's lower-income residential areas. The proximity of McDon ald's, Burger King, and Kentucky Fried Chicken to the region's most im poverished andnutritionally at-risk families was stunning. positioned as they were along the city's most traveledcommercial corridors, they cre ated a virtual ambush for any inner-city resident walking alongthese thor oughfares. By contrast, the fast-food outlets in West Hartford and Wethersfield, as theytend to be throughout more affluent and suburbanized areas, were found along commercial stripsor in shopping centers that could only be reached conveniently by car. The good news about car-dependent suburbia, where housing developments are spread out and usually located somedistance from commercial areas, is that securing a bacon double cheeseburger requires justenough extra effort to make you think twice about whether you really want it. For Hartford's

transit-dependent shoppers, who must travel forty-five minutes to reach a decent supermarket, anevening stroll to the corner KFC for a bucket of Colonel Sanders's fried chicken is, sadly,considered one of the few privileges of living in a low income neighborhood. One ironyassociated with this unhealthy food abundance was that it was partially aided and abetted byHartford city government and other public and private institutions. Poverty created the market,shrewd entre preneurs took advantage of it, and city hall nurtured the relationship. Shortly after the Hartford Food System completed its healthy food study, the city celebrated the opening of itseleventh Dunkin' Donuts. And c e leb r a t e d is the operative word. Community leaders, representativesof Connecticut Children's Hospital directly across the street, and government officials, includingthe mayor, showed up to cut the ribbon. The Hartford Couran t joined the hoopla with an editorial praising the Dunkin' Donuts chain for its "neighborhood sensitive strategy," because thecorporation had promised to employ neighborhood residents in its new store. In a city that was

struggling to gain any job it could, any business that would provide twenty-five jobs-albeit mostly part-time, minimum-wage jobs with no health benefits-made Hartford's economic developmentofficials salivate.




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Obesity Adv

New York City proves the food disparities that exist in urban areas that thrive on unhealthy food



Of course, the most defining difference between these two large New York City neighborhoods

is their poverty rates. More than 38 percent of East Harlem's residents live below the poverty

level, compared to just above 6 percent for the Upper East Side. And the food options track those

poverty rates very closely. Like the Hartford area healthy food survey discussed earlier in this

chapter, a 2004 comparison of healthy food avail ability in East Harlem and the Upper East Side

found that only 18 percent of the food stores in East Harlem carried low-fat, high-fiber food and

fresh fruits and vegetables. On the Upper East Side, 58 percent of the stores stocked those items.

Food is certainly easy to come by in East Har lem, and with McDonald's offering its Dollar Menu

and Kentucky Fried Chicken proclaiming that you can "feed your family for under $4 each," the

food is dirt-cheap. The only drawback is that neither the Big Mac wrapper nor the KFC bucket

comes with a surgeon general's warning that eating too many of these items is likely to cause aslow, premature death.

The trouble with the food gap and related disparities is that they tend to widen before they

narrow. It's a curious market phenomenon that in the United States, where there is so much food

and, more important, so much interest these days in ever better and healthier food, that the haves

are con stantly ascending new heights, while the have-riots continue to discover new depths. Part

of the explanation may reside with growing national dis parities in income, which can be

particularly dramatic in urban areas. Although New York City has been experiencing an

economic resurgence for years, the middle class is shrinking, and the gap between rich and poor

is widening. New York City's total population by income breaks down as 41 percent high-income,

43 percent low-income, and a mere16

percent in the middle. If you were a residential developer or a food retailer, which market would give you the bigger return? Naturally, you would gravitate

to the high-end market, where demand is indeterminately elastic, and avoid the low-end market,

where risk and low profits abound. As the NewYork Tim e s put it, "A two-tiered marketplace can

develop: Whole Foods for the upper classes, bodegas for the lower, with no competition from

stores courting the middle.

Obesity Adv




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Lack of access to quality and clean foods ensures that low-income people will have limited food

choices that are healthy



As health officials and researchers confirm the gravity of the threat of overeating and unhealthy

eating, where does that leave the threat of domestic hunger and food security that has plagued

America for the better part of the century? A couple of quick answers may suffice for the

moment. Lack of access to healthy and affordable food is a form of food insecurity. If a person

can’t easily get to sources of nutritious food and/or can’t resist the siren song of fast-food and

other unhealthy food outlets, food insecurity is a part of his or her life. Additionally, research on

hunger, poverty, and obesity suggests the following link: if you don’t have enough money to

regularly purchase sufficient quantities of food, you will be more inclined to eat high calorie,

filling food to relieve sensations of hunger. Additionally, irregular purchasing power, often a

problem in low-income households, leads to binge eating or other irregularities in food

consumption, which can contribute to obesity as well.




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Food insecure and impoverished households have a higher potential of producing obese children

Weill 08 (James D., President of Food Research and Action Center “THE EFFECTS OF HUNGER



As to obesity, research has shown that obesity too can be a consequence of foodinsecurity. Obesity among both adults and children means more cardiovascular disease,diabetes, and hypertension. Among adult food insecure women who have children, thereasons for obesity may include the ways in which low-income mothers must cope withlimited resources for food—sacrificing at times their own nutrition in order to protecttheir children from hunger and lower nutritional quality. Food insecurity and povertymay also act as physiological stressors leading to hormonal changes that predispose adultwomen to obesity. But there are connections between food insecurity and obesity for children aswell. Children in food insecure households are more likely to be at risk of overweight or to beobese. When children are both born at low birthweight and live in a family sufferingfrom food insufficiency, they have a 27.8 times higher chance of being overweight or obese at age 4 ½ .

Obesity Adv

The government’s food stamp policy is not effective to combat the linkage of food insecurity and

obesity but exacerbates the crisis

Rector 07 (Robert , Senior Research Fellow on domestic policy at the Heritage Foundation “Hunger

Hysteria: Examining Food Security and Obesity in America”

http://www.heritage.org/research/welfare/wm1701.cfm November 13, 2007

Thus, the government's own data show that, even though they may have brief episodes of reducedfood intake, most adults in food insecure households actually consume too much, not too little,food. To improve health, policies must be devised to encourage these individuals to avoid chronic



http://www.heritage.org/about/staff/Robertrector.cfm


http://www.heritage.org/research/welfare/wm1701.cfm



http://www.heritage.org/research/welfare/wm1701.cfm




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chronic conditions that reduce the overall quality of life. Of especial concern is the

increasing incidence of child obesity.

Obesity Adv

Cardiovascular Disease is the #1 Killer in the world

World Health Organization 09 (“Cardiovascular disease” http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/en/ February 2009)

Globally, cardiovascular diseases are the number one cause of death and is projected to remain so. Anestimated 17.5 million people died from cardiovascular disease in 2005, representing 30 % of all globaldeaths. Of these deaths, 7.6 million were due to heart attacks and 5.7 million due to stroke. About 80% of these deaths occurred in low- and middle-income countries. If current trends are allowed to continue, by2015 an estimated 20 million people will die from cardiovascular disease (mainly from heart attacks andstrokes).

Obesity Increases the risk of heart disease by 104%

Richard N. Fogros M.D., 8-5-2002, http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/heartfailure/a/obesityhf.htm

Doctors have suspected for a long time that overweight patients appear to have an increased risk of developing heart failure, but most believed that the heart failure resulted from the diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease associated with obesity. Now, however, a new study - published inthe August 1 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine - shows that obesity itself (and not just theassociated medical conditions) can lead to heart failure. Furthermore, the study shows that even excess body weight - in people who are not considered obese - substantially increases the risk of heart failure.The investigators followed 5881 individuals enrolled in the Framingham Heart Study, who were either obese or merely overweight, for an average of 14 years. After adjusting statistically for other risk factorsfor heart failure (such as diabetes, coronary artery disease or hypertension,) those who were merelyoverweight had a risk of developing heart failure that was 34% greater than in non-overweightindividuals; while those who were obese had an incredible 104% increase in risk.

http://www.who.int/cardiovascular_diseases/en/


http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/heartfailure/a/obesityhf.htm


http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/heartfailure/a/obesityhf.htm




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Obesity Adv

The obesity battle starts young for urban poor and must be attacked to preserve future health

Smith ’06 (Stephen, Globe staff writer, “Obesity Battle Starts Young for Urban Poor” The Boston

Globe

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/12/29/obesity_battle_starts_young_for_urban_

poor

By the time they reach the age of 3, more than one-third of low-income urban children are alreadyoverweight or obese, according to a study released yesterday that provides alarming evidence thatthe nation's battle of the bulge begins when toddlers are barely out of diapers. Researchers armedwith scales and measuring devices visited nearly 2,000 families in 20 US cities, including Boston,and evaluated the weight and height of 3-year-olds in an unprecedented effort to focus on obesityamong the nation's most vulnerable children. Their finding: 35 percent of the low-income 3-year-

olds were overweight or obese, a result more than twice the national rate for obesity among preschool children of all income levels and racial groups. Low-income Hispanic children, theresearchers reported in the on line version of the American Journal of Public Health , were themost likely of all to have a weight problem, with 44 percent of those toddlers overweight or obese.




