During California’s recovery from COVID-19, many people have fallen behind on energy bills. In a blog post, Agricultural & Resource Economics professor Meredith Fowlie identifies pathways to energy bill debt relief for state citizens.
Covid-19: Social Justice and Equity
COVID-19 and the political geography of racialisation: Ethnographic cases in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Detroit
In the journal Global Public Health, co-author and associate professor Seth Holmes identifies how racism has exacerbated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on non-white communities. Holmes, a faculty member in the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, worked with researchers in the UC Berkeley School of Public Health for the study.
In the journal Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, three researchers in the Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics published a paper assessing the economic and health costs of COVID, as well as policy responses to the pandemic. Graduate student Scott Kaplan, graduate student Jacob Lefler, and professor David Zilberman are co-authors of the study.
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management associate professor Seth Holmes’ Op-Ed calls on healthcare professionals to acknowledge the critical role of an unequal social system in the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Common Humanity Collective (CHC) is a volunteer organization in the College producing and providing free masks and sanitizer to Bay Area organizations. Plant & Microbial Biology PhD candidate Chris Gee, who helped spearhead a mask-making project, is featured in the Berkeley News’ top stories of 2020. CHC and Gee are also featured in the fall 2020 issue of Breakthroughs magazine.
In a study, alumna Maywa Montenegro de Wit identifies ways in which COVID-19 has exposed racial issues in the agrifood industry. Combining lessons from ecology and social science, Montenegro de Wit suggests ways for agroecologists to learn from abolition to dismantle exploitative systems.
Nutritional Sciences & Toxicology Cooperative Extensive specialist Susana Matias contributed to a collaborative and comprehensive study, which highlights the many inequities Californian farmworkers face.
During the heatwave in the Southwest, Americans may spend more energy on cooling buildings as they stay home to social distance. Energy & Resources Group alumnus Christopher Jones speaks about the increased demand for energy from cooling, as well as the stress it places on vulnerable communities and the economy.
In an event organized by BioMonitor and the International Consortium on Applied and Bioeconomy Research (ICABR), agricultural and resource economics professor David Zilberman joins other policy and science experts to discuss the importance of the bioeconomy for economic recovery during the pandemic. The webinar also centers on promoting equal access and participation in the recovery.
In an article in California Magazine, professor Dan Kammen in the Energy and Resources Group joins a group of Berkeley experts, writing about the potential aftermath of the novel coronavirus pandemic. He argues that greed, social inequity, environmental distruction, and the sidelining of science have all made the outbreak much more devastating.
Professor of environmental science, policy, and mamangement Alastair Iles co-authors a study on expertise and decision-making during a pandemic. Specifically, he analyzes what expertise is favored, what issues experts focus on, and how such decisions impact health and socioeconomics for people of color, rural communities, farmers, workers, and consumers.
In a Haas Energy Institute blog post, agricultural and resource economics professor Meredith Fowlie writes about green stimulus investments. She argues that certain policies could help simultaneously address the economic downturn, climate change, and social inequities.
Anders Näär and Dan Nomura, professors of nutritional sciences and toxicology, conduct research and develop drugs to fight COVID-19. Näär focuses on using DNA to block virus replication, while Nomura focuses on molecules which can knock out the virus’ proteins.
Daphne Miller, a past fellow at the Berkeley Food Institute, writes about how the pandemic has led some farmers in the Midwest to shift production. Many growers are moving away from growing staple commodities, such as corn and wheat destined for international markets, to grow fruit and vegetables for local communities.
Nina Ichikawa, the executive director of the Berkeley Food Institute, speaks about how the current vulnerability of the United States' meat industry during the pandemic could influence sustainable livestock production in the future.
As ICE agents continue to conduct raids among immigrant communities during COVID-19, environmental science, policy, and management associate professor Seth Holmes writes about how such actions can harm these communities and public health at large.
Join environmental science, policy, and management associate professor Seth Holmes for a webinar centered on basic needs and health justice during the COVID-19 crisis.
Environmental Science, Policy, and Management associate professor Seth Holmes and graduate student Vera Chang discuss the tough choice food workers across the U.S. must make between remaining healthy or financially stable during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Energy & Resources Group professor Isha Ray, a water sanitation expert, writes an article about the challenges of managing COVID-19 outbreaks in communities with little or no clean water.
The Berkeley Food Institute—in collaboration with the Stanford Medicine Department of Pediatrics, the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program, the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations, and UC Berkeley California Outdoor Engagement Coalition—provides many resources on food safety related to Covid-19.
Two Berkeley researchers, associate professor Seth Holmes and public health researcher Miriam Magaña Lopez, coauthor a commentary on the use of protective health equipment by ICE agents. Even as agents conduct raids with N95 masks, many healthcare professionals lack crucial protective gear in the fight against coronavirus.
In a recent Op-ed, environmental science, policy, and management professor Seth Holmes writes about the challenges faced by healthcare professionals in the United States as they confront the coronavirus pandemic.
Environmental science, policy, and management professor Seth Holmes discusses the need for social solidarity during the coronavirus crisis. He also addresses the federal response to the pandemic, calls for support of frontline health professionals, and warns against stigmatization and division. Holmes also wrote an Op-Ed about this for The BMJ.
In an article, Energy and Resources Group alumni Peter Gleick and Heather Cooley highlight the critical need to increase clean water access in America, in order to protect families from the coronavirus and a lack of drinkable water.
Saru Jayaraman describes the effects of the coronavirus on food workers in this Op-Ed about the future of labor in a post-COVID world. Jayaraman runs the Food Labor Research Center, which is affiliated with the Berkeley Food Institute.
As the coronavirus pandemic leaves only essential services operational in many areas, shelter-in-place orders can also designate farms, farm stands, and farmer’s markets as “essential businesses.” In a UC ANR blog, Cooperative Extension specialist Jennifer Sowerwine discusses affordable, healthy food access in the time of coronavirus.
An article discussing the effects of the pandemic on research publications referenced Plant & Microbial Biology professor Randy Schekman. Schekman founded the nonprofit open-access publisher ELife in 2011.