Interview: Mackenzie Feldman & Arianna Maysonave, Herbicide-Free Campus
This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, UofL's Sustainability Coordinator, Justin Mog, pulls some weeds with Mackenzie Feldman & Arianna Maysonave from Herbicide-Free Campus (herbicidefreecampus.org), a campaign to ban herbicides at schools! Mackenzie is a 25 year old from Honolulu, Hawai'i, and is the Founder & Executive Director of Herbicide-Free Campus. She graduated from University of California-Berkeley in Spring 2018 with a degree in Society and Environment and a minor in Food Systems. While attending UC Berkeley, Mackenzie and Bridget Gustafson created Herbicide-Free Cal after the two got herbicides banned from their beach volleyball courts and decided to expand the campaign to the rest of the campus.
Upon graduating in 2018, Mackenzie expanded the campaign to the rest of the UCs, and then nationwide, and Herbicide-Free Campus (HFC) was born. The campaign resulted in the entire University of California system going glyphosate-free; HFC also worked with the Protect Our Keiki Coalition to get all herbicides banned from every public school in the state of Hawaii. Mackenzie received the 2019 Brower Youth Award for her work with HFC. Mackenzie is also a Food Sovereignty Research Assistant for the FAO and a Food Research Fellow for Data For Progress, where she writes food and agriculture policy for the Green New Deal.
Arianna is a graduate of UC Berkeley with a B.A. in Public Health and Psychology and a minor in Food Systems. Her interdisciplinary background includes Global Health education at the University of Geneva, research on international women's empowerment, and non-profit experience in the food space. She is interested in the growing field of planetary health, and sees HFC as a cutting edge organization at the intersection of human and environmental health. Arianna serves as the Director of Development, and is working to expand the breadth and depth of Herbicide-Free Campus' reach.
Read the Poison Parks report about herbicide use in NYC parks that was produced by the Black Institute in January 2020: theblackinstitute.org/wp-content/upl…0820_FINAL.pdf
Learn about the legacy of pesticides in Louisville at the BlackLeaf Superfund site in Parkland. www.courier-journal.com/story/tech/sc…af/312671001/
In May, WDRB reported that a new USGS study of pesticides in U.S. rivers and streams found that, on average, 17 pesticides were detected at least once at the 74 river and stream sites sampled 12 to 24 times per year during 2013–2017. Herbicides were detected much more frequently than insecticides and fungicides. www.wdrb.com/weather/wdrb-weath…-739ca6bfcc17.html
Learn more about Mackenzie's story at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNpXc0bZa3c
Learn more about Dwyane Lee Johnson's trip to Hawai'i at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvjJvECuDww
As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW!
Sustainability Now! airs on Forward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at forwardradio.org
