About Us

Environmental Commons brings democracy and science to environmental decision-making at the local, state and national levels. We encourage involvement in the democratic process to defend our environmental heritage - water, air, biodiversity, and genetic variability - known as 'the commons.' Conserving our commons is undeniably linked to the quality of our own lives - our health and the health of ecosystems.

We work to preserve our natural areas, protect wildlife and promote sustainable policies using education and informed discussion.

• Our Mission
• Who We Are
• Contact Us
• Support Our Work - Donate
• What is the Environmental Commons?
• History of the Commons
• 2008 Letter to Supporters

Environmental Commons in the News

• Local Food & Food Democracy
• Precautionary Principle

Our Mission

Formed in June 2004, Environmental Commons works to engage and educate the public on important environmental issues and policies by providing scientific information and instructive materials. We support democratic involvement and decision-making in the conservation and recovery of biological and natural resources. We believe that by advancing community involvement, we can collectively effect change for a healthier environment.

Economically driven developments for short-term gain have led to an increasing decline of species diversity, genetic variability, and access to clean water. Increasing private control of the world's rich plant and animal diversity and its rivers and aquifers interferes with a public vision of maintaining and protecting dynamic resources long seen as our common heritage.

We promote the protection of a rich biodiversity and genetic variability to better support ecological and human health.

Our Projects

Local Food & Food Democracy

We are witnessing unprecedented impacts as a result of food being seen primarily as a commodity. In contrast, locally developed food systems that value sustainability and balance have the potential to reconnect us to each other and to the land.

We encourage and support the rights of communities to shape their food systems, exercising local democratic control over matters of health, safety, and welfare. We track state legislation that supports local community food systems.

2. Genetically Modified Organisms

We provide education and information about the risks associated with the introduction of genetically modified organisms. We oppose the uncontrolled growing, raising and expansion of GMOs. We support communities democratically reaching decisions regarding the adoption and growing of GMOs.

We believe that modern biotechnology:

• Threatens ecological and human health by constricting genetic variability.
• Creates unanticipated environmental effects.
• Suppresses the development and integrity of less intensive, more sustainable farming systems.

3. Precautionary Principle

The Precautionary Principle is a guiding framework for decision-making that anticipates how our actions will affect the environment and health of future generations. The Principle incorporates a thorough examination of alternatives, transparency, participatory democracy, and prevention of harm. We assist communities considering adopting the Precautionary Principle. Read about our progress in Mendocino County, CA.

4. Reducing Regional Use of Toxics

Pesticides and other chemicals are used in forestry and vineyard operations along the North Coast. Many of these chemicals are toxic not only to human health, but their use can also affect fish and their habitat, as well as other wildlife. We promote precautionary policies and advance education that lessens harm to our environment from the unnecessary usage of toxics.

Our Contributors

Britt Bailey is the Founder (in 2004) and Director of Environmental Commons. Prior to forming Environmental Commons she was Co-Director of the Center for Ethics and Toxics.

Britt holds a masters degree in Environmental Policy. Her thesis focused on regulations and policies pertaining to developing farming technologies and the intersection between intensive agricultural settings and fragile ecosystems.

She has written and researched on a number of key issues including the misuse of pesticides, agricultural biotechnology, sustainable farming, and endangered species. Her writing has appeared in the Chicago Tribune and the San Francisco Chronicle.

She is the co-author, with Marc Lappé, of Against the Grain: Biotechnology and the Corporate Takeover of Your Food (Common Courage Press, 1998) and is Senior Editor of Engineering the Farm, The Social and Ethical Aspects of Agricultural Biotechnology (Island Press, 2002). She is also the producer of Against the Grain: The Video (The Video Project, 1999).

Britt speaks at international conferences and universities on biotechnology and industrialized agriculture. She was the Environmental Policy instructor at the College of Marin, Kentfield, CA from 2000-2007. Her email address is britt@environmentalcommons.org.

Siobhán Noland, M.S., started her environmental career in the Education Department of the National Audubon Society.

She attended the Graduate School for Environmental Studies at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson before moving to San Francisco. Once in the Bay Area, she became a Program Assistant for the Population and Conservation Programs of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. She took a few years off to raise her daughter, and returned to the environmental world as a Program Associate with the Consultative Group on Biological Diversity. Currently, she performs research part-time for Environmental Commons while tending to her newborn daughter.

Katy Mamen is a sustainable food systems consultant, writer and educator based in rural California. She is a Fellow of the Oakland Institute and works with organizations to develop systemic approaches to sustainability. Previously, she coordinated the Local Food Program at the International Society for Ecology and Culture.

Katy holds a BS in Physical Geography from McGill University in Montreal, and an MS in Holistic Science from Schumacher College in the UK, a groundbreaking international program that focuses on understanding and working with complex systems. She is co-author of Ripe for Change: Rethinking California's Food Economy and numerous articles and public education tools promoting healthy food and agriculture. Katy has also worked with farmers in Europe, Latin America and Asia to promote farmers' rights and their viability in increasingly globalizing markets.

Dave Jordan is a member of the Environmental Commons steering committee. He designs and maintains the EnvironmentalCommons.org website, as well as websites for several other environmental groups in northern California.

Dave managed enterprise-scale database systems and web servers in Silicon Valley for many years. Prior to moving to California, he was employed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he managed software development for UNICEF's global supply operation. Jordan has a Masters degree in Sociology from the University of Michigan, where he studied social organization and social change.

Environmental Commons steering committee

Britt Bailey, M.A., Founder & President
Pam Arnsberger, Ph.D., Secretary/Treasurer
Alice Diefenbach, M.D.
David Jordan, M.A.
Sally Grover Bingham, M.Div.
Burton Segall

For more information, please contact us at info@environmentalcommons.org.

Our Affiliation

Environmental Commons is an organization of the Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance (RCWA), a California 501(c)(3) non-profit, public benefit corporation.

Redwood Coast Watersheds Alliance (RCWA) was formed in 1990 to aid in the development of local watershed protection organizations, their community-based study programs, and to coordinate their activities. The goals of the organizational projects include educating the general public, industry, and government on the need to preserve genetic diversity within the natural environment, as well as to show the irreversible environmental damage that occurs when species and their habitats are heavily altered or eliminated.