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Community farms are a way to give low income people access to fresh affordable food and potential

job training for urban agriculture

Mark 07 (Jason E., “Street Beets: Urban Farmers Get Hip to Growing ” The Environmental Magazine,Mar/Apr2007, Vol. 18, Issue 2)

The obesity epidemic, too, has hit low-income communities hardest, since the foods that have themost starch and fat are also the cheapest. Many urban food projects are driven by a desire to provide poor communities with healthier options. That's the idea behind Mill Creek Farm inPhiladelphia. Started two years ago by a pair of twenty-something nutrition educators-turnedfarmers, Mill Creek has turned a vacant lot into a 1.5-acre garden full of carrots, squash, tomatoesand okra. At the height of summer, the farm's produce stand regularly sells out of goods. Peopledon't have the option to get fresh, affordable, good quality, organic food in their neighborhood,"says Johanna Rosen, one of the farm's co-founders. Community involvement and the promise of economic benefit are vital for urban agriculture projects to succeed. That's what Redhook Farm inBrooklyn is all about, A three-acre farm built on an abandoned baseball field, Redhook Farm usesorganic farming and marketing as a way to grow economic opportunities for disadvantaged

youth. "We want to have a 21st century park that is training teens for 21st century citizenship,"says Ian Marvey, a co-founder of Redhook Farm. "That means hands-on training to build asustainable economy, whether learning how to grow food [or] how to build a greenhouse."At thecore of urban farming is the desire to put the culture back into agriculture. It's an effort that seeksto place communities at the center of our food system. Back at the City Slicker garden, a cold rainhas started to fall, but Liz Monk and the other volunteers keep working. As she shovels compostout of an old pickup truck, Monk tells a visitor that she spent a summer working on a countryfarm, but says that urban farming is more rewarding. "Just having face-to-face contact — that'ssomething that's very positive," says Monk. "It's the kind of thing that feeds your soul."

Obesity Adv




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Thompson 08 (Clive, Editor of Wired Magazine, http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-09/st_thompson August 2008)

This year, Carol Nissen's crops include mesclun, cherry tomatoes, strawberries, and assortedherbs. When she sits down to dine, she's often eating food grown with her own two hands. But

Nissen isn't tilling the soil on a farm. She's a Web designer who lives in Jersey City, New Jersey — one of the most cramped, concrete-laden landscapes in the nation. Nissen's vegetables thrive in pots and boxes crammed into her house and in wee plots in her yard. "I'm a micro-gardener," shesays. "It's a pretty small townhouse. But it's amazing what you can do without much space." Theterm for this is urban farming — the art of growing vegetables in cities that otherwise resemblethe Baltimore of The Wire. It has become increasingly trendy in recent years, led by health-conscious foodies coveting just-picked produce, as well as hipsters who dig the roll-your-ownvibe. But I think it's time to kick it up a notch. Our world faces many food-resource problems,and a massive increase in edible gardening could help solve them. The next president shouldthrow down the gauntlet and demand Americans sow victory gardens once again. Remember thevictory garden? During World Wars I and II, the government urged city dwellers andsuburbanites to plant food in their yards. It worked: The effort grew roughly 40 percent of the

fresh veggies consumed in the US in 1942 and 1943. These days, we're fighting different battles.Developing nations are facing wrenching shortages of staples like rice. Here at home, we'restruggling with a wave of obesity, fueled by too much crappy fast food and too little fresh produce, particularly in poorer areas. Our globalized food stream poses environmental hazards,too: The blueberries I had for lunch came from halfway around the world, in the process burningtons of CO2. Urban farming tackles all three issues. It could relieve strain on the worldwide foodsupply, potentially driving down prices. The influx of fresh vegetables would help combatobesity. And when you "shop" for dinner ingredients in and around your home, the carbonfootprint nearly disappears. Screw the 100-mile diet — consuming only what's grown within your immediate foodshed — this is the 100- yard diet. Want to cool cities cheaply? Plant crops onrooftops. This isn't just liberal hippie fantasy, either. Defense hawks ought to love urban farming, because it would enormously increase our food independence — and achieve it without the

market distortions of the benighted farm bill. You don't need tomatoes from Mexico if you can pluck them from containers on your office roof. Better yet, urban farming is an excuse to geek outwith some awesome tech. Innovations from NASA and garage tinkerers have made food-growingradically more efficient and compact than the victory gardens of yore. "Aeroponics" plantersgrow vegetables using mist, slashing water requirements; hackers are building home-suitable"aquaponics" rigs that use fish to create a cradle-to-grave ecosystem, generating its own fertilizer (and delicious tilapia, too). Experts have found that cultivating a mere half-acre of urban landwith such techniques can yield more than $50,000 worth of crops annually. But what I love mosthere is the potential for cultural transformation. Growing our own food again would reconnect usto this country's languishing frontier spirit. Once you realize how easy it is to make the concrete jungle bloom, it changes the way you see the world.

Climate and Sprawl Adv

Observational evidence proves the globe is warming

Business Week , August 16, 2004

http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-09/st_thompson








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Tournament 2009


What scientists do know is that carbon dioxide and a number of other gases act like the roof of agreenhouse. Energy from the sun passes through easily. Some of the warmth that normally would beradiated back out to space is trapped, however, warming the planet. With no greenhouse gases at all in theatmosphere, we would freeze. The earth's average temperature would be a cold -17C, not the relatively

balmy 14C it is today. But the atmosphere is fiendishly complicated. If an increase in greenhouse gasesalso makes the sky cloudier, the added clouds may cool the surface enough to offset warming from CO2.Tiny particles from pollution also exert warming or cooling effects, depending on where they are in theatmosphere. Naysayers argue that it's just too soon to tell if greenhouse gases will significantly change theclimate. Yet the climate is changing. In the past 100 years, global temperatures are up 0.6 degrees

Celsius. The past few decades are the warmest since people began keeping temperature records --altering the face of the planet. For instance, the Qori Kalis glacier in Peru is shrinking at a rate of 200meters per year, 40 times as fast as in 1978. It's just one of hundreds of glaciers that are vanishing. Ice

is disappearing from the Arctic Ocean and Greenland. More than a hundred species of animals have

been spotted moving to cooler regions, and spring starts sooner for more than 200 others. ``It'sincreasingly clear that even the modest warming today is having large effects on ecosystems,'' says

ecologist Christopher B. Field of the Carnegie Institution. ``The most compelling impact is the 10%

decreasing yield of corn in the Midwest per degree [of warming.]''

Multiple indicators prove fossil fuel burning is causing warming

Browne 04, (john Lord Browne of Madingley is Group Chief Executive of BP, Foreign Affairs, July 2004 - August 2004

Global temperatures have risen by about 0.6 degrees Celsius since the nineteenth century. Other measures of climate bolster the theory that the world is getting warmer: satellite measurements suggest

that spring arrives about a week earlier now than in the late 1970s, for example, and records show thatmigratory birds fly to higher latitudes earlier in the season and stay later. According to the un'sIntergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (ipcc) -- by far the most authoritative body of scientists

working on this issue -- humans are probably not responsible for all the measured warming. But thetrend is undoubtedly due in large part to substantial increases in carbon dioxide emissions from

human activity. Since the middle of the nineteenth century, the average concentration of carbon dioxide-- a so-called greenhouse gas -- in the world's atmosphere has risen from some 280 parts per million(ppm) to around 370 ppm. Burning fossil fuels account for about three-quarters of human emissions, withdeforestation and changes in land use (mainly in the tropics) accounting for the rest.


Multiple indicators prove warming is occurring now




105

Tournament 2009


Knoxville News-Sentinel (Tennessee), October 26, 2003

The U.N. points to several pieces of evidence indicating the climate is warming. The 10 warmest

years on record have occurred since 1987. The Arctic ice cover has shrunk by 10-15 percent since the1950s during spring and summer. Ocean levels are rising and glaciers are retreating. Temperatures

in North America have risen about 1 degree Fahrenheit over the past century. Satellites and weather balloons show little temperature change across the entire globe, especially above the world's oceans.ORNL is one of several research facilities running computer models of various climate change scenariosfor the fourth international assessment on the possible effects of climate change. John Drake and other ORNL researchers are concentrating on a scenario that describes low population growth coupled with arapid transition toward an information and service economy. Drake said the scenario assumes the use of cleaner energy sources, global solutions and equity between developing and developed countries. "That'sone of the more optimistic scenarios," he said. Even with emissions reductions, Drake said, carbondioxide concentrations in the atmosphere wouldn't begin falling for 50 to 100 years. "One of thefundamental chemical truths is (that) CO2 in the atmosphere takes a certain amount of time to wash out,"Drake said.

