Blog Posts: October 2008

‚Smithfield: Good food. Responsibly.” This is the heading at the top of the Smithfield website, trying to convince consumers that all of its environmental awards actually reflect environmental quality.  And they now have another award to add to their list of accolades , the McDonald‚ first ever Sustainability Award, a prize that they actually nominated themselves for. They presumably won it for having described how they try to conserve natural resources, treat animals humanely, and ensure the health and welfare of their employees. Now if only all this were true, then this award would be a great achievement.

This is hardly the first time that Smithfield has been given a pat on the back for supposedly being environmentally friendly. On their website, they talk about being the first to receive ISO 14001 certification for its U.S. hog production and pork and beef processing facilities , presumably the ‚international gold standard for environmental management.” Not to mention being ranked as a ‚socially responsible company,” or other awards from places like the American Meat Institute or the Virginia government.  Sounds quite impressive, right? Read the full article…

Food & Water Watch’s fish team is currently in the Gulf of Mexico region, working to bring out a variety of local voices to the Gulf Council’s public hearings on aquaculture. Marianne and Sascha, two of our fishy fighters, send dispatches from their work in the north Gulf region. We hit the ground running on Wednesday, having meetings with various local allies in Mississippi to plan our week. In the evening, we were invited as guest speakers for the local Mississippi Sierra Club chapter. We had a great discussion about ocean fish farming, and in particular concerns with use of wild fish in feed for farmed fish. About 1 billion pounds of Gulf Menhaden are already taken annually from the Gulf of Mexico , and these fish are important in the wild as food for larger wild fish, birds and other marine wildlife. The chapter is very interested in Gulf of Mexico issues, and a group of people from the meeting agreed to attend the Gulf Council public hearing Monday night! They plan to carpool down to Mobile. We also had an interview with a reporter from the Associated Press by phone. That night, we headed up to New Orleans to stay with friends. Read the full article…

Food & Water Watch held the Get Cookin’! sustainable seafood recipe contest to gather the best recipes for the variety of seafood choices we recommend in our Smart Seafood Guide. Over the past several weeks, we received a multitude of recipes from seafood lovers all over the place. We were so excited to see how many people out there care about what they eat and have so many creative ideas for serving it.

We judged the recipes on the basis of several criteria: first, they had to include a type of seafood that we recommend in our Smart Seafood Guide. Other criteria included healthfulness, ease of preparation, originality and of course‚ most importantly‚ deliciousness. This last factor might seem subjective, but we had a panel of dedicated judges from the Food & Water Watch staff, including our partner chef, Rocky Barnette, who gathered to cook and taste all the recipes. It took a few rounds of voting before we were able to come to final decisions on all our winners, but we finally did. Throughout the tastings, everyone‚ response seemed to be the same: ‚yum!” According to Chef Rocky, all the recipes were well-written and very professional. All the staff judges had a lot of good things to say about every recipe. Read the full article…

In preparation for the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council‚ upcoming public hearing on open ocean aquaculture, Food & Water Watch‚ fish team has been traveling around the Gulf Region speaking with fishermen, students and others about the plan. For the past couple days Christina and I have been driving around Mobile Bay, from Mobile through Bon Secour, Foley Beach and Gulf Shores. We started out the day stopping by a couple bait and tackle shops, where most people were surprised to hear about the plan and couldn’t believe that it was already coming up for vote. It’s shocking to imagine that a plan with so many negative ramifications for commercial fisherman, shrimpers, recreational fisherman, coastal communities and consumers in general hasn’t even been publicized.

Next, we made our way down to Pelican point where we found some people net fishing off the end of the road. One, the “mayor” and “dock master” told us he didn’t understand why anyone would talk about putting resources into building farms in the Gulf, which will add more pollution, when we need to spend our resources cleaning it up. Read the full article…

A special congratulations goes out to one of our board members, Maude Barlow, whose impressive activism career recently led to her appointment as senior water advisor to the U.N. president!  In addition to the award-winning film, Blue Gold, which is based on her book,  Maude Barlow has written 15 other books and received six honorary doctorates. To add to her remarkable resume, she was just awarded the Citation
for Lifetime Achievement from the Canadian Environment Awards, Canada’s highest environmental award.

Congrats on both of these well-deserved honors, Maude!

Congratulate her yourself.

-Food & Water Watch

Over the past several weeks, melamine has become a household name. It seems that not a day goes by without another product being recalled or suspected of contamination. All this begs the question, how did this not get discovered sooner? How did the range of products involved become so vast? Clearly China is going to have to do some fancy footwork to redeem their products in the eyes of the world. And the world must learn to respond quicker.

Recently 1,500 dogs bred for their raccoon-like fur died from eating melamine-tainted feed, leading to the development of kidney stones. All in one village. Yet this was not a first , last year, melamine-contaminated wheat gluten, a pet food ingredient made in China, caused dozens of dogs and cats in North America. Why was nothing done then? Read the full article…

Last week the feature documentary Blue Gold won the Audience Choice Best Environmental Film award at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Based on Maude Barlow’s and Tony Clarke’s book “Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop the Corporate Theft of the World’s Water,” this film brings to the forefront the unethical dealings of corporate giants, private investors, and corrupt governments that are trying to control what little is left of the world’s fresh water supply.

However, people are fighting back, trying to protect what is rightfully theirs and of their descendants. Their efforts range from lawsuits to revolutions, from local protests at schools to fighting it out at U.N. conventions, in the hopes that water is not reduced to being a commodity or a tool for manipulation. The film brings all this and more to light, not allowing anyone at fault to escape from blame. Read the full article…

On October 11th, our fish team ate their way through Taste of Georgetown in Washington, DC, while promoting the new Smart Seafood Guide. We had a great time working with Sea Catch Restaurant & Raw Bar and Executive Chef Chris Sgro who prepared two gourmet dishes using Food & Water Watch‚ seafood recommendations from the guide.

Chef Sgro served jumbo Gulf Shrimp wrapped in pastry & bacon with boursin cheese, along with wild Alaskan salmon tartar , both huge hits with the crowd, making it easy to talk to people waiting in the long lines about clean, green and safe seafood. Just take a look at how these delicious dishes are a feast for the eyes! Read the full article…

A sip of tap water not only satisfies a basic human need, it also makes a profound political statement. Food & Water Watch is supporting Kindle, the Northern New England Bioneers conference, in the effort to make the three-day conference bottled water-free. Reusable stainless steel canteens with Food & Water Watch‚ Take Back the Tap campaign logo will be provided to the first 200 conference participants so they can quench their thirst with safe, clean Portland tap water.  Canteens will be available for sale at the Food & Water Watch booth throughout the conference.

Global financial markets are in peril. Panic is gripping Wall Street. The Dow has taken huge dives and continues to stagger. September job loss was the highest in five years and nearly one in six homeowners are under water, owing more on their mortgages than their houses are worth. Times are tough. Several state and local governments are drowning in these rough waters. They can’t make payroll or raise money for vital public works projects. With revenues running dry and municipal bonds becoming a hard sell, city officials have thrown their hands up in exasperation. A few are even thinking about turning to the private sector and the very financial institutions that helped get us in this mess.

Milwaukee’s comptroller has proposed privatizing its water system, hawking it off to the highest bidder, to raise funds to keep city operations running. This is a classic example of taxing through the tap. The city would lease off the utility for 75 to 99 years in exchange for a one-time payment of $500 million. Then whatever corporation gets the deal will invariably hike water prices not only to recover the city‚ payout but also to pad their stockholders wallets. Leases are an absurdly expensive way to raise money, even in this tight municipal bond market. Read the full article…