You’re making the world safer and creating a future where everyone has access to healthy food, clean water, and a livable climate — one milestone at a time.

While our work together has never been more urgent, your care and commitment to building a better future shine bright, leading the way. With you, we’re protecting the people and places we love. 

Victories to Celebrate!

Exposed Corporate Price Gouging Behind Higher Egg Prices

This spring, Food & Water Watch released a report, “The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies: The Rotten Egg Oligarchy,” showing that higher egg prices are not just due to bird flu, as corporations want you to believe, but also to corporate greed. 

Our research uncovered how Cal-Maine, the country’s leading egg producer, raised egg prices even while its facilities were bird flu-free. Their price gouging led to $1 billion in windfall profits in a single year. While food giants like Cal-Maine profiteer off the bird flu pandemic, they’re also worsening it. The factory farm model creates hotbeds of disease by stuffing millions of animals into small spaces. 

Because of you, we’re spreading the word. Several media outlets, including The Guardian, BBC, and Bloomberg News, have featured Food & Water Watch Research Director, Amanda Starbuck, and our report.

Successfully pressed for more protective mega-dairy permits in Washington 

In response to a challenge from community and conservation groups, including Food & Water Watch, the Washington State Pollution Control Hearings Board ordered the Department of Ecology to rewrite pollution discharge permits for the state’s mega-dairies to better protect drinking water and the environment. 

A unanimous 2021 Washington Court of Appeals decision already required Ecology to rewrite these permits because they violated state and federal laws that require factory farms to adequately reduce and monitor their pollution. Ecology’s revised permit again failed to control the discharge of factory farm pollutants. With our allies, we successfully pushed Ecology to finally fix these deficiencies. Together, we’ll continue to fight for Washington residents’ health and the environment.

Won a legal victory that protects our oceans from industrial fish farming 

Food & Water Watch and a coalition of allies solidified a legal win from late last year when a federal judge invalidated a nationwide factory fish farming permit, Nationwide Permit 56, which threatened to pave the way for dirty offshore aquaculture projects. 

This permit would have allowed for the construction of industrial aquaculture facilities in U.S. federal ocean waters. Industrial aquaculture, also known as fish farming, involves placing net pens and cages in the open ocean to produce massive quantities of finfish such as salmon, trout, and bass — along with massive amounts of pollution. 

Fish farming threatens marine ecosystems as well as endangered whales, salmon, sea turtles, and many other imperiled species. It also threatens traditional fishing economies, Tribal Nations’ food security, and public health.

You powered this victory, which is yet another major legal rebuke to industrial fish farms in our ocean.

Celebrated West Virginia’s first-in-the-nation state ban on synthetic food dyes 

In March, Governor Morrisey signed House Bill 2354 into law, making West Virginia the first state in the nation to pass a sweeping ban on synthetic food dyes, linked to behavioral issues, endocrine disruption, and cancer risks.

Dangerous chemicals have no place in our food supply. Food & Water Watch and our allies supported this legislation, which prohibits the sale of food products containing seven synthetic dyes and two preservatives beginning in 2028.

Earlier this year, in response to a petition by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, Food & Water Watch, and 22 organizations and scientists, the Food & Drug Administration banned Red Dye No. 3 from food and drinks in the United States, citing the dye’s cancer risk. The ban will go into effect in 2027.

Defeated the Cancer Gag Act in Iowa

When Food & Water Watch learned that Bayer, the maker of Roundup, was pushing a pesticide immunity bill in Iowa, we jumped into action. We nicknamed it the Cancer Gag Act, as it would shield pesticide companies from health-related lawsuits, stripping people of their rights to hold these companies accountable.

Powered by you, our Iowa organizing team mobilized a broad coalition of Iowans to send the message to elected leaders: put the health of our communities above corporate profits! Despite a last-ditch lobbying push from Bayer, this bill did not pass. We successfully defended farmers and families from this outrageous display of corporate callousness.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, Bayer is pushing the Agricultural Uniformity Labeling Act, which would hamstring state and local governments’ ability to protect people from harmful uses of pesticides. Together, we’ll continue fighting to protect people from toxic chemicals.

Protected the National School Lunch Program

Thanks to you, Food & Water Watch, allied groups, and concerned residents, successfully pressured Congress to keep school meals in the federal budget — for now. 

House Republicans have been pushing for budget legislation that will slash programs and services crucial to the health and well-being of millions. At the same time, they want to give trillions in tax breaks, largely to corporations and the ultra-wealthy. They want to condemn children to go hungry to pad the pockets of billionaires.

In April, the House Education and Workforce Committee marked up its portion of the budget bill and didn’t cut national school breakfast and lunch programs. This is an encouraging win for people power! 

While school meals are safe in the budget bill passed by the House, it’s still horrible and includes deep cuts to several critical programs, such as SNAP and Medicaid. As of this writing, the budget process is not over. Together, we will continue to fight this terrible budget bill.

Drove over 30 New Jersey municipalities to support the Climate Change Superfund Act — so far!

By rallying in support of the New Jersey Climate Superfund Act, together, we’ve built momentum for this bill — and it’s stronger than ever.  

The New Jersey Climate Superfund Act, modeled after similar laws passed in New York and Vermont, would empower the state to collect financial damages caused by fossil fuel companies that do business in the state. As New Jersey experiences an increasing number of extreme weather events, funds would help pay for infrastructure projects to help the state become more resilient to flooding, severe storms, and other climate impacts.

The message is clear: New Jersey is ready for bold action to protect our communities — and to ensure the fossil fuel industry, not taxpayers, foots the bill.

Protected a key water safety rule for lead-free water

Intense grassroots pressure around the country, led by Food & Water Watch, stopped a dangerous attempt by House Republicans to strip away a key water safety rule. They worked to repeal the Biden-era Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI) that mandated the elimination of toxic lead service lines in most communities across the country.

You powered rallies at the offices of key Republican Congress members in the Northeast and Midwest, calling on them to publicly denounce this terrible plan. And we influenced two of these members to commit to opposing the LCRI rollback.

But the LCRI isn’t safe yet. It faces an industry lawsuit that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must defend against. We’re now demanding that EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin carry out his responsibility to protect drinking water. He needs to reject all attempts to roll back the regulation or delay it from going into effect. Every person deserves safe, lead-free water.

You’re Improving Lives and Protecting Our Planet

Each victory listed above was made possible by generous people — like you — who’ve shown time and again how much you care about the health of our communities and our most precious resources. 

Thank you!