Published on May 14, 2013
- Reports:
Food & Water Watch closely examined five years of State Department diplomatic cables from 2005 to 2009 to provide the first comprehensive analysis of the strategy, tactics and U.S. foreign policy objectives to foist pro-agricultural biotechnology policies worldwide. Read the full report to learn more.
Published on April 03, 2013
- Issue Briefs:
In recent years, a push has been made to transform environmental protection around the world from regulatory regimes to cap-and-trade schemes. Under cap-and-trade, polluters are offered the opportunity to “pay to pollute,” turning decades of environmental efforts on their head and undermining improvements in environmental health. The linchpin of these cap-and-trade schemes is “offsets,” or credits from outside the regulated industry that polluters can buy in order to keep on polluting.
Published on April 03, 2013
- Reports:
You know who Monsanto is. Even if you don’t recognize the company name, you’ve come across some of its products: maybe you’ve used Roundup weed killer on your grass or garden, you’ve heard about the debate over treating cows with the artificial growth hormone rBGH, you’re worried about genetically modified organisms in your food, or you’ve learned about the U.S. military’s use of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. These may not seem related, but they all are a major part of Monsanto’s legacy.
Published on March 05, 2013
- Fact Sheets:
The biotechnology industry is aggressively promoting the environmental sustainability of genetically modified (GM) crops. The industry claims that GM crops can reduce herbicide use, increase yields to feed a hungry planet, and develop new crops that are adapted to climate change.
Published on March 05, 2013
- Fact Sheets:
With the rise of GM crops, coexistence between organic, non-GM and GM production has become more diffi cult due to the potential for gene flow and commingling of crops at both the planting and harvesting levels.
Published on March 05, 2013
- Fact Sheets:
When it comes to labeling genetically modified (GM) foods, the United States lags behind nearly 50 developed nations, including all European Union member states, Australia, Brazil, China, Japan, New Zealand, Russia, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. The European Union requires all food, animal feeds and processed products with biotech content to bear GM labels.
Published on March 05, 2013
- Fact Sheets:
Despite the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA's) approval of many genetically modified foods, questions persist about the safety of eating them. Safety concerns should result in a halt to all sales of genetically modified foods until these questions are addressed. At the very least, consumers should have the right to know if the foods they are buying and eating have been genetically modified.
Published on March 05, 2013
- Fact Sheets:
Roundup, an herbicide produced by Monsanto that contains the active ingredient glyphosate, has been vigorously applied to crops for years. Most genetically modified (GM) crops are designed to be tolerant of specially tailored herbicides. Farmers can spray the herbicide on their fields, killing the weeds without harming the GM crops. With the development of Roundup Ready crops, the application intensity of Roundup has only increased.
Published on March 04, 2013
- Issue Briefs:
Around half of the fish that the world eats for dinner comes from fish farms. Aquaculture is promoted as a sustainable way to meet rising consumer demand for seafood. But fish farming relies on small, wild fish to feed farmed fish, pollutes the waters around it with wastes and chemicals and threatens wild fish biodiversity through escapes and disease transmission.
Published on December 13, 2012
- Issue Briefs:
The last 20 years of environmental protection have seen a steady shift away from many of the tried-and-true regulatory control approaches that force industries to implement increasingly more protective pollution abatement measures. We are witnessing a move toward market-driven off set programs that substitute trading for technology. With both air and water, industries are now being offered pay-to-pollute approaches that enable them to purchase pollution “credits” instead of working to reduce their harmful discharges. Of course, these market mechanisms come with a whole host of loopholes and liabilities.
Published on December 04, 2012
- Issue Briefs:
Whenever you read a report or hear on the news that the economy is growing, what you are hearing is that the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is growing. But while GDP measures economic activity, it does not measure the distribution of the wealth created by that activity, or the quality of our air and water, or the quality of our schools. Yet, when we hear GDP is growing many of us believe that the country is doing better than it was. Given that economists, politicians and the media treat GDP this way, it is no surprise that we think this way
Published on November 14, 2012
- Reports:
Promoters of modern drilling and fracking celebrate the industry’s newfound ability to extract oil and natural gas from shale and other tight rock formations, calling it an energy “revolution,” a “paradigm-shifter,” a “rebirth” and a “game changer.” One recent report claims that North America might soon become “the new Middle East,” a net exporter of oil and natural gas. In April 2012, ConocoPhillips’s CEO at the time called shale gas a “blessing.” But for whom is it really a blessing?
Published on October 15, 2012
- Fact Sheets:
In 1977, Congress passed a set of amendments to the 1972 Federal Water Pollution Control Act. Together, the original act and the amendments came to be known as the Clean Water Act (CWA). The CWA set a strong and simple standard that polluting is illegal, and that the national goal is zero discharge of pollution into our public waterways. Failing achievement of zero discharge, the CWA set limits on discharges.
Published on July 02, 2012
- Reports:
Europe Report: By supporting factory fish farming, the soy industry could not only help to expand an industry that degrades marine environments, threatens wild fish populations and damages coastal communities, it could also extend its own negative impacts. Already, industrial soy production has led to the prevalence of genetically modified crops on U .S. farmland and in consumer food-products, caused massive deforestation in South America and displaced indigenous communities living in areas now used to grow soy.
Published on March 07, 2012
- Fact Sheets:
Europe: New drilling and fracking techniques have been a boon for the oil and gas industry in the United States, making it possible for companies to extract large quantities of oil and gas from shales and other "tight" rock formations. However, shale development has been a nightmare for those exposed to the resulting pollution.
Published on March 07, 2012
- Reports:
Europe Report: Within the past decade, technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," have enabled the oil and gas industry to extract large quantities of oil and natural gas from shale formations in the United States. However, the practice has proven controversial. Pollution from modern drilling and fracking has caused widespread environmental and public health problems and created serious, long-term risks to underground water resources.
In this report, Food & Water Europe reviews the risks and costs of shale development that have been demonstrated in the United States, including economic costs that run counter to industry-backed claims about the economic benefits of the practice.
Published on February 28, 2012
- Reports:
Europe Report: Clean drinking water and wastewater treatment are basic services that societies and governments provide. Water is a necessity for life, and safe water and sanitation are crucial for public health. In July 2010, the United Nations declared access to clean water and sanitation to be a human right. But recognizing the human right to water does not explain how to deliver this right to households. Even with this commitment to enhance water delivery and safety, an estimated 884 million people worldwide lack access to safe water, and 2.6 billion lack access to improved sanitation.
Published on February 07, 2012
- Issue Briefs:
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.
Published on November 30, 2011
- Fact Sheets:
Łączny areał upraw genetycznie modyfikowanych w Unii Europejskiej zmniejszył się w 2009 roku o połowę w porównaniu do 2006 roku, a tendencja spadkowa utrzymuje się nadal. W 2009 roku rośliny genetycznie modyfikowane uprawiane były na 0.05 procenta pól uprawnych Europy.
Published on October 10, 2011
- Reports:
Report (Europe): This report revisits the four U.S. taxpayer-supported factory fish farming experiments — in Hawaii, New Hampshire and Puerto Rico — that are described in Food & Water Watch’s previous reports, Seas of Doubt and the first edition of Fishy Farms. Because all of these research and demonstration projects have previously received government funding to advance the industry, we have traced the operations’ histories for lessons that can be drawn about the feasibility of ocean
fish farming.
