Releases

Ohio Elections Commission Pursues Frivolous Case Against Consumer Group

2009-11-05

Statement: Today, the Ohio Elections Commission acted to deny Food & Water Watch’s constitutional right of free speech to discuss the connection between confined animal feeding operations (CAFO) and swine flu. The Commission’s panel decided to allow the Ohioans for Livestock Care (OLC) PAC, a front group for the industrialized livestock industry, to pursue it’s claim that radio ads about Issue 2 may have contained a false statement.

Proposed Carlsbad Desalination Project to Cost Up To Three Times More Than Claimed

2009-11-05

Press Release: Water produced at Poseidon Resources proposed desalination facility in Carlsbad, Calif. could cost up to three times more than previously claimed by the company, according to an independent expert analysis released today by Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy group. This finding comes as the Metropolitan Water District is poised to decide whether to grant Poseidon $350 million in subsidies for their proposed $534 million, 50 MGD desalination facility in Carlsbad.

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Milwaukee Water System Lease Could Cost Community Millions Per Year

2009-11-04

Press Release: Leasing the Milwaukee Water Works to a private company for 99 years could cost the Milwaukee community a total of $17 million to $31 million a year, finds a new report released today by the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch. Entitled Mortgaging Milwaukee’s Future: Why Leasing the Water System is a Bad Deal for Consumers, the report reveals that for every dollar the city receives from an endowment from the lease of the Water Works, consumers could have to pay as much as $5.40 in water bills.

Issue 2 Passes: Agribusiness Rewrites Ohio's Constitution

2009-11-04

Statement: The Farm Bureau-sponsored campaign to change Ohio’s constitution and give industrialized agriculture control over livestock issues succeeded with the passage of ballot Issue 2. Consumers, small family farmers and the neighbors of large, industrialized animal operations are the losers.

Issue 2 PAC Tries to Distract Ohio Voters By Stifling Ads

2009-11-02

Press Statement: As the campaign over Issue 2, a proposal to create the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, comes down to the wire, the livestock industry is trying one last trick to squelch the debate. Recently, Food & Water Watch placed radio ads throughout Ohio to warn Ohio voters that Issue 2 would create a board that is dominated by factory farms. The Ohioans for Livestock Care PAC pressured the media to pull our message off the air by contacting Clear Channel Communications, Inc., owner of the radio stations currently set to run our ads. Now, they have filed a complaint with the Ohio Elections Commission alleging that the ads contain "false statements" about how Issue 2 would put the livestock industry in charge of writing its own rules, and that factory farms put the public at risk for diseases like E. coli and swine flu.

Poseidon Resources Ups Carlsbad Desal Cost to $550 Million: Asks State for Additional Subsidy for Proposed Project

2009-10-30

Press Release: This week, Poseidon Resources, which is seeking a tax-free bond from the state to pay for its proposed Carlsbad desalination plant, increased its request by $70 million to $550 million. This change comes just weeks before the request goes before the three-member committee that will decide if a taxpayer subsidized bond will be approved. Poseidon has not provided any explanation on what caused the plant’s estimated cost to rise.

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Retired Indiana Teacher Wows Judges with Recession-Friendly Fish Recipe

2009-10-30

News Release: Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization, today announced Gloria Piantek of West Lafayette, Indiana as the grand-prize winner of its Frugal Fish contest. An innovative recipe competition, the challenge combined creative cooking with health and sustainability components and a low budget. Piantek, a retired teacher, took the prize with her Spicy BBQ Tilapia with Herb-Roasted Potatoes and Southern Creamy Cole Slaw, which she originally put on a home-baked bun as a spin on a traditional hot dog. The entire meal for four cost just $12.32—and for her ingenuity, Piantek will take home a check for $250.

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Food & Water Watch Joins with Local Community Leaders and Businesses to Launch Grand Rapids Take Back the Tap Campaign

2009-10-21

Press Release: Today, Food & Water Watch, the Wege Foundation, the Grand Rapids City Commission, Gilmore Collection restaurants, Grand Rapids Community College and Saint Mary’s Health Care joined together to launch Take Back the Tap Grand Rapids. The campaign highlights the social, economic, and environmental problems with the bottled water industry; the need for increased funding for public tap water; and the importance of celebrating and protecting Michigan’s watersheds.

Nestle Videos a Spin Job to Compensate for Wasteful, Unnecessary Product 


2009-10-16

Press statement: Yesterday, Nestle Waters North America announced the release of a series of videos aimed at consumers touting among other things, the so-called ‘safety’ of its plastic water bottles, the advantages of plastic bottles over glass bottles, and its own corporate efforts to promote recycling programs. While Nestle is promoting these videos as part of its ongoing ‘dedication’ to ‘environmental stewardship,’ we see them for what they really are—damage control to compensate for the company’s recent 2.7 percent decline in sales.

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Governor’s water priorities all wrong; He fails to recognize basic water needs while pushing billions for pet water projects

2009-10-15

Press Release: Sacramento, CA – Governor Schwarzenegger revealed his flawed priorities for water in California when he vetoed the Human Right to Water Bill late Sunday night. The bill would have made it the explicit policy of the state of California to ensure that all people have access to safe affordable water for basic human needs, including drinking water. Reflecting the broad-based support for the bill, AB 1242, authored by Assembly Member Ira Ruskin, was co-sponsored by seven organizations including Alliance for Democracy, Community Water Center, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Food and Water Watch, San Jerardo Cooperative, Inc., Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry Action Network, California Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and Urban Semillas.

Food & Water Watch Joins With Campuses Across the U.S. to Launch First Annual Campus Day of Action

2009-10-14

Press Release: Today, the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch joined with 11 colleges and universities around the U.S. for the first annual Campus Day of Action. The event connects the work of students around the U.S. in their efforts to educate their campuses and communities about the benefits of choosing to drink tap water and the environmental, social, and economic drawbacks of bottled water. The Campus Day of Action is an extension of Food & Water Watch’s Take Back the Tap campaign, which works with campuses and restaurants around the country to help them replace bottled water with tap water.

Food & Water Watch Applauds Senator Vitter for Helping Put Brakes on Gulf of Mexico Offshore Fish Farming

2009-10-09

Press Statement: Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization, applauds Senator Vitter of Louisiana for introducing an amendment to the annual appropriations bill for Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies to slow regulations that would for the first time allow development of ocean fish farms in U.S. federal waters. Ocean fish farming, or offshore aquaculture, is the mass-production of fish in huge floating net pens or cages about three to 200 miles from shore.

Crystal Geyser’s Plans to Retreat from Oxford, Wisconsin a Victory for Local and National Activists

2009-10-08

Washington, D.C.—“Last week, activists in Oxford, Wisconsin, celebrated a significant victory when the water bottling giant Crystal Geyser announced it would cancel plans to open a bottling facility there. The proposed plant would have pumped 360,000 gallons of water a day from the Upper Fox Watershed, a practice that would have compromised Oxford’s ecosystem by negatively impacting the quality and quantity of the local water supply. The plant would also have introduced between 40 and 60 fume-emitting trucks a day to this quiet, rural area.

Bill to Prevent Privatization of Milwaukee Water Works Would Protect Vital Public Resource

2009-10-06

Press Release: “Last week, State Representative Frederick P. Kessler (12th Assembly District) introduced a bill to the Wisconsin State Assembly that would forbid the privatization of the Milwaukee Water Works. A publically controlled utility, the water works has been the subject of intense debate since October 2008 when the Milwaukee Common Council took initial steps toward leasing it to a private company as a means of alleviating the city’s budget crunch.