Even skeptics from the U.S. Army are admitting that the earth is warming and that it’s caused by

human beingsShachtman 08 ( Noah - Army Climate Skeptic: Global Warming is Man-Made- online- http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/06/global-warming.html 06/05/08

Global warming is real, and at least partially man-made, according to controversial Army

scientist Dr. Bruce West. Greenhouse gases have contributed to rising temperatures by as

much as 70 percent, he said during a conference call with bloggers, arranged by the military.For several years, West, the chief scientist of the Army Research Office's mathematical andinformation science directorate and an adjunct professor at Duke University, has been touting

the Sun's effects on climate change -- and warning that the "anthropogenic contribution to

global warming" has been "significantly over-estimated" by the the majority of the scientific

community. His conference call began on a similarly iconoclastic note, saying that "our research has suggested an alternative to the apparently universally-accepted cause of globalwarming. Many contend that the controversy over global warming had been resolved, with thescientific community concurring that humanity has caused the increase in the Earth's averagesurface temperature... [I] disagree." "Own our analysis of the the total solar irradiance and themodeling of the Earth's response to change in that irradiance lead us to conclude that the Earth'saverage surface temperature is directly linked to... the Sun's dynamics," he added. In some of hisscientific papers, however, West acknowledged that human society, by spewing so-called"greenhouse gases" like carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, is also having an effect. "Since

1975 global warming has occurred much faster than could be reasonably expected from the

sun alone," he wrote in a 2006 study for Geophysical Research Letters. Later in the conferencecall, he sounded a similar note. "We know greenhouse gases are also contributing," West said.

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2008/06/global-warming.html







106

Tournament 2009



Long term- CO2 based warming leads to methane gas release - which is empirically proven to

causes extinction - Stopping methane is a moral imperativeMonbiot- Published Author of The Age of Consent-2003- Shadow of extinction - Only six degrees separate our world from the cataclysmic

end of an ancient era - George Monbiot Tuesday July 1, 2003 - The Guardian – Online-http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,988380,00.html

The events that brought the Permian period (between 286m and 251m years ago) to an end could not be clearlydetermined until the mapping of the key geological sequences had been completed. Until recently, palaeontologists

had assumed that the changes that took place then were gradual and piecemeal. But three years ago a precise date for

the end of the period was established, which enabled geologists to draw direct comparisons between the rocks laid down at that time in different

parts of the world. Having done so, they made a shattering discovery. In China, South Africa, Australia, Greenland, Russia andSvalbard, the rocks record an almost identical sequence of events, taking place not gradually, but relativelyinstantaneously. They show that a cataclysm caused by natural processes almost brought life on earth to an end.They also suggest that a set of human activities that threatens to replicate those processes could exert the same

effect, within the lifetimes of some of those who are on earth today. As the professor of palaeontology Michael Benton

records in his new book, When Life Nearly Died, the marine sediments deposited at the end of the Permian period record two sudden changes.The first is that the red or green or grey rock laid down in the presence of oxygen is suddenly replaced by black muds of the kind deposited whenoxygen is absent. At the same time, an instant shift in the ratio of the isotopes (alternative forms) of carbon within the rocks suggests aspectacular change in the concentration of atmospheric gases. On land, another dramatic transition has been dated to precisely the same time. InRussia and South Africa, gently deposited mudstones and limestones suddenly give way to massive dumps of pebbles and boulders. But the

geological changes are minor in comparison with what happened to the animals and plants . The Permian was one of the most

biologically diverse periods in the earth's history. Herbivorous reptiles the size of rhinos were hunted throughforests of tree ferns and flowering trees by sabre-toothed predators. At sea, massive coral reefs accumulated, amongwhich lived great sharks, fish of all kinds and hundreds of species of shell creatures. Then suddenly there is almost

nothing. The fossil record very nearly stops dead. The reefs die instantly, and do not reappear on earth for 10 million years. All

the large and medium-sized sharks disappear, most of the shell species, and even the great majority of the toughest and most numerous organismsin the sea, the plankton. Among many classes of marine animals, the only survivors were those adapted to the near-absence of oxygen. On land,the shift was even more severe. Plant life was almost eliminated from the earth's surface. The four-footed animals, the category to which humans

belong, were nearly exterminated: so far only two fossil reptile species have been found anywhere on earth that survived the end of the Permian.The world's surface came to be dominated by just one of these, an animal a bit like a pig. It became ubiquitous because nothing else was left to

compete with it or to prey upon it. Altogether, Benton shows, some 90% of the earth's species appear to have been wiped

out: this represents by far the gravest of the mass extinctions. The world's "productivity" (the total mass of biological matter) collapsed.

Ecosystems recovered very slowly. No coral reefs have been found anywhere on earth in the rocks laid down over the following 10 million years.One hundred and fifty million years elapsed before the world once again became as biodiverse as in the Permian. So what happened?Some scientists have argued that the mass extinction was caused by a meteorite. But the evidence they put forward has been undermined byfurther studies. There is a more persuasive case for a different explanation. For many years, geologists have been aware that at some point duringor after the Permian there was a series of gigantic volcanic eruptions in Siberia. The lava was dated properly for the first time in the early 1990s.We now know that the principal explosions took place 251 million years ago, precisely at the point at which life was almost extinguished. Thevolcanoes produced two gases: sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide. The sulphur and other effusions caused acid rain, but would have bled from

the atmosphere quite quickly. The carbon dioxide, on the other hand, would have persisted. By enhancing the greenhouse effect, it

appears to have warmed the world sufficiently to have destabilised the superconcentrated frozen gas called

methane hydrate, locked in sediments around the polar seas. The release of methane into the atmosphereexplains the sudden shift in carbon isotopes. Methane is an even more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon

dioxide. The result of its release was runaway global warming: a rise in temperature led to changes that raisedthe temperature further, and so on. The warming appears, alongside the acid rain, to have killed the plants.

Starvation then killed the animals. Global warming also seems to explain the geological changes. If the temperature of the surface

waters near the poles increases, the circulation of marine currents slows down, which means that the ocean floor is deprived of oxygen. As the

plants on land died, their roots would cease to hold together the soil and loose rock, with the result that erosion rates would have greatlyincreased. So how much warming took place? A sharp change in the ratio of the isotopes of oxygen permits us to reply with some precision: 6C.Benton does not make the obvious point, but another author, the climate change specialist Mark Lynas, does. Six degrees is the upper estimate

produced by the UN's scientific body, the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), for global warming by 2100. A conference of someof the world's leading atmospheric scientists in Berlin last month concluded that the IPCC's model may have underestimated the problem: theupper limit, they now suggest, should range between 7 and 10 degrees. Neither model takes into account the possibility of a partial melting of themethane hydrate still present in vast quantities around the fringes of the polar seas. Suddenly, the events of a quarter of a billion years ago begin

to look very topical indeed. One of the possible endings of the human story has already been told. Our principal

political effort must now be to ensure that it does not become set in stone.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/



http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,988380,00.html


http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,988380,00.html




107

Tournament 2009



We don’t need to stop all global warming, the key to stop decrease CO2 now to stop abrupt climatechange (like a methane releases)

Union of Concerned Scientists- 07.09.2004 – Global Environment- climate scienceAbrupt Climate Change- Online- http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/global_warming/page.cfm? pageID=1405

Can we avoid abrupt climate change? Yes. While abrupt climate change is not a certainty, human-

caused climate change makes abrupt events more likely. What is certain is that human-caused

climate change is already under way, and is expected to continue over the next century as a result of our emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases to the atmosphere. Levels of carbondioxide in the atmosphere are higher today than they have been for more than 400,000 years. Earth'ssurface temperature has increased measurably over the past 100 years, and 10 of the warmest years onrecord have occurred since 1990. This warming has caused changes in rainfall—some regions have

become wetter while others have become drier—and droughts and severe rainfall events have becomemore common. By making choices now to reduce our emissions of heat-trapping gases, we can slow

the rate of global warming and reduce the likelihood of unexpected climate changes.

