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Goldman Environmental Prize
2010 Recipient for North America:
Sierra Club Staffperson Lynn Henning
Update: Lynn Henning has been named to O Magazine's 2010 Power List! You can read the piece, including her interview with Erin Brockovich, on the O Magazine website.
The Sierra Club is proud to announce that Sierra Club activist, grandmother, and family farmer Lynn Henning has been awarded the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America.
A family farmer from rural Michigan, Lynn Henning exposed the egregious polluting practices of CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations), gaining the attention of the federal EPA and prompting state regulators to issue hundreds of citations for water quality violations.
Henning has emerged as a leading voice calling on state and federal authorities to hold livestock factory farms accountable for their pollution. With her husband, she farms 300-acres of corn and soybeans in Lenawee County within 10 miles of 12 polluting Confined Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, often referred to as factory farms. Her mother-in-law and father-in-law, both in their 80s, live within 1000 feet of a factory farm, and have both been diagnosed with hydrogen sulfide poisoning.
Henning began organizing in her community to urge state and federal agencies to protect the environmental and public health of the region. Reaching out to neighbors, fellow farmers and EPA enforcement officials, Henning gathered as much information as possible about CAFO pollution spills, their locations and points of origin. Regularly driving a 125-mile circuit multiple times a week to track the pollution and surreptitiously take water samples, Henning began to understand how bad the pollution really is. She brought her data and tools to state regulators to encourage them to take stronger enforcement action, and as a result, the Department of Environmental Quality levied hundreds of citations against Michigan CAFOs for environmental violations.
As a result of her activism, Henning and her family have been subjected to harassment and intimidation. Her mailbox has been blown up, dead animals have been left on her front porch and she has been followed and run off the road while doing water quality monitoring. But she never gave up, and continued to speak up to protect her community and the land that she loves.
For her success, persistence, and immeasurable bravery, Henning has been awarded the 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize. Join us in congratulating Lynn Henning for her incredible work.