Tour participants visit a former barge shipping terminal in Minneapolis that is being redeveloped into a 20-acre park.
Photos courtesy Food and Environment Working Group
As in many cities in the U.S., a legacy of environmental injustice impacts the well-being of people in Minneapolis. Factories and other industries have released pollutants into communities, leaving health risks to residents behind.
Community activists have made inroads in addressing the problems and are sharing their lessons learned with other public health supporters. Among those were participants in a neighborhood tour held during APHA’s 2024 Annual Meeting and Expo in October.
APHA’s Food and Environment Working Group partnered with a Minneapolis coalition to see firsthand how industries have polluted the environment where many underserved populations live and what is being done to combat effects. About two dozen Annual Meeting attendees boarded a bus at the Minneapolis Convention Center on Oct. 26 to learn more.
The two-hour tour emphasized how small coalitions can make monumental change, said Patti Truant Anderson, MPH, PhD, a senior program officer at Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and co-chair of the working group.
The Food and Environment Working Group, a collaboration between APHA’s Environment and Food and Nutrition Sections, organizes tours each year in conjunction with APHA’s Annual Meeting to showcase food systems and environments in host cities. The tours give participants the opportunity to experience local food and environmental landscapes up close, organizers say.
The working group collaborated with Community Members for Environmental Justice, a coalition of Minneapolis residents working for environmental justice in their city.
Tour participants visited several sites in the city’s industrial hub, including Northern Metals, a former metal recycling facility with a history of releasing carcinogens and toxic emissions; and a GAF roofing plant, which has been linked to elevated air pollution and cancer incidence.
A 2016 study by the Bottineau Neighborhood Association found that four neighborhoods near the GAF roofing plant had dramatically higher rates of cancer mortality compared to the state and national average.
Justice Jones, associate project director and media manager at Community Members for Environmental Justice, said the coalition is committed to addressing historical harms and injustices in the area while also working to create a path for future generations to continue tackling issues.
“For CMEJ, it is like hearing the voice of community members and actually hearing it, not just asking for it,” Jones told The Nation’s Health. “One of the big things that we try to focus on with our tours is not just what’s wrong, but also how can we make it right and what role...you as an individual play in making it.”
A key win of the coalition was its work on the Cumulative Impacts Law, passed by the Minnesota state Legislature in 2023.
The new law requires any facility applying for a new or expanded air permit within a one-mile range of a designated environmental justice community in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Rochester or Duluth to look at the cumulative impact of the facility’s pollution, in addition to other effects that are already present.
Attendees pose for a photo at Terrell Mayes Garden, which pays tribute to a Minneapolis toddler killed by gun violence.
After the bill passed, Community Members for Environmental Justice signed a purchase agreement with the owner of the former Northern Metals facility. The coalition plans to convert the space into a a museum, solar farm, community garden and smoothie shop for more access to healthier foods.
“That’s a super huge win for us,” Justice said. “Not only did we get rid of this major polluter, but we also get to buy the space, convert it and be the example of how to turn an industrial corridor into a green space.”
For more information, visit www.cmejustice.org.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