Transportation and travel costs incease economic, environmental and public health costs


The sheer tonnage of foods that must be transported daily to supply our cities’ residents is stunning. Our current food systems require vast resources for complicated distribution services to move food fromwhere it is raised and processed to reach consumers in cities, with the average supermarket food item in North America traveling 1400 miles. With increasing globalization, our foods now travel even further distances than ever from all over the world. While many enjoy the advantages of this rich and nutritiousarray of foods, there are significant social, economic, public health, and environmental costs to our foodsystem

http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/global_warming/page.cfm?pageID=1405









108

Tournament 2009



Sprawl locks urban areas into a cycle of poverty.Bare 03 (Thomas Benton III, U CT School of Law JD, 21 Va. Envtl. L.J. 455, p. 467-468, LN)

Environmental harms aside, urban sprawl and the flight to the suburbs have had a disastrous effect oncentral cities across the United States. The sprawl phenomenon has led to job flight from city centers,

societal breakdown in cities and suburbs, and has left the urban poor locked in a nearly unbreakable

cycle of increased poverty. As explained in the preceding section, once the federal government beganthe large-scale subsidization of highways and encouragement of individual automobile use, many urban

citizens were able to move to the suburbs and commute into the city to work. 64 Once this trend was

established, employers began to leave the central cities, and followed their employees to the

suburbs. 65 Job flight from the urban core to the suburbs started a cycle that has wreaked havoc on

many city centers. Tax bases have eroded as tax-paying businesses and their workers have fled to

newer, ex-urban areas. 66 Demands for public services have increased as growing numbers of urbanpoor require more social services while their condition continues to deteriorate. 67 Businesses

continue to flee the cities, leaving the poor stranded with little hope for a better future. 68 This

increasing lack of employment opportunities has created a nearly permanent underclass of trapped

urban poor. 69 [*468] Urban property values continue to fall as cities struggle to find tenants, 70and the number of polluted industrial brownfield sites continues to rise. 71 These effects have created a

cycle of decay, intensifying and perpetuating nearly all of these negative impacts. 72

Sprawl adversely affects minorities and the impoverished

Sakowicz 04 (J Celeste, Florida State U JD candidate, 19 J. Land Use & Envtl. Law 377, Spring, p. 386-387, LN)Abandonment of the inner core is a descriptive phrase to describe some of the ills that impact the urban

area that lost its resources to sprawl. 52 Older significant buildings that characterized neighborhoods areeither destroyed or replaced with multiple unit housing to increase their revenue stream or left to decayand deteriorate while new lots are developed, destroying open space and increasing the demand oninfrastructure. 53 The immediate result of developers choosing to divest, or invest elsewhere, impacts

central city residents with deteriorating neighborhoods, thus driving property values drastically

downward. 54 Decreased property values lead to a decreased tax base and therefore taxes are

increased to pay for decreased revenue and social services. Concurrently with deteriorating housing,local employers and industries depart and open new manufacturing or service sector facilities,

which results in unused or underutilized facilities. Frequently, facilities are never reoccupied because the previous owner caused contamination and [*387] the cost to clean the site overruns the benefit of redeveloping the site. 55 The poor and minority communities that generally comprise the majority of

urban city centers are egregiously affected by the local government development system. 56 Sprawl

wastes infrastructure, land, people, and location advantages. Cities have deteriorated naturally withage and instead of developers seizing sites that need to be cleaned up, developers choose regions wherethey begin from nothing because it is less expensive and the liability risk is lower. 57 In addition, sprawl

almost never includes plans for public transportation. 58 Minorities are twice denied

disproportionately: first, with the removal of resources to rebuild their home and work

communities and second with the denial of access to public transportation to obtain the resources

that are now located far from the city center. 59




109

Tournament 2009


A2: States Counterplan

States have to make huge budget cuts in the recession

Newsroom America, “States Planning Deeper Budget Cuts: Report” 2009-06-22,http://www.newsroomamerica.com/usa/story.php?id=457804

As the worst recession in nearly 60 years continues to worsen, states are planning moreand deeper budget cuts to cope with funding shortfalls, The New York Times reported Monday.California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, facing a $24 billion budget shortfall - the nation’sworst - has proposed closing more than 200 parks and releasing thousands of prisoners early.In other states like Maine, Idaho and Kentucky, administrations are planning new taxes oneverything from oil companies to candy to cell phone ring tones. Other states are planning tofurlough state workers and have cut funding to schools, forcing pay cuts for teachers, the paper said."These are some of the worst numbers we have ever seen," Scott D. Pattison, executive

director of the National Association of State Budget Office, told the Times. Pattison said federalstimulus program money that began flowing earlier this year is the only thing preventingwidespread paralysis among state governments."If we didn't have those funds, I think we'd havean incredible number of states just really unsure of how they were going to get a new budgetout," he told the paper. Other analysts said state legislatures and governors haven't faced such adire economic crisis as the one currently in place, the paper said.

Only the federal government solves investment, strengthens the environmental justice

movementRoberts 98 –( R. Gregory Senior Note & Comment Editor, American University Law Review, Volume 48; J.D. Candidate, American

University- American University Law Review- October, 1998- 48 Am. U.L. Rev. 229- ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT:LEARNING FROM THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The Civil Rights Movement demonstrates that community empowerment strategies are an effective

means of overcoming powerlessness. The tactics employed by the Civil Rights Movement empowered individuals,

communities, and ultimately, a national movement. n219 To succeed, the environmental justice movement must [*268] do the same.

Although specific tactics may differ, n220 the underlying concept of empowering individuals to take control of

the struggle for themselves should be at the core of any environmental justice strategy. n221 In fact, any

empowerment strategies adopted by the environmental justice movement stand a better chance of

success than those embraced by the Civil Rights Movement. First, black communities have in place

many of the institutions established during the Civil Rights Movement. n222 Second, because they have

experience with [*269] collective action through various community groups and institutions, minority

communities may be more responsive to organization efforts. n223 Third, through institutions such as the

Congressional Black Caucus, environmental justice advocates are better able to attract the government's attention to the interests andconcerns of minority communities. n224 Finally, the President has already involved himself in the environmental justice debate throughExecutive Order 12,898, thus providing the movement with a degree of national legitimacy.




110

Tournament 2009



Federal - state confusion hurts brownfields clean –up efforts

Sigurani 06-( Miral Alena an Arizona Assistant Attorney General in the Tax, Bankruptcy &

Collection Section. - December, 2006- BROWNFIELDS: CONVERGING GREEN,COMMUNITY AND INVESTMENT CONCERNS.- 43 AZ Attorney 38- State Bar of Arizona-Arizona Attorney- lexis nexis

One major disadvantage to redeveloping a brownfield site is the amount of

paperwork and number of approvals required. n34 Parties interested in a site often

need to work with multiple state and federal agencies, as well as local authorities, toobtain permits and zoning approvals. n35 Because the process can be complicated, it

could extend the timeframe required for the completion of the project, which could

raise its cost.

Only federal government policies solve- uniformity and finality is key

Robertson 99-( Heidi Gorovitz Robertson, J.D., J.S.D., Associate Professor of Law,Cleveland Marshall College of Law; Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, LevinCollege of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State Univ- summer- 1999- RUTGERS LAWREVIEW- VOLUME 51 Summer 1999 - ONE PIECE OF THE PUZZLE: WHY STATEBROWNFEILD PROGRAMS CAN’T LURE BUSSINESS T THE URBAN CORESWITHOUT FINDING THE MISSING PIECES- ONLINE- papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1066718

Uncertain cleanup standards at the state and federal levels also hinder brownfietd

redevelopment" The ubiquitous question “how clean is clean” applies to brownfleld

cleanups just as it does to othercleanups. In addition to problems with imprecise

language regardingcurrently applicable cleanup standards, developers and property

own-ers wonder whether standards considered clean today will be accept-able in thefuture" Therefore. prospective brownfield redevelopersfear a lack of finality.'




111

Tournament 2009



Perm do both – cooperation between the states and federal government is key.

Green 04 (Emily A, Enviro Policy BS, 5 J.L. Soc’y 577, Winter, LN)

An additional barrier to the purchase of a potential brownfield site is the uncertainty of whether adeveloper will be subject to state regulation instead of federal regulation. States are principallyresponsible for the following: (1) sites that do not contain the level of contamination necessitating federalaction, and (2) sites that a state may choose to regulate in the absence of federal regulation. 53 Flexibility

in the federal system has allowed innovation in brownfield policy at the state level. 54 This permits

states to adhere to federal standards or further expand and refine regulations. Still, the fear of

liability exists on many levels, hindering brownfields from being redeveloped at all. 55 Thus, there is a

need for cooperation between federal and state governments to achieve success. 56

Federal action is needed – the institutionalization of pollution by federal legislation has created

business perceptions freezing brownfield redevelopment

Meyer 99 (Peter, consultant for E.P. Systems Group, a consulting firm specializing in brownfieldsredevelopment, December 1999, “Assessment of State Initiatives to Promote Redevelopment of Brownfields,” online: http://www.huduser.org/publications/econdev/assess.html, accessed July 9, 2008Major portions of historically significant urban centers, including central cities and older,industrialized suburbs face growing problems in attracting investment capital for redevelopment of these sites. Redevelopment might retain or increase employment, and ultimately result in increases

in tax revenues, private income and improved housing and commercial property stocks. However,

as the growing awareness and concern over environmental hazards developed and became

institutionalized in federal legislation, the relative disadvantage of “brownfields” sites increased

and the redevelopment potential of neighborhoods where such properties are located has eroded.

The CP is the status quo – current policy uses state programs.

NC Division of Waste Management 8 (North Carolina…, 7/4,http://www.ncbrownfields.org/program_faq.asp)The U.S. EPA began the Brownfields Initiative in 1995 and since that time the states have been

heavily involved in supporting these actions through passage of supportive state statutes. Thefederal and state roles in brownfields differ, but they are all designed to encourage the cleanup and reuseof abandoned contaminated properties referred to as brownfields.The federal program functions to

provide funding to states to develop and operate programs such as this. It also provides grants to

local governments, on a competitive basis, for assessment and cleanup of brownfields sites. The federal brownfields statute (Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act) becameeffective in 2002. It outlines environmental liability and under what circumstances it is deferred to thestate and under what circumstances it remains with the federal government.




