About — Food & Water Watch

Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food in the United States and around the world. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

At Food & Water Watch we believe that the public should be able to count on our government to oversee and protect the quality and safety of food and water. We deserve to know that food and water are free of unhealthy chemicals, bacteria and added hormones. We have the right to know where our food comes from with accurate labeling and we have the right to clean, affordable, publicly owned water. Food & Water Watch is dedicated to working on behalf of the public to assert and regain these rights as we lobby for effective government standards and oversight, organize the public to take action, and educate the public and the media on these basic issues.

Today, we are in a worldwide struggle for control of our food and water. Over the past 100 years, food production has changed dramatically. Food is no longer just a sustainer of life –– it is a profit center for large multinational corporations. Family farmers and fishermen are facing bankruptcy and relocation to large urban slums. The work of producing our food, replaced by large corporate enterprises.

Consumers lose too. The food in grocery stores is likely the result of using practices that damage the environment and threaten public health. It may have traveled thousands of miles, diminishing its nutritional value and in some cases increasing the odds that it is contaminated with bacteria.

Large corporations have taken aim on family farms for decades, but they have also begun to encroach on our oceans, vying to parcel off the waters into private chunks so they can create massive fish farms and develop private monopolies over the right to fish.

And water is often cited as the “oil of the 21st century". As corporations jockey for ownership of water sources, including in some cases rainwater, our municipal water systems are in danger of falling apart dues to a lack of funding.

In our short existence since 2005, we have made a difference in on many fronts. A few of our accomplishments are noted below:

In our fight to remove artificial growth hormones from milk, we have been a force to cause Starbucks, one of the nation’s highest profile milk users, to stop using milk with added artificial hormones in 51% of their stores. We are stepping up our campaign to bring that percentage up to 100.
Our influential report Import Alert, which was widely quoted and praised on Capitol Hill, was released just days before the FDA suddenly banned the importation of several varieties of factory–farmed fish from China –– fish that our report uncovered serious problems with.
Our expertise on food safety and factory farming is paying off as Congress considers a new Farm Bill. Our work to ensure that our farm policy benefits consumers and farmers rather than agribusiness is making a difference to opinion leaders and has been recognized in a New York Times editorial and in the Nation Magazine, among many other places. A key public education tool has been an interactive map on the Internet showing factory farm locations.
Our work against water privatization, which began when the Food & Water Watch program and staff were at Public Citizen, has paid off in significant ways to turn the tide in favor of public ownership of water in communities across the country. In one example we have worked since 2003 with citizen groups in Stockton, California, to return the water system to public control. This summer, we achieved victory when city officials finally voted to dissolve the deal.

To Contact Us

1616 P Street, NW
Suite 300
Washington, DC 20036
P 202.683.2500
F 202.683.2501

Email: foodandwater[at]fwwatch[dot]org

Sections

Personal tools

To Contact Us


Enter Your Email Take Action Don't Let Our Food Labeling Standards Be Weakened Explore Further Mission Who We Are Board of Directors Career Opportunities Newsletters Contact Us The Pressroom Harmful Chemicals Found in Bottled Water Bush Administration Exempts Factory Farms From Regulation Growing Fruit and Vegetable Imports Pose Threat to American Consumers Coalition Protests Corporate Water Conference With Street Theater and Press Conference - more -	Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food in the United States and around the world. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink. At Food & Water Watch we believe that the public should be able to count on our government to oversee and protect the quality and safety of food and water. We deserve to know that food and water are free of unhealthy chemicals, bacteria and added hormones. We have the right to know where our food comes from with accurate labeling and we have the right to clean, affordable, publicly owned water. Food & Water Watch is dedicated to working on behalf of the public to assert and regain these rights as we lobby for effective government standards and oversight, organize the public to take action, and educate the public and the media on these basic issues. Today, we are in a worldwide struggle for control of our food and water. Over the past 100 years, food production has changed dramatically. Food is no longer just a sustainer of life –– it is a profit center for large multinational corporations. Family farmers and fishermen are facing bankruptcy and relocation to large urban slums. The work of producing our food, replaced by large corporate enterprises. Consumers lose too. The food in grocery stores is likely the result of using practices that damage the environment and threaten public health. It may have traveled thousands of miles, diminishing its nutritional value and in some cases increasing the odds that it is contaminated with bacteria. Large corporations have taken aim on family farms for decades, but they have also begun to encroach on our oceans, vying to parcel off the waters into private chunks so they can create massive fish farms and develop private monopolies over the right to fish. And water is often cited as the “oil of the 21st century". As corporations jockey for ownership of water sources, including in some cases rainwater, our municipal water systems are in danger of falling apart dues to a lack of funding. In our short existence since 2005, we have made a difference in on many fronts. A few of our accomplishments are noted below: In our fight to remove artificial growth hormones from milk, we have been a force to cause Starbucks, one of the nation’s highest profile milk users, to stop using milk with added artificial hormones in 51% of their stores. We are stepping up our campaign to bring that percentage up to 100. Our influential report Import Alert, which was widely quoted and praised on Capitol Hill, was released just days before the FDA suddenly banned the importation of several varieties of factory–farmed fish from China –– fish that our report uncovered serious problems with. Our expertise on food safety and factory farming is paying off as Congress considers a new Farm Bill. Our work to ensure that our farm policy benefits consumers and farmers rather than agribusiness is making a difference to opinion leaders and has been recognized in a New York Times editorial and in the Nation Magazine, among many other places. A key public education tool has been an interactive map on the Internet showing factory farm locations. Our work against water privatization, which began when the Food & Water Watch program and staff were at Public Citizen, has paid off in significant ways to turn the tide in favor of public ownership of water in communities across the country. In one example we have worked since 2003 with citizen groups in Stockton, California, to return the water system to public control. This summer, we achieved victory when city officials finally voted to dissolve the deal. To Contact Us 1616 P Street, NW Suite 300 Washington, DC 20036 P 202.683.2500 F 202.683.2501 Email: foodandwater[at]fwwatch[dot]org