FALL 2023 ISSUE Focus on Health and Environment MISSION Our food, water, and climate are under constant assault by corporations who put profit over the survival of humanity. They have seized control of the very institutions that were built to protect us. We mobilize people to reclaim their political power, hold our elected officials accountable, and resist corporate control — ensuring we all have the essential resources we need to thrive. This is a fight we must win because this planet is the only one we get.
Thank You For Fighting Like You Live Here!
YOU ARE BUILDING A JUST AND SUSTAINABLE FOOD FUTURE
FALL 2023 ISSUE Your Fight for a Fair Farm Bill Heats Up the Summer
My Home was Flooded by Factory Farm Waste
4 Reasons Why Factory Farm Gas is a Bad Idea
YOUR FIGHT FOR A FAIR FARM BILL HEATS UP THE SUMMER
A MESSAGE FOR YOU Our food system, dominated by large agribusiness and focused on factory farms, isn’t the product of a myth- ical free market. It’s been shaped by one of the most important pieces of legisla- tion Congress writes — the Farm Bill. The policies in it touch each of our lives. They determine the foods we grow, the animals we raise, and ultimately what food is on your plate. Rewritten every five years, the Farm Bill offers a vital opportunity to trans- form federal farm and food policy. Instead of catering to agribusiness’ desire for cheap products, this year’s bill should ensure functional, fair markets. A fair Farm Bill would let the people who grow our food earn a decent living, practice envi- ronmental stewardship, and rebuild the infrastructure so everyone can access regionally-produced food. Because of you, Food & Water Watch is building political power to fight for a Farm Bill that will create a resilient, sustainable food system for all of us. Thank you!
What exactly makes a food system fair? Negotiations around this question have sizzled this summer. It’s Farm Bill time. The fight for a fair Farm Bill comes around every five years. This year, it’s happening while corporations are posting record profits and consumers are paying sky-high grocery bills. Because of you, Food & Water Watch continues to fight for food policies that benefit people, not corporate shareholders, and a food system that rewards sustainable and diversified farms, respect consumers, build rural communities, value workers, and treat animals humanely. The Farm Bill Used To Be Good In 1933, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed what would become the very first Farm Bill — the Agricultural Adjustment Act. It was part of New Deal policies designed to right the wrongs of the monop- olistic power held by big meatpackers at the time. It included common-sense policies such as fair pricing for crops and livestock, reserves to store grain, and payments to support practices like improving and maintaining soil health. These
Cover: Jon Pope, Campaign Lead with the Food & Water Volunteer Network, petitioning for a fair Farm Bill at a farmers market in Brooklyn, New York. Photo by fellow Campaign Lead, photographer Ken Schles. Mitch Jones Deputy Director, Food & Water Action and Managing Director of Policy and Litigation, Food & Water Watch
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Right top and bottom: Senior Organizer John Aspray and volunteer Jan Corderman gather petition signatures for a fair Farm Bill at the Veg Life's Market in Des Moines, Iowa.
Above: Organizer Lilli DiPaola invites people to learn why we need a moratorium on factory farms at the Lents International Farmers Market in Portland, Oregon.
policies smoothed out boom and bust seasons and helped family farmers compete in the marketplace, be good stew- ards of their land, and earn a living wage. Agribusinesses Made
competitive and fair markets for the little guys. They also removed policies that rewarded sustainable farming practices. The current Farm Bill forces smaller farms to “get big or get out*.” It prevents farmers from getting fair prices and limits
and funneled back to corporate headquarters. You Can Take Back the Farm Bill Despite agribusinesses' outsized influence, the Farm Bill remains an important battle- ground for a fair food system. This bill establishes policies and government support for nutri- tion assistance programs like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly the Food Stamp Program), rural economic development
the Farm Bill Worse Over the past several decades, a wave of agribusiness mergers has left our food to be controlled by only a few giant corpora- tions, such as Cargill and Archer Daniels
The current Farm Bill forces small and medium-sized farms to “get big or get out."
Midland. These corporations have gobbled up the compe- tition and wielded their power to strip the Farm Bill of all New Deal policies that created
Your Fight for a Fair Farm Bill - continue on Page 3 >
the choices consumers have at the grocery store. And it’s led to the tragic hollowing out of rural communities as profits get sucked out of small towns
* The mantra of Earl Butz, Secretary of Agriculture (1971 - 1976) under President Nixon, who promoted policies that favored large-scale agriculture.
FOOD & WATER WATCH / ACTION — LIVABLE FUTURE NOW | 2
Left: Volunteer Engagement Director Katy Kiefer visits the Emmaus Triangle farm- ers market in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, with Food & Water Watch's youngest volunteer.