112

Tournament 2009



States fail – don’t address problems at a community level and tend to prioritize industrial areas

over impoverished ones

Meyer 99 (Peter, consultant for E.P. Systems Group, a consulting firm specializing in brownfieldsredevelopment, December 1999, “Assessment of State Initiatives to Promote Redevelopment of Brownfields,” online: http://www.huduser.org/publications/econdev/assess.html, accessed July 9, 2008Part of the difficulty in addressing these questions lies in the fact that state brownfield programs focus

on individual brownfield sites, while the real economic development and community improvement

impacts are felt within an area or neighborhood. With state data that was limited to site and projectcharacteristics, nothing could be said definitively about the effects of VCPs on the regeneration of distressed neighborhoods. Inferences about possible special impacts on such areas might have been possible had the projects in the VCPs been identified with respect to their location in distressed areas.While economic development target area locations were reported, the state priority areas were

more likely to be of exceptional environmental concern or zones of concentrated industrial activity,

rather than neighborhoods suffering particularly high levels of economic distress.

Only the federal government solves investment, strengthens the environmental justice

movement

R. Gregory Roberts -Senior Note & Comment Editor, American University Law Review, Volume 48; J.D. Candidate, American

University- American University Law Review- October, 1998- 48 Am. U.L. Rev. 229- ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE AND

COMMUNITY EMPOWERMENT:LEARNING FROM THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT- lexis

The Civil Rights Movement demonstrates that community empowerment strategies are an effective

means of overcoming powerlessness. The tactics employed by the Civil Rights Movement empowered individuals,

communities, and ultimately, a national movement. n219 To succeed, the environmental justice movement must [*268] do the same.

Although specific tactics may differ, n220 the underlying concept of empowering individuals to take control of

the struggle for themselves should be at the core of any environmental justice strategy. n221 In fact, any

empowerment strategies adopted by the environmental justice movement stand a better chance of

success than those embraced by the Civil Rights Movement. First, black communities have in place

many of the institutions established during the Civil Rights Movement. n222 Second, because they haveexperience with [*269] collective action through various community groups and institutions, minority

communities may be more responsive to organization efforts. n223 Third, through institutions such as the

Congressional Black Caucus, environmental justice advocates are better able to attract the government's attention to the interests andconcerns of minority communities. n224 Finally, the President has already involved himself in the environmental justice debate throughExecutive Order 12,898, thus providing the movement with a degree of national legitimacy.

Federal - state confusion hurts brownfields clean –up efforts

Miral Alena Sigurani- an Arizona Assistant Attorney General in the Tax, Bankruptcy & Collection Section. - December, 2006-BROWNFIELDS: CONVERGING GREEN, COMMUNITY AND INVESTMENT CONCERNS.- 43 AZ Attorney 38- State Bar of Arizona-Arizona Attorney- lexis nexis

One major disadvantage to redeveloping a brownfield site is the amount of paperwork and number of

approvals required. n34 Parties interested in a site often need to work with multiple state and federal

agencies, as well as local authorities, to obtain permits and zoning approvals. n35 Because the process can be

complicated, it could extend the timeframe required for the completion of the project, which couldraise its cost.




113

Tournament 2009



Only federal government policies solve- uniformity and finality is key

Heidi Gorovitz Robertson- Heidi Gorovitz Robertson, J.D., J.S.D., Associate Professor of Law,Cleveland Marshall College of Law; Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Levin College of Urban Affairs, Cleveland State Univ- summer- 1999- RUTGERS LAW REVIEW- VOLUME 51

Summer 1999 - ONE PIECE OF THE PUZZLE: WHY STATE BROWNFEILDPROGRAMS CAN’T LURE BUSSINESS T THE URBAN CORES WITHOUT FINDING THEMISSING PIECES- ONLINE- papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1066718

Uncertain cleanup standards at the state and federal levels also hinder brownfietd

redevelopment" The ubiquitous question “how clean is clean” applies to brownfleld cleanups

just as it does to othercleanups. In addition to problems with imprecise language

regardingcurrently applicable cleanup standards, developers and property own-ers wonder

whether standards considered clean today will be accept-able in the future" Therefore.prospective brownfield redevelopersfear a lack of finality.'

Perm do both – cooperation between the states and federal government is key.

Green 4 (Emily A, Enviro Policy BS, 5 J.L. Soc’y 577, Winter, LN)An additional barrier to the purchase of a potential brownfield site is the uncertainty of whether a

developer will be subject to state regulation instead of federal regulation. States are principallyresponsible for the following: (1) sites that do not contain the level of contamination necessitating federalaction, and (2) sites that a state may choose to regulate in the absence of federal regulation. 53 Flexibility

in the federal system has allowed innovation in brownfield policy at the state level. 54 This permits

states to adhere to federal standards or further expand and refine regulations. Still, the fear of

liability exists on many levels, hindering brownfields from being redeveloped at all. 55 Thus, there is a

need for cooperation between federal and state governments to achieve success. 56

Federal action is key – the institutionalization of pollution by federal legislation has created

business perceptions freezing brownfield redevelopment

Peter Meyer, consultant for E.P. Systems Group, a consulting firm specializing in brownfieldsredevelopment, December 1999, “Assessment of State Initiatives to Promote Redevelopment of Brownfields,” online: http://www.huduser.org/publications/econdev/assess.html, accessed July 9, 2008Major portions of historically significant urban centers, including central cities and older,industrialized suburbs face growing problems in attracting investment capital for redevelopment of these sites. Redevelopment might retain or increase employment, and ultimately result in increases

in tax revenues, private income and improved housing and commercial property stocks. However,

as the growing awareness and concern over environmental hazards developed and becameinstitutionalized in federal legislation, the relative disadvantage of “brownfields” sites increased

and the redevelopment potential of neighborhoods where such properties are located has eroded.




114

Tournament 2009



The CP is the squo – current policy uses state programs.

NC Division of Waste Management 08 (North Carolina…, 7/4,http://www.ncbrownfields.org/program_faq.asp)The U.S. EPA began the Brownfields Initiative in 1995 and since that time the states have been

heavily involved in supporting these actions through passage of supportive state statutes. Thefederal and state roles in brownfields differ, but they are all designed to encourage the cleanup and reuseof abandoned contaminated properties referred to as brownfields.The federal program functions to

provide funding to states to develop and operate programs such as this. It also provides grants to

local governments, on a competitive basis, for assessment and cleanup of brownfields sites. The federal

brownfields statute (Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitalization Act) becameeffective in 2002. It outlines environmental liability and under what circumstances it is deferred to thestate and under what circumstances it remains with the federal government.




115

Tournament 2009



State environmental law lacks citizen suits, killing movements and public involvement while

undermining enforcement.

Strasser 07 (Kurt, CT Law School interim dean, Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, 34B.C. Envtl. Aff. L. Rev. 533, LN)Commentators criticized the UECA for not providing greater public involvement in the form of

citizen suits. 110 An earlier draft of the UECA did provide such a remedy. 111 The argument for themhere is substantial. Local citizens' groups, including environmental groups, are quite concerned that

use restrictions and other requirements of an environmental covenant be enforced, and these groupsare likely to be well positioned to observe activity on the property and respond with an enforcementaction. This fact was much of the reason that the UECA Drafting Committee originally considered them.Citizen suits are a very common feature of federal environmental law. 112 However, their use by

states is much more mixed; fifteen states have some form of citizen [*553] suits, although the detailsare widely varied. 113 In the end, the Drafting Committee was more persuaded by this lack of uniformityon the state level. With state practice here so non-uniform, this UECA did not appear to be the proper

vehicle to address the question of citizen suits under state law. This is a difficult policy decision and thereis room for reasonable people to disagree. Some states have authorized citizen suits for environmental law broadly--in these states there will also be citizen suits to enforce environmental covenants. 114 TheDrafting Committee ultimately determined that this matter should be resolved on a state-by-state basiswith reference to broader state policy than that for environmental covenants. 115

States fail – don’t address problems at a community level and tend to prioritize industrial areas

over impoverished ones

Meyer 99 (Peter, consultant for E.P. Systems Group, a consulting firm specializing in brownfieldsredevelopment, December 1999, “Assessment of State Initiatives to Promote Redevelopment of Brownfields,” online: http://www.huduser.org/publications/econdev/assess.html, accessed July 9, 2008

Part of the difficulty in addressing these questions lies in the fact that state brownfield programs focuson individual brownfield sites, while the real economic development and community improvement

impacts are felt within an area or neighborhood. With state data that was limited to site and projectcharacteristics, nothing could be said definitively about the effects of VCPs on the regeneration of distressed neighborhoods. Inferences about possible special impacts on such areas might have been possible had the projects in the VCPs been identified with respect to their location in distressed areas.While economic development target area locations were reported, the state priority areas were

more likely to be of exceptional environmental concern or zones of concentrated industrial activity,

rather than neighborhoods suffering particularly high levels of economic distress.




