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Water Sentinel Lynn Henning - 2010 Goldman Environmental Prize Winner

Lynn Henning wins the 2010 Goldman Prize for North America

President Obama greets 2010 Goldman Prize Winner Lynn Henning, Sierra Club Michigan Chapter CAFO Water Sentinel. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza.

Michigan Chapter CAFO Water Sentinel Lynn Henning has been recognized with the 2010 Goldman Prize for North America, an award called the Nobel Prize for environmental activism. She joins honorees from each of the five other inhabited continents in being honored during the twenty-first year the prize has been awarded.

Lynn is well known to Sierra Club members and supporters in Michigan as a family farmer who has marshaled extraordinary personal resources, organizing skill, creativity and determination to fight devastating pollution from concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). She and the five other 2010 winners were honored at events in San Francisco and Washington, D.C. during Earth Week.  Prior Goldman Prize winners include Lois Gibbs, who led the fight to clean up Love Canal, and Wangari Maathai, who founded the Green Revolution in Kenya.

The fight against CAFO pollution started a decade ago for Lynn as her family and neighbors became  overwhelmed by pollution from 12 CAFOs within a 10 mile radius of her home. The Henning family has paid an enormous personal price for Lynn's activism, including threats, harassment and vandalism, along with serious health impacts, but she has refused to give up.

“Our future depends on healthy food, clean water, clean air and productive soil,  but  industrial livestock operations put all of that at risk,” Lynn says regarding her remarkable effort and dedication.  “We must change to a sustainable system that supports farmers who produce food with integrity and pride, that protects our children’s health, and ends the nightmare of concentrated animal feeding operations.”

Since joining the Michigan Chapter in 2005, Lynn’s efforts have expanded to helping to build effective grassroots CAFO activism all over the country, either in person or on the internet and phone.  Lynn has developed highly effective techniques for tracking and predicting the sources of pollution from CAFOs using satellite and aerial photography.  These methods are now being used by federal and state environmental agencies and other non-profits to hold polluting CAFOs accountable.  

Quite simply, Lynn Henning is a unique force in the effort to protect human and ecological communities downstream and downwind from CAFO pollution.  Congratulations to Lynn for her well-deserved recognition!   See the Goldman Prize for North America - Lynn Henning video below and visit our Stopping CAFO Pollution pages for more information! More photos here.