Herbicide-Free Advocacy in the COVID-19 Era

The start of Herbicide-free LMU and an early commitment to be 100 percent organic!

Written by Sierra Barsten

There are arguably a number of dire issues facing the U.S. and the world at large, with COVID-19 now falling amongst them. With people’s livelihoods being torn apart in the wake of this ongoing pandemic, now seems a more relevant time than ever to advocate for solutions to society’s most glaring shortcomings. Given the immense pressure our healthcare systems are under already, the fight for herbicide-free green spaces and food systems is even more vital than before. Those who bear the burden of synthetic agrochemicals face increased risk for compounding health ailments, such as viruses and respiratory illnesses. While environmental toxicity might not be everyone’s first thought right now, farmworkers, landscapers, and a passionate movement of students are among those on the frontlines of this public health battle.

My involvement in this movement was cultivated over time, and grew with my education. When I was a sophomore at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, like many students, I lived on campus. Every month or so, campus residents would receive email notices from Facilities Management about the upcoming spraying of pesticides and herbicides around campus residences. These emails would consist of warnings along the lines of, “Close your windows and stay out of the vegetation around the buildings”. This never seemed to alarm anyone else around me; rather, people simply complied.

At the time, I had a relatively surface-level understanding of such chemicals. However, it wasn’t until later that my Environmental Studies education equipped me with an awareness of the true extent of these chemicals’ intersectional implications. And these chemicals are no simple matter to be merely glanced over in a monthly email. As I came to learn just a couple of months ago, a mere semester away from graduating, our campus has been reliant on herbicides such as Dimension, Rodeo (glyphosate-based), and Sandea. All of these are highly toxic solutions used to kill plants deemed undesirable by colonial landscaping standards, often killing additional unintended plants and organisms in the process. For many, universities are a safe place for students to learn, grow, and flourish. The existence of such chemicals in our educational spaces, especially at social justice-oriented institutions like LMU, is deeply contradictory.

Synthetic pesticides and herbicides, like those that our campus has previously relied upon, are exceedingly toxic compounds. Capable of inflicting serious damage to human and environmental well-being, they are often petrochemical-based, meaning that their production and use is also contingent upon the ongoing extraction of fossil fuels. These agrochemicals are used not only in our educational environments, but in our public green spaces and the vast majority of agriculture as well. The long-term effects of pesticides, especially for those who come into frequent contact with them, pose significant public health concerns, such as various cancers, neurological degeneration, respiratory illnesses, skin ailments, and reproductive disorders. The burden of toxic agrochemicals has also been disproportionately shouldered by people of color, undocumented immigrants, migrant farmworkers, Indigenous peoples, and socioeconomically vulnerable groups working in landscape maintenance positions. Thus, our dependence on synthetic herbicides is not only a threat to public health, but is a social, political, environmental, and racial justice issue. It is the immensely intersectional and complex nature of this issue that led me to my interest in Herbicide Free Campus, and starting the herbicide-free movement on my own campus.

Volunteers and groundskeepers during Herbicide-free LMU’s second student work day

Despite LMU’s campus being closed and student weeding days having been canceled, the groundskeeping team’s commitment to going 100 percent organic has not wavered. When I started the LMU campaign for Herbicide-Free, I never could have predicted that only three months later I would have a fully functioning committee and a long-term partnership with the campus groundskeepers. During this semester, our campaign has managed to secure the groundskeeping supervisor’s commitment to going herbicide-free, establish regular student work days with the groundskeepers, build a committee of dedicated core members, and connect students with their campus’s hard working groundskeeping staff. With classes moved online and work being remote for the time being, I have not lost hope for our movement on campus. For the remainder of my short time at LMU before graduating (via Zoom?) in May, I look forward to continuing our campaign’s work in supporting our groundskeepers and protecting the LMU community from toxic herbicides.

In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic (while certainly not the ideal start to 2020), numerous advocacy opportunities lie ahead. Universal healthcare, wage justice, regenerative food systems, and ethical labor practices are all in desperate demand as our system of unregulated, neoliberal capitalism *shockingly* fails for many. In a short time, we have seen communities grow closer, wage justice concerns being paid more attention, environmental degradation slowing, and a strengthened push for equitable and accessible healthcare. When considering the intersectional experiences of farmworkers, for example, an undocumented field worker could be enduring exploitation in the workplace, exposure to toxic agrochemicals, lack of adequate healthcare, and the looming possibility of COVID-19. If we can continue to fight for herbicide-free green spaces and the health of our communities during this time, we can show that grassroots advocacy is successful, and can be in the context of other issues as well. My hope is that this challenging time allows people to see more clearly the areas in which our government and economy are lacking, and how campaigns such as Herbicide-Free Campus can help transition the U.S. to a more just and equitable society.

Sierra Barsten is a graduating senior in attendance at Loyola Marymount University. Majoring in Environmental Studies with a minor in Women's and Gender Studies, she is also the Director of Sustainability within LMU's student government. Through this position, she has proposed and worked on a number of initiatives to improve on-campus sustainability. Sierra also started and continues to lead the LMU campaign for Herbicide-Free Campus, now a growing movement on her campus that has secured approval for the transition to 100% organic land management. In addition to working on sustainability projects and eliminating herbicides from her campus, she has interests in regenerative food systems, environmental justice, farmworker rights, and decolonization. In her cherished spare time she enjoys hiking, backpacking, cooking, reading, and working at a local vegan restaurant.