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CAP Answers

Socialists approve of urban farms as a mechanismSocialist Alliance’08 Socialist Alliance Climate Change Charter http://www.scribd.com/doc/6494898/Socialist-Alliance-Climate-Change-Charter

Food production should be decentralized and localized to reduce the energy needed to transport andrefrigerate foods. The Socialist Alliance supports the growth of urban agriculture, especially as many

cities are built on our most fertile lands. Existing farming communities should be encouraged with income,

resources and training to make the transition to organic agriculture. Biodiversity and the survival of

native ecosystems must be promoted in order to preserve our food supplies and the diversity of native

species that make up the “web of life” on this continent. Land clearing and outdated forestry practices

such as old-growth logging are the bigges tcause of greenhouse gas emissions in Tasmania, and account

for 6%of national GHG emissions .Moreover, native forests that have not been logged store up to three

times more carbon than forests thathave been logged. To increase this “carbon sink”capacity, extensive programs of native-forest planting must be initi-ated.

They call for capitalism to come first --- this is exactly the tool which entrenches racist and

paternalistic dogma.ROSS, 2000 [Marlon; is Professor of English and Associate Director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, New Literary History 31.4; 827-850]

Touting class or "economic justice" as the fundamental stance for left identity is just another way

of telling everybody else to shut up so I can be heard above the fray. Because of the force of "identity politics," a leftist white person would be leery of claiming to lead Blacks toward the promised land, a leftist straightman leery of claiming to lead women or queers, but, for a number of complex rationalizations, we in the middleclass (where all of us writing here currently reside) still have few qualms about volunteering to lead, at leasttheoretically, the working class toward "economic justice." What Eric calls here "left fundamentalism," I'd call, at

the risk of sounding harsh, left paternalism. Of the big identity groups articulated through "identity

politics," economic class remains the only identity where a straight white middle-class man can still

feel comfortable claiming himself a leading political voice, and thus he may sometimes

overcompensate by screaming that this is the only identity that really matters--which is the same as

claiming that class is beyond identity. Partly this is because Marxist theory and Marx himself (a bourgeois intellectual creating the theoretical practice for the workers' revolution) stage the model for

working-class identity as a sort of trans-identification, a magical identity that is transferable to

those outside the group who commit themselves to it wholeheartedly enough. If we look back, we

realize even this magical quality is not special to a history of class struggle, as whites during the New Negromovements of the early twentieth century felt that they were vanguard race leaders because they had putativelyimbibed some essential qualities of Negroness by cross-identifying with the folk and their culture.

Capitalism cannot solve for sexism and racism unless other areas improve

Lorde ,Audre, Black Lesbian, feminist, Poet, “Sister Outsider: Essays & Speeches byAudre Lorde” originally from “Sexism: An American Disease in blackface” p. 64

If the problem of Black women are only derivatives of a larger contradiction between capital and labor, then so isracism, and both must be fought by all of us. The capitalist structure is a many headed monster. I might add here thatin no socialist country that I have visited have I found an absence of racism or of sexism, so the eradication of bothof these diseases seems to involve more than the abolition of capitalism as an institution or political system




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CAP Answers

Cannot view Race in only the lens of Class and Capitalism

Alexander 04 ( Amanda, researcher at the Centre for Civil Society, University of KwaZulu-Natal. “Representation, Recognition and Race: Evaluating Spaces for the

Reproduction of White Dominance” Oct. 2004

In contemporary discourse, however, these elements have been divorced. Toooften, it is assumed that efforts for economic justice can skip over a racialdialogue (and leave it to other groups or thinkers). Some have put forth theargument that class is a stronger factor than race in determining outcomes (here,it is often argued that the poor are white as well as black, and thus whiteness

does not necessarily correspond with privilege). This argument has three major flaws. First, it defies social reality, for though there are white poor, it cannotsoundly be argued that their position is the same as black poor. Class andeconomic forces – particularly the affects of capitalism – interact differently with black bodies than they do with white ones. Second, and perhaps more profoundly, we have come to understand the indivisibility of race and class – thatrace and class articulate with each other and cannot be discussed in such adisparate manner. Finally, it shuts down discussion around issues of race by pointing out the economic and political success of a handful of minorities. Thisline of thought may hold that the United States government is no longer managing a project of white domination, because Colin Powell and Condoleeza

Rice are in elite positions of power. However, the presence of black faces withinthe white dominant power structure does not change the racist logic and practicethat drives such a power configuration. Hence, to discuss race or classindependently of each other – or to argue that one trumps the other – is tomisunderstand the workings of political economy. Sometimes activists will arguefor the centrality of race, to the detriment of class analysis. Race Traitor editor Noel Ignatiev says in his argument for treason to the white race: “I’m black andI’m proud is the modern rendition of ‘Workers of all countries, unite!’’ (inMichaels, 142). When white persons are allowed to consider themselves asrevolutionary by promoting black identity, the economic analysis is weakenedand their own role within the class structure goes unexamined (because it isconsidered irrelevant). The failure to recognize the differential impact of class

dynamics upon blacks and whites allows white persons to unquestioninglyassume positions of power and leadership within racial justice movements.




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CAP Answers

PERM: Marxist conceptions of racism have prevented socialist movementsfrom engaging in antiracist activity. The only way to break the democraticsocialist movement out of this circle is to be sensitized to the criticalimportance of antiracist struggles

WEST Honorary chair of the Democratic Socialist of America 1988Cornell-prof @Princeton University, DSA National Politicall Committee and amember of its African American Commission; “Toward a Socialist Theory of Racism” ;

RACE & ETHNICITY ESERV; http://race.eserver.org/toward-a-theory-of-racism.htmlSocialism and Antiracism: Two Inseparable Yet Not Identical GoalsIt should be apparent that racist practices directed against black, brown,yellow, and red people are an integral element of U. S. history, includingpresent day American culture and society. This means not simply thatAmericans have inherited racist attitudes and prejudices, but, more importantly,that institutional forms of racism are embedded in American society inboth visible and invisible ways. These institutional forms exist not only in remnants of de jure job,

housing, and educational discrimination and political gerrymandering. They also manifest themselves in a de factolabor market segmentation, produced by the exclusion of large numbers of peoples of color from the socioeconomicmainstream. (This exclusion results from limited educational opportunities, devastated families, a disproportionatepresence in the prison population, and widespread police brutality. )

It also should be evident that past Marxist conceptions of racism have

often prevented U. S. socialist movements from engaging in antiracistactivity in a serious and consistent manner. In addition, black suspicion of white-dominated political movements (no matter how progressive) as well asthe distance between these movements and the daily experiences of peoples of color have made it even more difficult to fight racismeffectively. Furthermore, the disproportionate white middle-class composition of contemporary democratic

socialist organizations creates cultural barriers to the participation by peoples of color. Yet this very participation isa vital precondition for greater white sensitivity to antiracist struggle and to white acknowledgment of just howcrucial antiracist struggle is to the U. S. socialist movement. Progressive organizations often find themselves goingaround in a vicious circle. Even when they have a great interest in antiracist struggle, they are unable to attract acritical mass of people of color because of their current predominately white racial and cultural composition. These

organizations are then stereotyped as lily white, and significant numbers of people of color refuse to join. Theonly effective way the contemporary democratic socialist movement can

break out of this circle (and it is possible because the bulk of democraticsocialists are among the least racist of Americans) is to be sensitized to thecritical importance of antiracist struggles. Rather what is needed is morewidespread participation by predominantly white democratic socialistorganizations in antiracist struggles. A major focus on antiracist coalitionwork will not only lead democratic socialists to act upon their belief ingenuine individuality and radical democracy for people around the world;it also will put socialists in daily contact with peoples of color in commonstruggle. Bonds of trust can be created only within concrete contexts of struggle. This interracial interaction guarantees neither love nor

http://race.eserver.org/toward-a-theory-of-racism.html

http://race.eserver.org/toward-a-theory-of-racism.html




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friendship. Yet it can yield more understanding and the realization of twooverlapping goals-- democratic socialism and antiracism. While engagingin antiracist struggles, democratic socialists can also enter into a dialogueon the power relationships and misconceptions that often emerge inmultiracial movements for social justice in a racist society. Honest and

trusting coalition work can help socialists unlearn Eurocentrism in a self-critical manner and can also demystify the motivations of whiteprogressives in the movement for social justice. We must franklyacknowledge that a democratic socialist society will not necessarilyeradicate racism. Yet a democratic socialist society is the best hope for alleviating and minimizing racism,

particularly institutional forms of racism. This conclusion depends on a candid evaluation that guards againstutopian self-deception. But it also acknowledges the deep moral commitment on the part of democratic socialists of all races to the dignity of all individuals and peoples--a commitment that impels us to fight for a more libertarian

and egalitarian society. Therefore concrete antiracist struggle is both an ethicalimperative and political necessity for democratic socialists. It is even moreurgent as once again racist policies and Third World intervention become moreacceptable to many Americans. A more effective democratic socialistmovement engaged in antiracist and antiimperialist struggle can help turn

the tide. It depends on how well we understand the past and present, how courageously we act, and how true

we remain to our democratic socialist ideals of freedom, equality, and democracy.

