Food & Water Watch is a
Washington, D.C.
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-based
non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from government. They are typically nonprofit entities, and many of them are active in h ...
group with an office also in Los Angeles, California, which focuses on corporate and government accountability relating to food, water, and corporate overreach. Resulting issue areas include stopping fossil fuels and fossil fuel extraction, regulating factory farms, advocating for renewable energy, fighting
water privatization, stopping bad trade deals, increasing transparency in our
food system
The term food system describes the interconnected systems and processes that influence nutrition
Nutrition is the biochemical and physiological process by which an organism uses food to support its life. It provides organisms with nutrients ...
, and standing up for human rights. The organization was founded by staff from
Public Citizen
Public Citizen is a non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas.
Lobbying efforts
Public Citizen advocates before all three branches of the Unit ...
in 2005.
It was the first to break the news of the high rate of salmonella in US chicken processing plants in July 2006.
It has also been critical of the growing bottled water industry for health and environmental concerns.
On August 24, 2007, it announced success in its effort to get Starbucks Coffee to stop using milk originating from rBGH-treated cows.
The organization does not take government or corporate donations. Charity Watch rates it an "A" grade.
Campaigns
* "The Clean Energy Revolution": an anti-fracking march held during the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
* "Public Water for All": Food & Water Watch's program to oppose the privatization of public water utilities.
Food & Water Justice
Food & Water Justice is the organization's legal department, which files lawsuits and provides legal analysis to further the organization's campaigns. It has supported work opposing the use of pollution trading to solve environmental challenges as well as calls for more regulations of concentrated animal feeding operations.
Food & Water Watch sued the USDA's Farm Service Agency in 2017 for “failing to adequately consider environmental impacts before supporting a loan guarantee for a poultry operation on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.” The organization's lawyers also backed the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Protection Agency in a 2016 suit that challenged the agency's practice of making public the location of permitted concentrated animal feeding operations.
BP Whistleblower
Following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, 2010 Deepwater Horizon Oil Disaster, a subcontractor at BP, BP's Atlantis PQ, Atlantis oil rig provided “e-mails, a BP database and other documents” to Food & Water Watch. These documents indicated that BP had violated its own policies by not having all the necessary engineering documents on board the Atlantis when the rig started operations in 2007. The subcontractor, Kenneth Abbott, would later file a lawsuit with Food & Water Watch against then Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the Minerals and Management Service. The lawsuit sought to stop the operation of Atlantis.
Food & Water Action
Food & Water Action, originally Food & Water Action Fund, is the organization's political arm, and is classified as a 501(c)(4). It has endorsed candidates in a number of election races.
See also
*
Public Citizen
Public Citizen is a non-profit, progressive consumer rights advocacy group and think tank based in Washington, D.C., United States, with a branch in Austin, Texas.
Lobbying efforts
Public Citizen advocates before all three branches of the Unit ...
*Wenonah Hauter
References
Further reading
*
External links
Food & Water Watch
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Dupont Circle
Food safety organizations
Government watchdog groups in the United States
Environmental organizations based in Washington, D.C.
Organizations established in 2005
Public Citizen