{"id":41863,"date":"2026-06-18T00:01:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T04:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/?p=41863"},"modified":"2026-06-17T20:17:35","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T00:17:35","slug":"this-juneteenth-a-rededication-to-environmental-justice-now-under-attack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/beyondpesticides.org\/dailynewsblog\/2026\/06\/this-juneteenth-a-rededication-to-environmental-justice-now-under-attack\/","title":{"rendered":"This Juneteenth, A Rededication to \u00a0Environmental Justice, Now Under Attack"},"content":{"rendered":"

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(Beyond Pesticides<\/em>, June 18, 2026) Friday, June 19, is Juneteenth, a commemoration of the abolition of slavery and a celebration of human freedom. \u201cInjustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,\u201d Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr proclaimed. This truth raises societal concerns of continuing systemic environmental racism and institutional failures of predominately white institutions and the need to protect those at disproportionate risk, specifically Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities, from agricultural and industrial pollution.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

[Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom for the last 250,000 enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, but it is also a reminder that justice has not historically been \u201cswift\u201d or complete for Black Americans. The holiday commemorates the abolition of slavery in Texas on June 19, 1865, two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth, officially recognized as a federal holiday since 2021, commemorates the arrival of Union soldiers in Galveston, Texas, to free enslaved people per the Emancipation Proclamation that was issued two and a half years prior. While June 19, 1865, does not mark the legal end of slavery nationwide, it was a crucial moment in the fight for freedom and continues to highlight the ongoing fight<\/a> for human rights, equality, and environmental justice.]<\/span><\/p>\r\n

In addition to elevated rates of adverse health effects, disproportionate impacts of chemical and pesticide exposure result in nutrition and medical injustice. \u201cMore than 1 in 3 Black (36.5 percent) adults age 18 and older reported household food insecurity in the last 12 months [as of January 2026],\u201d according to findings from the 2025 sample of Urban Institute\u2019s Well-Being and Basic Needs Survey<\/a> (WBNS). In this same category, just 18.1 percent of white adults reported food insecurity. Black older adults with the age of 65 and over \u201cwere nearly three times as likely as older white adults to report food insecurity in 2025.\u201d According to American Cancer Society<\/a>, \u201cBlack women are 40% more likely to die of breast cancer than white women and are twice as likely to die if they are younger than 50.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Access to food is considered a human right, including access to food that is not poisoned with agricultural chemicals designed to kill. However, common use of toxic pesticides in the production of crops causes harm to those who eat residues of the chemicals on their food, but also to workers engaged in its production, to communities contaminated by chemicals that move from the fields to the air, land, and water, and to those living near chemical manufacturing that causes exposure to factory emissions. The Eating With a Conscience<\/a> database documents the poisonous pesticides allowed in the production of over 90 fruits, vegetables, and common food items, identifying the broad range of pesticides to which people are exposed. In this context, public health and environmental advocates continue to call for a significant public investment in the transition to organic crop production and land management systems that eliminate the chemical harm from petrochemical pesticide and fertilizer production, use, and disposal.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

Peer-Reviewed Science on Disproportionate Harm
\r\n<\/strong>Two pieces, International Journal of Environmental Justice Research<\/em><\/a> and BMC Public Health<\/em><\/a>, underscore the disproportionate impacts that Black individuals and communities face from pesticide exposure. In the first piece, researchers review 128 peer-reviewed papers with an environmental justice lens on the disparities associated with pesticide exposure. One of the main citations, Pesticides and environmental injustice in the USA: root causes, current regulatory reinforcement and a path forward<\/em><\/a>, finds that Black and Mexican American populations face five times higher pesticide exposure relative to white Americans, after assessing biomonitoring data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention\u2019s (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) between 1999 and 2016.<\/span><\/p>\r\n

There are additional key findings relevant to this discussion:<\/span><\/p>\r\n