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It’s probably safe to say that a majority of Americans were pretty surprised that President Obama hosted an official press conference to share his birth documentation with the nation. Why did the President feel compelled to dignify Donald Trump and other “birthers” with a response at all? Surely, as President, the relationship of power is such that he does not need to lower himself to respond to such a ridiculous and empty allegation. Many have said that the entire situation is an embarrassment and Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick even said that American politics has hit “a new low.” But Obama’s quick response to quell Trump’s desire for press reminds us of the President’s other recent acts of acquiescence: the deregulation of genetically engineered crops, the pending approval of GE salmon, and the lack of action on fracking including the potential effects on the drinking water of millions.
President Obama may have just delivered to the nation his certificate of birth, but for the past two years, he’s been yielding to the influence of industry, practically offering various lobbying groups a “certificate of berth.” Here are three areas where Obama gives wide berth to the interests of big companies… Read the full article…
Executive Director Wenonah Hauter got the inside scoop on what the water industry is up to at the 2011 Global Water Summit in Berlin.
Last week I was in Berlin at the Global Water Summit 2011, a meet up for corporations that want to profit from water as it becomes scarcer. Sponsored by all the bad actors in the water industry, from Veolia to General Electric, the conference URL was www.watermeetsmoney.com. Even the Koch Brothers’ empire was represented (Koch Industries helped pollute water with its fossil fuel operations, so why not profit also from cleaning up the mess?)
My colleague, Anil Naidoo from the Council of Canadians, and I were invited to the meeting to debate the libertarian economist David Zetland and William Muhairwe, managing director of Uganda’s national water company. Both Zetland and Muhairwe are big proponents of full-cost pricing and dismissive of the government’s role in providing water.
Some may wonder why Anil and I would go there to debate, especially when the audience was comprised of people employed in the water industry. The truth is that there is no better place to really figure out what they are up to. An hour debate was a small price to pay for free entrance to the $2,500.00 event that gave us real insight into the newest plans of the global water cartel. Read the full article…
Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter and actor Mark Ruffalo, founder of WaterDefense.org, joined up at a rally and press conference in New York City yesterday to lead a team of clean water advocates in an effort to stop the fracking of natural gas in the Delaware River Basin.
The group gathered in a park in Foley Square to call upon President Obama to ask the Army Corps of Engineers to vote against establishing inadequate regulations for fracking in the basin, which supplies drinking water to approximately 15 million people.
The Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) is currently considering public comments regarding the establishment of regulations for the more than 20,000 natural gas wells that are currently planned for the Delaware River Basin. Read the full article…
Watch Maude Barlow on Democracy Now! today discussing the rights of nature. Just click on this photo.
Today is Earth Day, and there is actually some good news on the environmental front. Our board chair Maude Barlow has a new op-ed in several U.S. newspapers this week recognizing how cities, municipalities, and even nations are increasingly recognizing the rights of ecosystems to exist and thrive. Recognizing the rights of nature can be a tool for stopping the kind of development that destroys local ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. Read the full article…
According to T. Boone Pickens this week, New Yorkers need an enlightened, “intelligent” leader on energy … like T. Boone Pickens.
On the subject of fracking (about 39 minutes into the video), Pickens said…
“Western New York is concerned about it. They now have said, ‘You’re gonna frack these wells in the watershed? What? The Watershed! They don’t even know what the watershed is. That’s where it rains. It rains in the watershed and then runs into a lake. And you’re not gonna frack a lake or the watershed or whatever. You’re fracking down 10,000 feet, two miles under the surface. But my God you say that to people, in New York, they don’t know what’s gonna happen to their water. Well what they need is somebody intelligent, a leader to say this is what the deal is. Don’t worry. Just watch what I’m telling you, listen to what I’m saying and check the facts. That’s all you have to do. It’s not complicated It’s very simple.”
North Carolina still uses old methods of waste management on their factory hog farms. 40 million daily gallons of untreated hog manure can be a threat to public health.
