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Home > Press Releases > Fish > aquaculture > Food & Water Watch Says Obama’s Plan to Slim Down Government Hurts Oceans; Warns Against Consolidation of Food Safety Regulatory Agencies
January 13th, 2012

Food & Water Watch Says Obama’s Plan to Slim Down Government Hurts Oceans; Warns Against Consolidation of Food Safety Regulatory Agencies

Statement by Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Watch

Washington, D.C.—”We are deeply concerned about President Obama’s proposal to move the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to the Department of the Interior, the same Department that brought us BP’s Deepwater Horizon.

“While the mission of NOAA is not consistent with the mission of the Department of Commerce where it currently resides, moving it to the Department of Interior will fail to eliminate any conflicts arising from dueling mandates.

“This plan to slash the government fails to eliminate these conflicts and will do nothing to promote a better functioning executive branch. Instead of moving NOAA from one department to another, it should be made an independent agency, as was suggested by the 2003 Pew Oceans Commission and its chairman, Leon Panetta. And its mandate should be protecting the oceans, not protecting business interests. Additionally, we strongly urge against consolidating food safety functions of different government departments until much more progress is made to improve basic food safety protections.”

Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.

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Contact: Rich Bindell, RBindell(at)fwwatch.org, 202-683-2457

Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.
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