In June, Rio de Janiero, Brazil will play host to heads of state, UN agencies, and global stakeholders as they convene for the UN Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), commonly known as “Rio+20.” There’s a lot at stake.

On June 5, 2012, we’ll be uniting to tell the U.S. negotiators to get Wall Street out of Rio. We’re sending a message:

• We want a truly green economy, not a green-washed economy.
• We want an economy that supports communities, not multinational corporations. And we want an economy that upholds our common resources like water as a public trust, not a commodity, and recognizes the human right to water.

Right now, the Rio+20 “green economy” agenda is being driven by interests that seek to privatize nature by further deregulating industry and handing our common resources over to companies for profit.

On June 5, 2012, we’ll be uniting to tell the U.S. negotiators that they can’t put a price tag on nature.

We’re sending a message:

• We want a truly green economy, not a green-washed economy. 
• We want an economy that supports communities, not multinational corporations.
• And we want an economy that upholds our common resources like water as a public trust, not a commodity, and recognizes the human right to water.


Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter

Washington, D.C.—“Nassau County’s selection of United Water to run its sewer system is one that the county will ultimately regret. Just ask the community of Gary, Indiana, where United Water Services is currently facing felony charges for violating the Clean Water Act and conspiring to defraud the federal government by misrepresenting the way it complies with wastewater treatment standards.

“This plan is also extremely misguided in that it will do nothing to alleviate Nassau County’s budget woes. Leasing the county’s sewer system will not relieve residents of financial burdens now, or ever. In fact, it will do just the opposite. This lease is akin to refinancing the county’s debt with a higher interest rate and shifting the financial obligation to sewer customers who will pay through sewer assessment increases. Leasing the county’s sewer system will be a lot like a cash-strapped consumer relying on a pay-day loan to make ends meet, and we’ve all seen how well that has worked out.

“Nassau County executives should heed the wise words of the New York State Comptroller’s office who referred to such privatization deals as ‘budget gimmickry.’ Furthermore, United Water’s claim that it will increase system efficiency is groundless. Studies indicate that private water service providers are no more efficient than public ones, but they are a lot less accountable to the public.  

“The sewer system in Nassau County needs to remain in public control. Privatizing this essential asset will not solve anyone’s financial troubles, except perhaps, United Water’s.”

Contact: Sam Bernhardt, Food & Water Watch, 516-680-0760, sbernhardt(at)fwwlocal(dot)org

You are invited to our first group meeting right here in the center of Portland. We want to build the movement challenging the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources — but we need your help.

Not only will we be fighting to protect Maine’s groundwater resources, but we’ll also be continuing our work to ensure that farm policy is fair to consumers and family farms. Come join us for great discussion, snacks and movement building. 

Please join the Brooklyn Food Coalition and its partners for the 2012 Brooklyn Food Conference on May 12, 2012. Come learn about our food system and why we need to pull together to help change it!

On Wednesday, April 11, 2012 at 7 p.m. at Great Harvest Bread Company (18 Buffalo St. Hamburg, NY) there will be a screening of the Emmy Award-winning documentary Gasland. The screening is free, and afterward there will be a Q&A session with Food & Water Watch. Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. Fracking has been cited as a threat to surface and ground water throughout the U.S. Recent reports state that fracking could happen as early as this summer in New York State.

by Hugh MacMillan

Food & Water Watch has submitted brief comments on the draft North Carolina Oil and Gas Study under Session Law 2011-276. 

The draft study finds that North Carolina is totally unprepared for drilling and fracking for natural gas, that opening up the state to fracking would effectively mean joining an uncontrolled public health experiment, and that fracking would negatively affect the state’s economy and residents. 

But given misrepresentations of the study’s findings, you wouldn’t know all that unless you’ve read the study.

The lead conclusion – that “hydraulic fracturing can be done safely so long as the right protections are in place” – has been embraced by the oil and gas industry as a green light to open up the state to fracking. This is a problem. The conclusion doesn’t make sense tacked on to the end of a study that raises so many unanswered questions, which include:

• How the cumulative pollution impacts of drilling and fracking operations would affect public health in North Carolina;
• Whether the cumulative economic consequences of drilling and fracking in the state would be negative;
• Whether low- or fixed-income residents of North Carolina would bear a disproportionate burden of the negative economic consequences;
• How funding for resources to enforce the “right protections” would be secured in the current political climate;
• How local governments would pay for increased demands on social services in communities in the wake of drilling and fracking; and
• How contamination of potential North Carolina drinking water resources would be avoided.

It is nonsense to conclude that “the right” regulatory protections can be designed, enacted and enforced to ensure that fracking “can be done safely” when so many fundamental questions are left unanswered. Unfounded by the study’s findings, the lead conclusion is thus an inexplicable giveaway to the oil and gas industry.

Hundreds of North Carolinians attended the recent public hearings on the draft study to state their opposition to fracking in their communities. Public officials in North Carolina need to be reminded that, unlike the citizens that flooded the recent public hearings, the oil and gas industry has no stake in the long-term economic prosperity of these North Carolina communities.

If you are in North Carolina, or just like to go there in your mind, here are some actions you can take to help keep the brakes on fracking in North Carolina: 

• Join the petition urging North Carolina’s Representatives to oppose any efforts to allow fracking in NC. You can email the petition to your friends, post it on Facebook, share it on Twitter, and collect signatures in person.

• Call your State Representative and tell them to oppose any bills that would allow fracking. You can call (919) 733-7928 and give the operator your house district number, the name of your state house member, or your zip code, and they will transfer you to the office of your representative.

• Call Governor Perdue and tell her you don’t want fracking in North Carolina. Call (202) 609-9041 and you will be connected to her office.

• Write a letter to your local newspaper, community newsletter or favorite blog.

• For more information contact Renée Maas at rmaas(at)fwwatch(dot)org or go to: www.foodandwaterwatch.org/fracking

We’re demanding that Walmart reject Monsanto’s genetically engineered sweet corn. Join hundreds of GE activists by planning an event at your local Walmart store.

Genetically engineered sweet corn is the first Monsanto crop being marketed for direct human consumption. Walmart could have a major impact in ending the market for this untested, unlabeled and potentially unsafe GE vegetable. Walmart claims to care about the environment and the health of their customers, but actions speak louder than words. 

On Saturday, March 17th, people like you and me are organizing events at Walmart stores across the nation. The goals are to raise awareness about the problems associated with GE foods and to convice Walmart to commit not to sell GE Sweet Corn. 

Use the search tool to find an event near you! If you can’t find and event, you can host or own, or sign up to deliver petition signatures to your local store.

Join Food & Water Watch and Riverkeeper for a screening of “Gasland,” the Oscar-nominated documentary that shed light on the horrors of fracking. We will also discuss the current status of fracking and the campaign to protect New Yorkers from fracking.