If you think of it literally, that’s pretty close to what’s happening with North Carolina’s hog industry — specifically within large factory farm operations that collectively raise most of the state’s 10 million hogs… and their 40 million daily gallons of untreated manure. Sadly, North Carolina has one of the oldest and worst ways of disposing of hog waste: they use manure lagoons and sprinkler systems, which presents a serious threat to public health. The state passed a legislative measure in 2007 that asked factory farm operations to voluntarily phase out their old practices and improve their quality standards for air and water. But it shouldn’t be surprising to learn that, when something is voluntary, industry doesn’t usually do it. So far only a few factory farms have implemented the new systems. It’s time for North Carolina to make these standards mandatory. Read the full article…
Please bear with me for a moment and read through the following word groupings: Simple, user-friendly astrophysics. Adventurous, adrenaline-pumping stamp collecting. Pure, delicious sewage. You might be skeptical about these examples, particularly that last one. I think you’re right to question whether or not sewage is pure and delicious. Now, try this one: Clean, natural gas. It’s pretty common to see or hear these three words strung together in conversations about energy strategy. But is the idea of clean, natural gas a contradiction in terms?
Most consumers can appreciate the pursuit of a renewable energy source in an efficient and responsible manner. So, when the gas industry beefs up its lobbying presence and invests in an advertising campaign to convince us that its product — methane — is “clean” and “natural,” the odds are in its favor that the message will get across to a large number of people. But some scientists and many consumers are starting to seriously question the promise of clean, natural gas. Read the full article…
Last week, eaters were treated to another food safety reality check: drug resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus are in our meat, and it’s likely coming from the way livestock are produced on crowded factory farms.
Researchers collected and tested 136 meat and poultry samples from five U.S. cities, encompassing 80 brands of beef, chicken pork and turkey from 26 grocery stores. They found 47 percent of the meat and poultry samples were contaminated with S. aureus, and more than half of those bacteria were resistant to at least three classes of antibiotics. The study, published last week in the journal Clinical Infections Diseases, concludes that food animals themselves were the major source of contamination, presumably raised in factory farms where they are routinely fed low-doses of antibiotics. MRSA, methicillin-resistant S. aureus, was found in three of the samples.
Just how big are these farms, and how fast are they growing? According to our Factory Farm Map, which analyzed the most recent U.S. Department of Agriculture Census data for beef and dairy cattle, hogs, broiler meat chickens and egg-laying operations, the total number of livestock on the largest factory farms rose by more than 20 percent between 2002 and 2007. At the same time, the number of dairy cows and broiler chickens nearly doubled. Read the full article…
Large agricultural firms have enough influence in the food industry to squeeze out smaller farmers by not offering fair prices for their products.
Over the past few weeks, as we’ve been preparing for our Sowing the Seeds events, some interesting discussions have been brewing about city mice vs. country mice and how they relate to agricultural subsidies. We think this issue will be a hot topic in the months to come and understanding it is critical to the success of the next Farm Bill, so we wanted to add our two cents to the discussion, as well.
It began with Washington Post writer Ezra Klein’s blog post, “Why We Still Need Cities,” which included a brash comment about subsidies. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack wasn’t happy with Klein’s comments about rural life, so he requested a chance to respond. A second post followed in the form of a Klein interview with Vilsack where the Ag chief defends the culture of rural life and its denizens’ contributions to the nation. Our thoughts on their exchange? Klein: wrong; Vilsack: wrong. They both seemed to talk around the real issue. Monica Potts from American Prospect and Grist’s Tom Philpott both have a similar opinion. Read the full article…
Sowing the Seeds events will be kicking off throughout the country. It's time to get involved in shaping food policy because it's not enough to try to change our food system with our dollars.
As more and more people are making better and more informed food choices, the realization sets in that there is only so much we can do with our purchasing power to fix our broken food system. We need to focus on the policies that shape the way our food is planted, grown and distributed. This is why this weekend, and throughout the spring, volunteers, activists and anyone who cares about healthful food will be Sowing the Seeds.
What is Sowing the Seeds? Sowing the Seeds is a series of events that bring communities together to celebrate good food and empower people to take action in large numbers. Many participants get together to plant food in local gardens and collect petitions from members of their communities. There are currently events scheduled to take place all across the nation: From Baltimore to Bismark, from Brooklyn to Seattle, and from Providence to St. Cloud, people who want to make positive changes to our food system are getting ready. Read the full article…
