Here's how this 22 year old agricultural activist from the Catskills is fighting against fracking
Iris Fen Gillingham, 22, has devoted the last few years to protesting against fracking in New York State, which she calls home.
Video Transcript
IRIS FEN GILLINGHAM: I appreciate every glass of water and everything that I eat because I know what it is taken to protect those forests.
My name is Iris Fen Gillingham. I'm 22 years old. I'm a farmer, climate justice, and agriculture activist from the Catskill Mountains. I was born and raised on Wildwoods farm.
Between 2001 and 2006, we experienced two 100-year floods and one, 500-year flood. It washed away all of the topsoil. We were not able to continue making a living growing organic vegetables.
Land men started coming into our community. They were going to do hydraulic fracturing. Other folks across the Delaware River had already experienced fracking. They weren't able to drink their drinking water.
Zero Hour reached out and asked if I wanted to get involved. I was like, you know what, I would love to connect with some more young people. We were marching through the streets of DC in the pouring rain calling for climate action. Banning fracking in New York State, banning fracking in the Delaware River Basin in my watershed have been incredible huge wins.
I started doing Wilder's farm inversions, introducing people to foraging wild plants and to meeting the sheep. Because having that reciprocal relationship with our environment is so important. And I'm so grateful that I've had the opportunity to be within a movement that is changing the course of history on this planet.
