Press Releases
Below are Food & Water Watch Press releases:
Food & Water Watch Joins with Local Community Leaders and Businesses to Launch Grand Rapids Take Back the Tap Campaign
2009-10-20
Press Release: Today, Food & Water Watch, the Wege Foundation, the Grand Rapids City Commission, Gilmore Collection restaurants, Grand Rapids Community College and Saint Mary’s Health Care joined together to launch Take Back the Tap Grand Rapids. The campaign highlights the social, economic, and environmental problems with the bottled water industry; the need for increased funding for public tap water; and the importance of celebrating and protecting Michigan’s watersheds.
Nestle Videos a Spin Job to Compensate for Wasteful, Unnecessary Product
2009-10-16
Press statement: Yesterday, Nestle Waters North America announced the release of a series of videos aimed at consumers touting among other things, the so-called ‘safety’ of its plastic water bottles, the advantages of plastic bottles over glass bottles, and its own corporate efforts to promote recycling programs. While Nestle is promoting these videos as part of its ongoing ‘dedication’ to ‘environmental stewardship,’ we see them for what they really are—damage control to compensate for the company’s recent 2.7 percent decline in sales.
Food & Water Watch Joins With Campuses Across the U.S. to Launch First Annual Campus Day of Action
2009-10-13
Press Release: Today, the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch joined with 11 colleges and universities around the U.S. for the first annual Campus Day of Action. The event connects the work of students around the U.S. in their efforts to educate their campuses and communities about the benefits of choosing to drink tap water and the environmental, social, and economic drawbacks of bottled water. The Campus Day of Action is an extension of Food & Water Watch’s Take Back the Tap campaign, which works with campuses and restaurants around the country to help them replace bottled water with tap water.
Governor’s water priorities all wrong; He fails to recognize basic water needs while pushing billions for pet water projects
2009-10-13
Press Release: Sacramento, CA – Governor Schwarzenegger revealed his flawed priorities for water in California when he vetoed the Human Right to Water Bill late Sunday night. The bill would have made it the explicit policy of the state of California to ensure that all people have access to safe affordable water for basic human needs, including drinking water. Reflecting the broad-based support for the bill, AB 1242, authored by Assembly Member Ira Ruskin, was co-sponsored by seven organizations including Alliance for Democracy, Community Water Center, Environmental Justice Coalition for Water, Food and Water Watch, San Jerardo Cooperative, Inc., Unitarian Universalist Legislative Ministry Action Network, California Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and Urban Semillas.
Food & Water Watch Applauds Senator Vitter for Helping Put Brakes on Gulf of Mexico Offshore Fish Farming
2009-10-09
Press Statement: Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization, applauds Senator Vitter of Louisiana for introducing an amendment to the annual appropriations bill for Departments of Commerce and Justice, and Science, and Related Agencies to slow regulations that would for the first time allow development of ocean fish farms in U.S. federal waters. Ocean fish farming, or offshore aquaculture, is the mass-production of fish in huge floating net pens or cages about three to 200 miles from shore.
Crystal Geyser’s Plans to Retreat from Oxford, Wisconsin a Victory for Local and National Activists
2009-10-08
Washington, D.C.—“Last week, activists in Oxford, Wisconsin, celebrated a significant victory when the water bottling giant Crystal Geyser announced it would cancel plans to open a bottling facility there. The proposed plant would have pumped 360,000 gallons of water a day from the Upper Fox Watershed, a practice that would have compromised Oxford’s ecosystem by negatively impacting the quality and quantity of the local water supply. The plant would also have introduced between 40 and 60 fume-emitting trucks a day to this quiet, rural area.
Bill to Prevent Privatization of Milwaukee Water Works Would Protect Vital Public Resource
2009-10-06
Press Release: “Last week, State Representative Frederick P. Kessler (12th Assembly District) introduced a bill to the Wisconsin State Assembly that would forbid the privatization of the Milwaukee Water Works. A publically controlled utility, the water works has been the subject of intense debate since October 2008 when the Milwaukee Common Council took initial steps toward leasing it to a private company as a means of alleviating the city’s budget crunch.
Food & Water Watch and Other Organizations Sue Secretary of Commerce and Agencies on Offshore Aquaculture Plan
2009-10-02
Press Release: Today, Food & Water Watch, in conjunction with several other organizations, filed suit against the Secretary of Commerce, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), over a plan to allow offshore industrial fish farming in the Gulf of Mexico. Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization, sued because the plan and the process by which it was developed and enacted violates existing federal laws. The group, which has opposed the plan throughout its development, asserts, among other issues, that these entities did not take required actions in allowing the plan to be finalized, and do not have the authority to permit ocean aquaculture.
Congress Continues to Serve Bad Milk to Kids
2009-10-01
Statement: “Consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch is disappointed that Congress will not be able to re-write the 2004 Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act so that schoolchildren will have access to safe and wholesome milk before it expires on September 30. The Congress will pass an extension for the 2004 Act – a law that includes the nutritional requirements for students who participate in the National School Lunch Program – without providing an option for schoolchildren to have access to artificial hormone-free milk. The failure of Congress to act in time leaves children susceptible to the dangers associated with drinking milk produced with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH).
Hannah King of Dallas Wins Food & Water Watch’s “Take Home Chef Rocky” Contest
2009-10-01
Press Release: Food & Water Watch, a national consumer advocacy organization, today announced Hannah King of Dallas, Texas, as the grand prizewinner of the “Take Home Chef Rocky” contest. King’s YouTube video was selected from among dozens of entries from across the country and features King, who has multiple sclerosis, in her kitchen talking directly to the camera about why she needs Chef Joseph “Rocky” Barnette to come to her home and transform her lifestyle. The “Take Home Chef Rocky” contest is part of Food & Water Watch’s Edible EcoUnderground initiative, an innovative new venture that aims to get people more involved with the purchasing, preparation and enjoyment of their food, and help consumers get the information they need to make healthy, sustainable eating choices.