Hello and this is Adriana and Anthony from the youth enterprise group. Yesterday Anthony and Robert began their Lois Gibbs fellowship about environmental justice. The fellowship was inspired by Lois Gibbs, who led the fight to get children and families out of a toxic environment, the Love Canal. She told the story of her and her neighbors and how they organized for environmental justice. The Love Canal is in the northern area near Buffalo and there were many companies dumping a lot of toxic waste into a dump-site that had a school built and homes over it. The chemicals started leaking into the peoples basements who lived in the area and the toxic chemicals got into their heating systems. These chemicals were so poisonous that 56% of children born in the neighborhood were born with birth defects. Lois Gibbs was a mom whose young son became very sick from the exposure to the chemicals just by going to school and living in his neighborhood. Lois Gibbs was telling us about ways she and her neighbors fought to secure the safety of the residents in Love Canal. Food justice is related to environmental justice because they both affect people in my neighborhood. It's not right that people have to live without healthy food our without healthy neighborhoods, we all deserve better than that. Also we're connected to our land, which provides us with the food, water, animals, plants, and materials that we need to live. We have to protect these natural resources so that we can have a future. I want my grandchildren to be able to see the oceans, grass, and animals that i was able to see.We still have a chance to save the future. In fact we are the future.
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