Press Releases: Food

“Today, the state of Maryland became the first state in the nation to ban arsenical drugs in chicken production and took a significant step in addressing one of many issues associated with industrial agriculture.

“It is a testament to the power of grassroots organizing that this arsenic prohibition bill passed at all given the formidable opponents who fought for three years against removing the carcinogen from our food.

“Governor O’Malley’s cozy relationship with the poultry industry hasn’t helped, either. The poultry industry continues to push agricultural policy in Annapolis that pads their profits at the expense of Marylanders and the Chesapeake Bay—even though Maryland’s entire agricultural sector contributes only .35 % of the state’s GDP. We will continue to fight the industry’s attempts to block environmental regulations and reforms that would benefit the state’s farmers.”

Press Release: Emails released today by national consumer group Food & Water Watch reveal an unnervingly close and direct relationship between Governor Martin O’Malley and chicken giant Perdue. Seventy pages of emails, mostly between Governor O’Malley and Herb Frerichs, Perdue’s general counsel, illustrate the strong hold the industry has on Governor O’Malley on topics ranging from waste incineration to the lawsuit brought by the University of Maryland Legal Clinic against Perdue and one of its contract growers.

Media Alert: Food & Water Watch received photographs from an import house in Niagara Falls, New York, showing 22 drums of toxic chemicals in the same shipping container as meat products. The shipment was refused entry by USDA inspectors and sent back to Canada. However, the Obama administration is seeking to reduce this type of border inspection as indicated by a January meeting hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Press Release: Over 140 groups and more than 365,000 citizens from across the country are urging the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to reject a Dow Chemical application seeking approval of a controversial genetically engineered (GE) corn that is resistant to the hazardous herbicide 2,4-D. In addition to the public comments, 143 farm, environmental, health, fisheries groups and companies will submit a letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack expressing their overwhelming opposition to this crop. The comments and letter will be submitted when USDA’s public comment period ends this Friday, April 27.

Press Release: From domestication of the blueberry to tools to combat soil erosion, land-grant universities have revolutionized American agriculture for general public benefit almost entirely through public investments from state and federal governments. However, a report released by Food & Water Watch today finds that by 2010, nearly a quarter of funding for agricultural research at land-grant universities came from private and corporate donations.

“The original intent that public research should benefit the public has been completely lost and this conflict of interest between public good and private profits remains largely unchallenged by both academia and policymakers,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch. “Sound agricultural policy requires impartial and unbiased scientific inquiry, but like nearly every aspect of our modern food system, land-grant school funding has been overrun by narrow private interests.”

Press Release: Today consumer and environmental groups sent a letter to Florida Governor Rick Scott to encourage him to prevent the experimental release of British biotechnology company Oxitec’s genetically engineered (GE) mosquitoes in the Florida Keys. The letter, also sent to Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam and the entire Florida congressional delegation, was signed by Food & Water Watch, Friends of the Earth, the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club, the Florida Keys Environmental Coalition and GMO Free Florida.

“South Florida’s environmentally sensitive landscape already endures many exotic and invasive species,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “The proposed open-air release of millions of unregulated, experimental insects into the Florida Keys opens a Pandora’s box that cannot easily be sealed.”

Media Statement: In January, Food & Water Watch launched a campaign to pressure Walmart to refuse to sell Monsanto’s GE sweet corn. In coordination with CREDO Action, SumOfUs, Center for Food Safety, Center for Environmental Health, and Corporate Accountability International nearly 500,000 people signed petitions asking Walmart to refuse to stock Monsanto’s genetically engineered (GE) sweet corn, more than 150 events have taken place at Walmart stores across the country and over 8,500 people have called Walmart executives, store and regional managers, and Walmart’s customer service line.

Media Advisory: In response to Walmart’s release of its Global Responsibility Report, Food & Water Watch and the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR) have published the Top 10 Ways Walmart Fails on Sustainability. Since 2005, the country’s largest retailer has been making splashy announcements and issuing slick reports to highlight its environmental and social responsibility efforts. Food & Water Watch and ILSR contend that Walmart fails to live up to its promises and continues to ignore the fundamental problems with its business model that harm the environment, undermine healthy food choices, and exacerbate poverty.

Media Statement: “For several years, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s trade promotion arm, Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS), has been working with China to allow the country to export its poultry products to the U.S. despite China’s deep-rooted health and safety problems and woefully inadequate food safety laws and regulations.

“Since 2005, Food & Water Watch has criticized these negotiations for prioritizing trade over the public’s health. We have monitored the situation closely and became particularly alarmed earlier this year when we learned that FAS was exerting undue influence over the food safety review process. Which is why Food & Water Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request on January 5. While we have received regular apologies from FAS, we have yet to receive one document from them pertaining to the imports of food products from China.”

“Today, the State of Maryland became the first in the nation to ban arsenic additives in chickens thereby bolstering the growing grassroots movement to remove dangerous chemicals like arsenic from food.