>Your Fight for a Fair Farm Bill - continued from Page 2
location. Thank you for power- ing the fight!
programs, agricultural research, and much more. This year, your investment allows Food & Water Watch to advocate for improvements to the 2023 Farm Bill, using the policies from the New Deal era as our guide. Together, we're lobbying members of Congress, engag- ing hundreds of volunteers
across the country, and planning to gather petition signatures in 31 states. We’re also mobilizing people to urge their members of Congress to support a fair Farm Bill. We need a diversified, sustain- able food system that ensures small and medium-sized farms can thrive and provides nutritious food for everyone, regardless of income or
Want to Dig Deeper into the Farm Bill?
Scan this QR code to read the "A Fair Farm Bill for All" report.
fwwat.ch/fallLFN-FarmBill
ON THE GROUND
Rebecca Can Fight for a Just and Sustainable Food Future Because of You
If it’s about food policy, Rebecca Wolf has her finger on the pulse. She’s your Food & Water Watch Senior Food Policy Analyst and was featured in the May Livable Future LIVE event about the Farm Bill. Rebecca leads efforts to advance federal legislation that would overhaul our food and farm systems for the better. “This year has been about opposing policies that roll back support for working people.
It’s been about standing up to corporate greed that skims dollar after dollar from people’s wallets. And it’s been about making a case for a food system that supports resilient, diversified, family farmers, not factory farms.”
Rebecca Wolf
Your generosity allows Food & Water Watch to continue fighting for a food future that is just and sustainable for all of us — farmers, workers, consumers, a healthy environment, and animals on land. Thank you!
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THIS FIGHT IS PERSONAL My Home was Flooded by Factory Farm Waste My name is Krissy, and I’m the Factory Farm Organizing Director at Food & Water Watch. I’d like to share a personal story about how climate chaos exacerbates the shortcomings of our current farm system and how it has impacted my life and community in eastern North Carolina.
Krissy Kasserman
The devastation was no accident. It was the result of decades of poor policy deci- sions...The outcome was an unacceptable violation of my family’s and neigh- bor’s homes.
In 2018, Hurricane Florence raked through the Carolinas. It dropped 36 inches of rain, nearly half of which was attributed to a warming climate. Fifty-three people died, and nearly 75,000 homes and businesses were flooded — including mine. After the storm, we knew we’d be returning home to a night- mare — the only question was how bad it would be. My fears were proven right — it wasn’t just floodwater in my home. All across eastern North Carolina, manure lagoons full of hog waste from factory farms were flooded or breached entirely — including one upstream from my house. Millions of gallons of untreated
hog waste washed downstream into people’s homes, including mine, compounding the night- mare — and the danger — from the storm. The devastation was no accident. It was the result of decades of poor policy deci- sions that allowed factory farms to be built in floodplains and corporations to spew pollu- tion into our waterways. The outcome was an unacceptable violation of my family’s and neighbor’s homes. In my role as Factory Farm Organizing Director, I’m work- ing to ban factory farms and fight for meaningful action to stop climate change. We need to do these things as if our lives depend on it — because they do.
factory farms in New Mexico and the development of facto- ry farm gas in Delaware. And at the federal level, we’re fighting for the Farm System Reform Act to win a national ban on factory farms. Your generosity powers our work to stop factory farming and create a more just and sustainable food system — one that protects our water, communities, family farmers, and climate. Thank you!
Because of you, we’re fighting for legislation that would enact a moratorium on factory farms in Iowa and Oregon. We’re taking a stand against the overuse of water by
Untreated hog waste leached into flood waters across eastern North Carolina after Hurricane Florence. Photo by Cape Fear River Watch.
Make a Gift Today
Continue the fight to ban factory farms!
fwaction.us/FallLFN
FOOD & WATER WATCH / ACTION — LIVABLE FUTURE NOW | 4
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Your Fellow Food Champions Speak Out!
Reasons Why Factory Farm Gas is a Bad Idea
Senator Cory Booker from a recent Livable Future LIVE event (fwwat.ch/LFLfarmbill)
Factory farms produce millions of tons of manure and waste every day. Big energy companies say they can turn this waste into gas, which they falsely market as green. Here are some reasons why it’s a bad idea.
We can make real progress, to start to transform our broken food
system and shift subsidies away from these factory farms and toward farmers that are growing healthy foods and using regener- ative practices. Everyone deserves access to healthy, affordable food that’s good for them and good for our environment. We can empower farmers and farm workers and protect our environment. This is why I am so proud to have Food & Water Watch’s support on these issues.
Factory Farm Gas Is a Dirty Energy Source Burning factory farm gas releases CO2 and other pollutants like ammonia, hydrogen sulfide, and nitrogen oxides. It’s transport- ed through pipelines that can leak vast amounts of methane. Factory Farm Gas Takes Money Away from True Renewables Factory farm gas is created in anaerobic digesters, which are incredibly expensive. Most rely on government subsidies to be built, funneling millions of taxpayer dollars to factory farms instead of to actual clean energy projects, like wind and solar. Factory Farm Gas Won’t Reduce Environmental Hazards Factory farms often spread untreated waste onto fields as a common practice, resulting in runoff that pollutes our water and harms wildlife. When anaerobic digesters produce gas, they leave behind digestate, a concen- trated form of manure and other pollutants. Digestate is also commonly spread on fields, leading to similar environmental hazards. Factory Farm Gas Adds Injury to Environmental Justice Communities Factory farms disproportionately build their facilities near low-income communities and communities of color, knowing that many residents don’t have the resources or politi- cal power to stop them. Adding gas produc- tion to these farms adds insult to injury.
