You’re creating a brighter future where everyone has access to safe food, clean water, and a healthy climate.

While we’re living through extreme threats to our most precious resources, supporters like you are taking action because you know protecting our food, water, and climate isn’t just about safeguarding our environment; together, we’re protecting our families and communities. 

You’re the backbone of our mission, and we’re overflowing with gratitude for everything you do. With you, we’re protecting the people and places we love — one milestone at a time. Thank you!

Victories to Celebrate!

Protected Swampbuster, an important conservation program

Swampbuster is a long-standing environmental program that encourages sustainable farming and safeguards clean water. It makes federal funding available to farmers who responsibly steward their land and protect vital wetlands. Yet a lawsuit filed in April 2024, CTM Holdings, LLC v. U.S. Department of Agriculture, tried to end Swampbuster.

Food & Water Watch’s legal team and our allies, representing a group of farmers and their families, won a motion to intervene late last year to defend Swampbuster in court. And in late May, a federal judge ruled in our favor — we won! 

Because of supporters like you, sustainable farmers had a voice in a case that directly impacted them, and together, we saved the Swampbuster program from a right-wing attack.

Stopped oil and gas development near a high school in Pennsylvania 

Elizabeth Township, PA’s protective ordinance should have stopped new fracking operations in residential areas. But in a years-long battle, Olympus Energy and Hyperion Midstream tried to defy that ordinance and build a new project just 1,700 feet from Elizabeth Forward High School. Local group Protect Elizabeth Township, with Food & Water Watch, finally defeated this proposal in June.

The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania sided with Protect Elizabeth Township, ruling that the Township Board of Commissioners acted improperly when it approved the project, which would have included a well pad, interconnect pad, pipeline, and access roads. Groups celebrated the decision as a victory for communities over destructive oil and gas interests.

Ended costly ratepayer subsidy for new gas hookups in New York

In a significant victory for New Yorkers, the State Assembly voted to repeal the outdated 100-foot rule — a long-standing policy that forced ratepayers to subsidize costly gas hookups for new customers. Eliminating the rule will end a $200 million-per-year subsidy that has fueled fossil fuel expansion and left New Yorkers footing the bill. 

The repeal follows years of advocacy powered by supporters like you to eliminate policies that prop up the fossil fuel industry at the public’s expense.

Won a legal decision in our fight to clean up industrial wastewater

In a lawsuit brought by Food & Water Watch and allied groups, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s decision not to update water pollution standards for several major industrial sectors was unlawful.

The EPA must now reconsider its pollution standards for petroleum refineries, plastics manufacturers, and fertilizer plants, properly accounting for improvements in pollution control technology when setting limits for discharges into waterways. This victory stands to benefit the health of our waterways across the country and strengthen the EPA’s standards-setting process for all industrial polluters. Thank you for sustaining this critical legal work!

Made Trump’s Big, Ugly Bill less ugly

There is nothing patriotic about Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” — it may be the ugliest legislation we’ve ever seen. But because of our advocacy, together we were able to get a number of dangerous provisions removed: We stopped direct cuts to the national school lunch program, attacks on nonprofits and free speech that would have threatened our and our allies’ work by allowing Trump to punish his political enemies, a pay-to-play scheme for natural gas pipelines in which companies could fast-track approvals if they paid $1 million, a measure to sell off vast amounts of public lands, a prohibition on state and local protections against artificial intelligence, and more.

Since day one of the budget reconciliation process, Food & Water Watch supporters like you have rallied together to oppose it. While the Big, Ugly Bill passed, our advocacy made a difference.

Won a motion to intervene to get factory farm waste out of Lake Erie

A federal judge approved Food & Water Watch and our allies to intervene in a lawsuit challenging a grievously inadequate cleanup plan for Lake Erie’s serious pollution problem. We will argue that the EPA’s approval of the Western Lake Erie Total Maximum Daily Load is unlawful because it fails to hold factory farms accountable for their major role in polluting the Great Lake. In a second win, the court denied factory farm industry groups’ motions to intervene. 

Thanks to supporters like you powering our legal work, Food & Water Watch has a long history of enforcing the Clean Water Act and fighting industry attempts to weaken our bedrock environmental protections.

Together, We’ve Accomplished Great Things Even in the Face of Great Odds

Each victory listed above, each community we protected, each policy we influenced for the better, happened because caring people like you stepped up by taking action, volunteering, or making a gift. 

Thank you for your incredible commitment to building a livable future for all!