Issue Briefs

The potential for widespread hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” threatens New York’s abundance of farmers markets, community-supported agriculture, and locally grown produce and food products. Fracking is a process that the oil and gas industry uses to extract natural gas and oil from shale rock formations buried deep within the Earth. It requires large quantities of water mixed with sand and toxic chemicals, which are injected underground at high pressure to crack dense rock and release oil and gas.

New drilling and fracking techniques have made it possible to extract oil and natural gas from shale and other dense rock formations that were previously inaccessible. While such drilling and fracking has been a boon for the oil and gas industry in the United States, it has been a nightmare for Americans exposed to the pollution that accompanies shale development. The expansion of modern drilling and fracking across the country has caused widespread environmental and public health problems and created serious, long- term risks to underground water resources, all of which affect farming and our food.

During the global food crises of 2007–08 and 2010–11, which saw skyrocketing commodity prices, agribusiness companies gained massive profits. Pro-biotech interests — particularly industry giant Monsanto — have since launched a variety of public relations strategies, including advertising campaigns and a series of reports touting the benefits of transgenic agriculture to farmers and the environment. Analysis conducted jointly by Food & Water Europe and Food & Water Watch finds that the Monsanto-funded reports use questionable methods and present misleading assessments of the impacts of genetically engineered crops.

Sludge is the solid remnants of the wastewater treatment process. Wastewater treatment facilities, most of which are publicly owned treatment works (POTWs), are able to remove many of the bacteria, viruses and chemicals that end up in sludge. POTWs serve approximately 75 percent of the U.S. population. Yet these facilities do not have enough money to purchase the technology needed to remove all of the prescription drugs and chemicals that enter the wastewater stream every day from our household and personal care products.

Over the past few decades, the largest meatpacking and processing companies have consolidated their market power, driven smaller meatpackers out of the industry, pushed farmers out of business by offering lower prices for hogs and cattle and slowly but surely raised real prices for consumers. The dominant pork and beef packers have made it impossible for small businesses to survive, and this has contributed to the decline in the number of meatpacker and processor workers as well as to their falling real wages. Together, these losses have undercut a vital economic force in rural America: independent livestock operations and the small businesses and workers that process meat.

In the public debate over government spending, the federal budget deficit and the U.S. Farm Bill, there has been increasing focus on proposals to reduce government subsidies to farmers growing corn, soybeans and other so-called commodity crops.

When an essential resource from nature becomes privatized, access to it becomes market-driven, and decisions about how that resource is used are made by private interests that may lie thousands of miles beyond a community’s borders. Furthermore, when water or food is treated as a market commodity, it can become concentrated in the hands of a few powerful private interests. They can assert pressure on policymakers to achieve favorable rules for their shareholders—often to the detriment of consumers, producers and communities. The importance of keeping the global commons under public control is an issue at the heart of democracy.

As more food is produced and imported, environmental threats to our water resources grow, and state and local agencies struggle to modernize aging infrastructure for drinking water and sewage systems. It’s more important than ever to fund these agencies adequately. Here are some reasons why proposed cuts to the agencies and programs that oversee our food and water resources will harm consumers as well as local economies.

Since 1999, the 50 largest agricultural and food patent- holding companies and two of the largest biotechnology and agrochemical trade associations have spent more than $572 million in campaign contributions and lobbying expendi- tures, according to a new analysis by Food & Water Watch. The companies and trade associations have hired a bevy of well-connected lobbying shops — including at least 13 former members of Congress and over 300 former congres- sional and White House staffers — to promote genetically modified food and agricultural products.