DONOR SPOTLIIGHT Zephyr Teachout fights for a future free from monopoly power Please introduce yourself to our readers. I’m Zephyr Teachout, a law professor, author, activist, candidate for public office, and a lawyer for economic justice. I live in New York City. You’ve been a Food & Water Watch donor for a decade now. How did you first learn about our organi- zation, and why did you decide to become a donor? I first encountered Food & Water Watch during the long, hard, beautiful fight to ban fracking in New York. It was an amazing success: every day people, armed with good science and strategic action, taking on some of the most powerful corporations on earth and winning. Food & Water Watch was one of the few groups that never flinched, never hedged. It insisted on what was necessary, not what was easy. And unlike so many big environmental groups, some of which have grown comfortable in boardrooms, it was building actual, living, breathing grassroots power. That combination of moral clarity, strategic intelligence, and human depth drew me in. You’re serving on the Board of Food & Water Watch and as Board Chair of Food & Water Action. What motivated you to deepen your relationship with our mission in this powerful way? I study how concentrated power distorts markets, politics, and the terms of our everyday life, and I recognize that Food & Water Watch truly understands power — the corrosive power of corporate giants, and the democratic power that arises when people organize with clarity and courage. Food & Water Watch is distinct from other environmental nonprofits because: 1. It understands power in its full political and economic dimensions. It sees how fossil
If you care about climate justice, water justice, or
fuel companies, corporate agriculture, and water privatizers use their concentrated economic power to dominate. 2. It has a growing, authentic grassroots base — real people who show up to hearings, knock on doors, rally, organize, and stand together. Its people power is the antidote to corporate power. If you were talking to someone about giving to and getting involved with Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Action, what would you tell them? Come on in, the water's fine! You’ll be welcomed into an organization that fights for the world as it should be, and does the hard work to bring that world into being. If you care about climate justice, water justice, or economic justice, this is where your support translates into real democratic action. What gives you hope for the future? Hope comes from action. There's something thrilling happening — people are coming together around fights for a more just world. It ain't easy, but a livable and just future is possible. economic justice, this is where your support translates into real democratic action.
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