CAP Answers

Capitalism needed for world peaceBandow ’05 “Spreading Capitalism is Good for Peace” Korea Herald, Bandow- special assistant to Reagan and fellow at Cato Institute.

In a world that seems constantly aflame, one naturally asks: What causes peace? Many people, includingU.S. President George W. Bush, hope that spreading democracy will discourage war. But new research

suggests that expanding free markets is a far more important factor, leading to what ColumbiaUniversity's Erik Gartzke calls a "capitalist peace." Today's corollary is that creating democracies out of

dictatorships will reduce conflict. This contention animated some support outside as well as inside the UnitedStates for the invasion of Iraq. But Gartzke argues that "the 'democratic peace' is a mirage created by

the overlap between economic and political freedom." That is, democracies typically have freer

economies than do authoritarian states. Thus, while "democracy is desirable for many reasons," he notesin a chapter in the latest volume of Economic Freedom in the World, created by the Fraser Institute,"representative governments are unlikely to contribute directly to international peace." Capitalism is by far

the more important factor. The shift from statist mercantilism to high-tech capitalism has transformed

the economics behind war. Markets generate economic opportunities that make war less desirable.

Territorial aggrandizement no longer provides the best path to riches. Free-flowing capital markets and

other aspects of globalization simultaneously draw nations together and raise the economic price of

military conflict. Moreover, sanctions, which interfere with economic prosperity, provides a coercive

step short of war to achieve foreign policy ends. Positive economic trends are not enough to prevent war, but then, neither is democracy. It long has been obvious that democracies are willing to fight, just usually not

each other. Contends Gartzke, "liberal political systems, in and of themselves, have no impact on whether states fight." In particular, poorer democracies perform like non-democracies. He explains: "Democracy doesnot have a measurable impact, while nations with very low levels of economic freedom are 14 times more

prone to conflict than those with very high levels." Gartzke considers other variables, including alliancememberships, nuclear deterrence, and regional differences. Although the causes of conflict vary, the

relationship between economic liberty and peace remains. His conclusion hasn't gone unchallenged.Author R.J. Rummel, an avid proponent of the democratic peace theory, challenges Gartzke's methodologyand worries that it "may well lead intelligent and policy-wise analysts and commentators to draw the wrongconclusions about the importance of democratization." Gartzke responds in detail, noting that he relied on thesame data as most democratic peace theorists. If it is true that democratic states don't go to war, then it also istrue that "states with advanced free market economies never go to war with each other, either." The point isnot that democracy is valueless. Free political systems naturally entail free elections and are more likely




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to protect other forms of liberty - civil and economic, for instance. However, democracy alone doesn'tyield peace. To believe is does is dangerous: There's no panacea for creating a conflict-free world. Thatdoesn't mean that nothing can be done. But promoting open international markets - that is, spreading

capitalism - is the best means to encourage peace as well as prosperity. If market critics don't realize

the obvious economic and philosophical value of markets - prosperity and freedom - they should

appreciate the unintended peace dividend. Trade encourages prosperity and stability; technologicalinnovation reduces the financial value of conquest; globalization creates economic interdependence,increasing the cost of war. Nothing is certain in life, and people are motivated by far more than economics.But it turns out that peace is good business. And capitalism is good for peace.

CAP Answers

Our opponents’ representations of Capitalism create it as something that can only be

defeated and replaced by a mass collective movement which they are unable to generate

solvency for and would not resolve the issues that it would purport to address. The

economy can be fragmented, which allows us to see its massive sectors that are un or anti-

capitalist. Viewing capitalism as a discursive construction allows uis to participate in and

reconsitute society on a daily basisJ.K. Gibson-Graham , 1996 . Julie Gibson is Professor of feminist economic Geography at the University of Massachusetts in

Amherst. Katherine Graham is professor and dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs at Carleton. “The End of Capitalism (as we knew it): AFeminist Critique of Political Economy,” Blackwell Publishers, p.263-4]-AC

One of our goals as Marxists has been to produce a knowledge of capitalism. Yet as “that which is known,” Capitalism has

become the intimate enemy. We have uncloaked the ideologically-clothed, obscure monster, but we have installed a naked and

visible monster in its place. In return for our labors of creation, the monster has robbed us of all force. We hear — and

find it easy to believe — that the left is in disarray. Part of what produces the disarray of the left is the

vision of what the left is arrayed against. When capitalism is represented as a unified system

coextensive with the nation or even the world, when it is portrayed as crowding out all other economic forms, when it

is allowed to define entire societies, it becomes something that can only be defeated and replaced by a

mass collective movement (or by a process of systemic dissolution that such a movement might assist). The revolutionary task of replacing capitalism now seems

outmoded and unrealistic, yet we do not seem to have an alternative conception of class transformation to take its place. The old political economic “systems” and “structures” thatcall forth a vision of revolution as systemic replacement still seem to be dominant in the Marxist political imagination. The New World Order is often resented as political

fragmentation founded upon economic unification. In this vision the economy appears as the last stronghold of unity and singularity in a world of diversity and plurality. But why

can’t the economy be fragmented too? If we theorized it as fragmented in the United States, we could

begin to see a huge state sector (incorporating a variety of forms of appropriation of surplus labor), a very large sector

of self-employed and family-based producers (most noncapitalist), a huge household sector (again, quite various

in terms of forms of exploitation, with some households moving towards communal or collective appropriation and others operating in atraditional mode in which one adult appropriates surplus labor from another). None of these things is easy to see or to theorize as

consequential in so-called capitalist social formations. If capitalism takes up the available social space, there’s no

room for anything else. If capitalism cannot coexist, there’s no possibility of anything else. If capitalism is

large, other things appear small and inconsequential. If capitalism functions as a unity, it cannot be partially or

locally replaced. My intent is to help create the discursive conditions under which socialist or other

noncapitalist construction becomes a “realistic” present activity rather than a ludicrous or utopian

future goal. To achieve this I must smash Capitalism and see it in a thousand pieces. I must make its unity a




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Urban Agriculture Affirmativefantasy, visible as a denial of diversity and change. In the absence of Capitalism, I might suggest a different object of socialist politics.

Perhaps we might be able to focus some of our transformative energies on the exploitation and surplus

distribution that go on around us in so many forms and in which we participate in various ways . In the

household, in the so-called workplace, in the community, surplus labor is produced, appropriated, and distributed every day by ourselves

and by others. Marx made these processes visible but they have been obscured by the discourse of Capitalism, with its vision of

two great classes locked in millennial struggle. Compelling and powerful though it might be, this discourse does not allow for a

variety of forms of exploitation and distribution or for the diversity of class positions andconsciousnesses that such processes might participate in creating. If we can divorce our ideas of class

from systemic social conceptions, and simultaneously divorce our ideas of class transformation from

projects of systemic transformation, we may be able to envision local and proximate socialisms.

Defining socialism as the communal production, appropriation and distribution of surplus labor, we

could encounter and construct it at home, at work, at large. These “thinly defined” socialisms wouldn’t

remake our societies overnight in some total and millennial fashion (Cullenberg 1992) but they could

participate in constituting and reconstituting them on a daily basis. They wouldn’t be a panacea for all the ills that

we love to heap on the doorstep of Capitalism, but they could be visible and replicable now.23 To step outside the discourse of

Capitalism, to abjure its powers and transcend the limits it has placed on socialist activity, is not to step outside Marxism as I

understand it. Rather it is to divorce Marxism from one of its many and problematic marriages — the

marriage to “the economy” in its holistic and self-sustaining form. This marriage has spawned a healthy lineage

within the Marxist tradition and has contributed to a wide range of political movements and successes. Now I am suggesting that themarriage is no longer fruitful or, more precisely, that its recent offspring are monstrous and frail. Without delineating the innumerable

grounds for bringing the marriage to an end, I would like to mark its passing,24 and to ask myself and others not

to confuse its passing with the passing of Marxism itself. For Marxism directs us to consider

exploitation, and that is something that has not passed away.

CAP Answers

. In this way noncapitalism is always suppressed and marginalized. Essentialist views of

capitalism reproduce the systems they criticize.