Iowa dairy farmer Francis Thicke commenting on our report, The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies: Dirty Dairy Racket (fwwat.ch/DairyRacketReport)
Food & Water Watch has done a great job of describing today’s dairy crisis. They are right on target that we need to stop the monopolization of dairy markets, stop the proliferation of unsustainable mega dairies, and implement a supply-control system for dairy production in the U.S. Without supply manage- ment, small and mid-size dairies cannot survive.
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YOUR FOOD & WATER WATCH AT WORK
ACTION SHOT!
Your investment made possible a string of actions that united frontline communities across New Jersey who are resisting toxic and dangerous power plants, pipelines, a highway expansion, and a liquid natural gas (LNG) export terminal. The Our Planet, Our Future week of action in late spring followed a federal decision that rejected a key rail permit needed to trans- port LNG to the proposed gas export facility in Gibbstown. This action-packed week called for a moratorium on new fossil fuel projects in New Jersey and featured lively rallies in Gloucester City, Woodbridge,
and Newark, and a day of community outreach in Jersey City. Together, we can secure clean air and a safe climate future!
Food & Water Watch’s New Jersey team's passion and creativity on full display in Gloucester City.
FEATURED VICTORY
way to dispose
Governor Hochul to sign this into law. Efforts to restore and protect the Hudson River have a long and storied history and helped launch the environmental movement nationally. Thank you for keeping the movement going strong!
of nuclear waste) as early as May of this year. By tabling, petitioning, phone banking, and rallying
Food & Water Watch activists love NY!
See More of Your Victories!
nonstop, together we’ve gathered the support of communities throughout the region and forced Holtec to delay their plans. In June, the Save the Hudson bill, which would ban radioac- tive waste dumping into the Hudson, passed the New York State Senate and Assembly. As of this writing, we’re calling on
Your steadfast generosity allowed our New York team to jump into action when they learned of threats to our precious Hudson River. Holtec International, the company decommissioning the Indian Point Nuclear Power Station near Peekskill, New York, was planning to dump radioactive waste into the river (the cheap
Scan this QR code to read your fall quarterly victories
update and see more of your investment at work.
fwwat.ch/fall23wins
FOOD & WATER WATCH / ACTION — LIVABLE FUTURE NOW | 6
UPCOMING EVENTS
A ga i ns t A ll Od d s the "can't-miss" event of the year!
JOIN US FOR
Livable Future LIVE!
SEPTEMBER 13, 7 PM ET Reshaping Farming in America: With Tom Philpott, author of Perilous Bounty OCTOBER 11 & 12 Join us at Against All Odds! NOVEMBER 15 PFAS: The “Forever Chemicals” Contaminating our Water DECEMBER 13 State of the Climate: Wins (& Losses) and What’s on the Horizon Save Your Seat at fwwat.ch/live mental news and sharing what you can do to protect our food, water, and climate. Livable Future LIVE! is our monthly virtual education series featuring the latest environ-
Opening remarks from Jane Fonda! October 11, 2023 Virtual Conference 3:30 – 5:30 pm ET (12:30 – 2:30 pm PT)
October 12, 2023 Reception in New York City 6:00 – 8:30 pm ET
Food, drinks, and live music overlooking the Manhattan skyline!
FEATURING SPECIAL GUESTS
Jane Fonda Actor, Activist, Founder of the Jane Fonda Climate PAC Dr Alan & Karen Warren activists dedicated to electing climate champions Vic Barrett plaintiff, Juliana v. U.S. climate lawsuit
Dr. Sandra Steingraber Senior Scientist, Science & Environmental Health Network
Elise Joshi Executive Director, Gen-Z for Change
And more!
Newsletter Exclusive Discount! Use code FWWNEWS to save 20% off Ally and Defender tickets!
foodandwaterwatch.org Food & Water Watch is a 501(c)3 nonprofit that educates and advocates for safe food, clean water, and a livable climate. Gifts to Food & Water Watch are tax deductible to the extent allowed by law. foodandwateraction.org Food & Water Action is our affiliated 501(c)4 nonprofit that mobilizes people to win campaigns that builds political power. Gifts to Food & Water Action Fund are not tax deductible.
MISSION Our food, water, and climate are under constant assault by corporations who put profit over the survival of humanity. They have seized control of the very institutions that were built to protect us. We mobilize people to reclaim their political power, hold our elected officials accountable, and resist corporate control — ensuring we all have the essential resources we need to thrive. This is a fight we must win because this planet is the only one we get.
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