For
Immediate Release
June
5, 2019
**PRESS RELEASE**
Sierra Club Statement Regarding Berman Law Group
Class Action Lawsuit
The Sierra Club Stop Sugar Field Burning Campaign, launched in 2015, is
not a party to the Berman Law Group class action lawsuit. The fight to move Big Sugar to stop
pre-harvest field burning is a huge one.
Many generations, hundreds of thousands of residents, in and around the
Glades have been subjected to the smoke and ash that the industry has callously
dumped upon them. We are pleased that
the work of local Stop the Burn-Go Green
activists over the last four years has elevated the issue to a such a high
profile; this lawsuit is one of many new angles from which impacted residents
will come to pressure the sugar industry to “stop the burn.”
Pre-harvest sugar field burning
is an outdated, toxic, and unjust practice that the sugar industry can and must
stop. The alternative, the green
harvesting of sugarcane, is already practiced in other countries, in parts of
Louisiana, and even in the Everglades Agricultural Area (EAA) when convenient
for the Florida sugar industry. It has
long been time for the industry to move to modern, sustainable green harvesting
as the ultimate solution to the environmental injustice of pre-harvest sugar
field burning. Green harvesting not only ends the burn, but also provides
growers a new source of income. The
trash that is now going up in smoke can be turned into biochar, biofuels,
electricity, tree-free paper products, and mulch, the production of which can
provide new jobs so badly needed in the Glades.
We challenge anyone who calls for
further study or monitoring of air quality or health impacts. The health and quality of life impacts from
sugar field burning are already firmly established. It is unconscionable to
suggest kicking the can further down the road when (1) the solution is clear,
and (2) right now the more affluent citizens to the east are already protected
because burn permits are not granted when the wind blows their way. Everyone in and around the EAA deserves the
same protection no matter where they live, and they deserve that protection now.
Sierra Club Stop Sugar Field
Burning Campaign Information:
- Stop
the Burn Campaign Primer: http://bit.ly/2HoaaYj
- Sugarcane
burn zones map and wind restriction definitions: http://bit.ly/2yJzIba
- Stop
the Burn Fact Sheet: http://bit.ly/2IFPWMb
- Health
impact study summaries: http://bit.ly/2T38TsZ
- “Counterattack
on Stop The Burn: Big Sugar loses its cool”: http://www.sierraclubfloridanews.org/2019/04/counterattack-on-stop-burn-big-sugar.html
- “Fake
Billboard for a Fake Claim”:
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