J.K. Gibson-Graham , 1996 . Julie Gibson is Professor of feminist economic Geography at the University of Massachusetts in

Amherst. Katherine Graham is professor and dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs at Carleton. “The End of Capitalism (as we knew it): AFeminist Critique of Political Economy,” Blackwell Publishers, p.7-11]-AC

Capitalism’s others fail to measure up to it as the true form of economy: its feminized other, the household economy, may be seen tolack its efficiency and rationality; its humane other, socialism, may be seen to lack its productivity; other forms of economy lack itsglobal extensiveness, or its inherent tendency to dominance and expansion. No other form displays its systemic qualities or its capacityfor self- reproduction (indeed projects of theorizing noncapitalism frequently founder upon the analogical imperative of representing aneconomic totality, complete with crisis., dynamics, logics and “laws of motion”). Thus despite their ostensible variety, noncapitalistforms of economy often present themselves as a homogeneous insufficiency rather than as positive and differentiated others. To accountfor the demotion and devaluation of noncapitalism’4 we must invoke the constitutive or performative force of economic representation.

For depictions of capitalism — whether prevalent and persistent or rare and deliquescent — position noncapitalism in

relations of subsumption, containment, supersession, replication, opposition and complementarity to capitalism as the

quintessential economic To take a few examples from a list that is potentially infinite; (1) Capitalism appears as the

“hero” of the industrial development narrative, the inaugural subject of “history,” the bearer of the future, of modernity, of universality. Powerful, generative, uniquely sufficient tothe task of social transformation,’6 capitalism liberates humanity from the struggle with nature. (In its corresponding role as antihero, capitalist development bears the primaryresponsibility for underdevelopment and environmental degradation.) (2) Capitalism is enshrined at the pinnacle of social evolution. There it brings — or comes together with — theend of scarcity, of traditional social distinctions, of ignorance and superstition, of antidemocratic or primitive political forms (this is the famous social countenance of

modernization).’7 The earthly kingdom of modernism is built upon a capitalist economic foundation. (3) Capitalism exists as a unified system or

body, bounded, hierarchically ordered, vitalized by a growth imperative, and governed by a telos of

reproduction. Integrated, homogeneous, coextensive with the space of the social, capitalism is the

unitary “economy” addressed by macroeconomic policy and regulation. Though it is prone to crises

(diseases), it is also capable of recovery or restoration. (4) Capitalism is an architecture or structure of power, which is con ferred by ownership

and by managerial or financial control. Capitalist exploitation is thus an aspect or effect of domination, and firm size and spatial scope an index of power (quintessentially embodied

in the multinational corporation). (5) Capitalism is the phallus or “master term” within a system of social differentiation.

Capitalist industrialization grounds the distinction between core (the developed world) and periphery (the so-

called Third World). It defines the household as the space of “consumption” (of capitalist commodities) and of “reproduction” (of the capitalist workforce) rather than as a space of

noncapitalist production and consumption. Capitalism confers meaning upon subjects and other social sites in relation to

itself, as the contents of its container, laid out upon its grid, identified and valued with respect to its

definitive being. Complexly generated social processes of commodification, urbanization, internationalization, proletarianization are viewed as aspects of capitalism’s

self-realization. (6) Capitalism’s visage is plastic and malleable, its trajectory protean and inventive.18 It undergoes periodic crises and emerges regenerated in novel manifestations

(thus Fordism is succeeded by post-Fordism, organized by disorganized capitalism, competitive by monopoly or global capitalism). (7) Ultimately capitalism is

unfettered by local attachments, labor unions, or national-level regulation. The global (capitalist) economy is




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the new realm of the absolute, the not contingent, from which social possibility is dictated or by which it is

constrained. In this formulation economic determinism is reborn and relocated, transferred from its traditional home in the “economic base” to the

international space of the pure economy (the domain of the global finance sector and of the all powerful multinational corporation). (8) It is but one step from

global hegemony to capital as absolute presence: “a fractal attractor whose operational arena is

immediately coextensive with the social field” (Massumi 1993: 132), “an enormous. . . monetary mass that

circulates through foreign exchange and across borders,”“a worldwide axiomatic” (Deleuze and Guattari 1987: 453)

engaged in “the relentless saturation of any remaining voids and empty places” (Jameson 1991: 412), “appropriating” individuals to its circuits (Grossberg 1992: 132). Here the

language of flows attests not only to the pervasiveness and plasticity of capital but to its ultimate freedom from the boundedness of Identity. Capitalism becomes

the everything everywhere of contemporary cultural representation. If this catalogue seems concocted from exaggerations and

omissions, that will not surprise us.’9 For we have devised it in line with our purposes, and have left out all manner of counter and alternative representations. Indeed, as our criticssometimes charge, we have constructed a “straw man” — or more accurately a bizarre and monstrous being that will never be found in pure form in any other text.2° The question

then becomes, what to do with the monster? Should we refine it, cut it down to size, render it once again

acceptable , unremarkable, invisibly visible? Should we resituate it among its alter and counter

representations, hoping thereby to minimize or mask its presence in social and cultural thought? These are familiar strategies for dealing with something so gauche and

ungainly, so clearly and crudely larger than life. But of course there are alternative ways of disposing of the creature, perhaps more

conducive to its permanent relegation. Might we not take advantage of its exaggerated and outlandish presence, and the obviousness that attends it? We can see — it has been placed before us — that a (ridiculous) monster is afoot. It has consequently become “obvious” that our usual strategy is not to banish or slay it, but rather to tame it: hedge it withqualifications, rive it with contradictions, discipline it with contingencies of politics or culture; make it more “realistic” and reasonable, more complex, less embarrassing, less

outrageous. But where does such a process of domestication leave us? Unfortunately, it does not necessarily address the discursive features

and figurings that render capitalism superior to its noncapitalist others. Capitalism might still relate to

noncapitalist economic sites (in the so-called Third World and in “backward” regions and sectors in the developed world)

through images of penetration. Its body could continue to “cover” the space of the social, so thateverything noncapitalist was also capitalist (not of course a reciprocal relation). It could still be inherently

capable of initiating thoroughgoing (perhaps dysfunctional) social transformation, relegating noncapitalism

to a space of necessary weakness and defeat. It might still be driven by internal dynamics of expansion

or regeneration, taking advantage of the relative vitality and longevity such imperatives confer. And it

could still figure as a systemic totality, producing economic monism as an implication or effect. It seems

quite likely, then, that noncapitalism could continue to be suppressed or marginalized by a tamer beast. In

CAP Answers cont…

the hierarchical relation of capitalism to noncapitalism lies (entrapped) the possibility of theorizing

economic difference, of supplanting the discourse of capitalist hegemony with a plurality and

heterogeneity of economic forms. Liberating that possibility is an anti-essentialist project, and perhaps the

principal aim of this book.2’ But it is no simple matter to know how to proceed. Casting about for a way to begin we have found feminist and other anti-essentialist projects of rethinking identity and social hegemony particularly fruitful.,




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CAP Answers

Referring to the US or any economy as capitalist is a violent act of naming that erases theheterogeneous complexity of the economy

J.K. Gibson-Graham , 2001 . Julie Gibson is Professor of feminist economic Geography at the University of Massachusetts in

Amherst. Katherine Graham is professor and dean of the Faculty of Public Affairs at Carleton. “An Ethics of the Local,”http://communityeconomies.org/papers/rethink/rethinkp1.pdf ]-AC

I want to turn now to thinking about how we as local subjects might cultivate ourselves in accordance with the principles of a localethics, and to describe as a vehicle for that cultivation process a multi-continental program of research that is attempting to create socialand discursive spaces in which ethical practices of self-formation can occur. In introducing that research program, I invoke the term“politics”—because I see these practices of resubjectivation or making ourselves anew as ultimately (if not simply) political (Connolly

1999).7 The research projects I will describe are focused on transforming ourselves as local economic

subjects, who are acted upon and subsumed by the global economy, into subjects with economic

capacities, who enact and create a diverse economy through daily practices both habitual (and thus

unconscious) and consciously intentional. But these practices of self-transformation rely on an initial and somewhat difficult move.

If we are to cultivate a new range of capacities in the domain of economy, we need first to be able to see

noncapitalist activities and subjects (including ones we admire) as visible and viable in the economic terrain.This involves supplanting representations of economic sameness and replication with images of

economic difference and diversification. Feminist economic theorists have bolstered our confidence

that such a representation is both possible and productive. Based on a variety of empirical undertakings, they argue

that the noncommodity sector (in which unpaid labor produces goods and services for nonmarket circulation) accounts for

30-50 percent of total output in both rich and poor countries (Ironmonger 1996). According to the familiar definition

of capitalism as a type of commodity production, this means that a large portion of social wealth is noncapitalist in

origin. And even the commodity sector is not necessarily capitalist—commodities are just goods and

services produced for a market. Slaves in the antebellum U.S. south produced cotton and other commodities, and in the

contemporary U.S. worker-owned collectives, selfemployed people, and slaves in the prison industry all produce goods and services for

the market, but not under capitalist relations of production.8 Arguably, then, less than half of the total product of the U.S.

http://communityeconomies.org/papers/rethink/rethinkp1.pdf

http://communityeconomies.org/papers/rethink/rethinkp1.pdf




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economy is produced under capitalism. From this perspective, referring to the U.S. or any economy as

capitalist is a violent act of naming that erases from view the heterogeneous complexity of the

economy.

a curb an agriculture

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