Archives: Press Releases

Statement by Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Watch

“Yesterday, the U.S. government released a report in part faulting BP’s cost cutting measures for the safety hazards that led to the Deepwater Horizon explosion last year. This is further proof that the European Parliament missed a crucial opportunity to safeguard European waters Wednesday when it voted against supporting a moratorium on offshore deep sea drilling until more stringent EU legislation is in place.

“While we welcomed the fact that the European Parliament asked for full liability of offshore gas and oil companies and mandatory insurance to cover all costs relating to an accident, it is not sufficient. Regulation of deepwater drilling failed, and continues to fail, when it comes to ensuring safety. Companies are not investing enough in safety technology, focusing instead on drilling deeper in high-risk zones.

“The major oil companies in the U.S.—Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Chevron—earned $289 billion dollars in profits over the last three years, and spent $39 billion in the exploration of new wells—but spent only $20 million dollars a year on research and development devoted to safety. The EU is failing to make sure that the development of safety technology is given as much priority as the development of drilling technology.

“The European Parliament also failed to protect the Artic and sensitive regions in its report. With big companies vying for who gets to drill there first, Is the EU ready to allow companies who prioritize profit over safety to drill in these areas?”

Contact: Gabriella Zanzanaini, +32 488409662, [email protected]

Food & Water Europe is the European program of Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer organization based in the United States that works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, afford- able, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.

Over 5,000 Calls Made to the White House from Citizens Concerned About Fracking

Washington, D.C. and Brussels— This week Washington D.C.-based Food & Water Watch and its European program Food & Water Europe brought hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to the attention of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, where UN observers are weighing in on Catarina De Albuquerque’s report on the human right to water and sanitation.

In her U.S. assessment, De Albuquerque, the special rapporteur for the human right to water and sanitation, reported on water contamination found in the U.S. from fracking and recommended “a holistic consideration of the right to water by factoring it into policies having an impact on water quality, ranging from agriculture to chemical use in products to energy production activities.”

“Now that the human right to water is legally binding and has been officially recognized by the UN General Assembly, and De Albuquerque has determined that fracking could further imperil the human right to water in the U.S., we believe that the U.S. should stand behind its commitment to safeguarding this precious right to water and ban fracking,” said Darcey O’Callaghan, International Policy Director at Food & Water Watch.

According to Food & Water Watch’s recent joint letter with UNANIMA International to the UN Human Rights Commission, fracking isn’t only a problem in the U.S. The oil and gas industry has its sights set on fracking in Europe, with the U.S. energy information administration forecasting 187 trillion cubic feet of gas resources available in Poland, followed closely by France at 180 trillion cubic feet. France, however, following strong civil society protests, currently has a moratorium against fracking.

“Poland is the Marcellus Shale of Europe,” said Gabriella Zanzanaini, Director of European Affairs for Food & Water Europe. “Energy security is a real concern for Poland, given its current reliance on Russia, but the government and citizens should also be aware that fracking can cause explosions, well contamination and public health effects that could be devastating to rural communities—as communities in the U.S. have experienced.”

The joint letter was delivered the same week over 5,000 Americans from all 50 states flooded White House phone lines to tell President Obama to ban fracking. Spearheaded by Food & Water Watch, United for Action, and Center for Health, Environment and Justice, nearly 50 organizations across the country and individuals in every state called on Obama to ban fracking.

“President Obama has got an energy problem on his hands,” says Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. “Citizens, many of whom helped to get him elected, are becoming increasingly worried about fracking and other dirty energy schemes the administration is assessing, like the Keystone XL pipeline. Our water resources should not be sacrificed for energy, and he’s hearing this in no uncertain terms from people all over the country.”

“Fracking is not clean, or green,” says Lois Gibbs, Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. “We don’t have to look any further than Dimock, Pennsylvania or Dish, Texas to see the devastating effects of fracking, and we must ban the practice to ensure that no other communities are made unsafe or unlivable in its wake.”

“There are hundreds of reasons not to frack, any one of which provides sufficient reason to stop hydraulic fracturing,” says David Braun, co-founder of United for Action and the National Grassroots Coalition. “However, we don’t just have one good reason, we don’t just have five, but we’ve got hundreds. So why are we doing it?”

Contact: Gabriella Zanzanaini, +32 488409662, [email protected]

Food & Water Europe is the European program of Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit consumer organization based in the United States that works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainable. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, afford- able, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.

Over 5,000 Calls Made to the White House from Citizens Concerned About Fracking

Washington, D.C. and Brussels—On the heels of last week’s demonstration in Philadelphia that attracted over a thousand activists concerned about the public health and environmental problems associated with hydraulic fracturing (fracking), over 5,000 Americans from all 50 states flooded White House phone lines yesterday to tell President Obama to ban the polluting, dangerous practice. Spearheaded by the national consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch, United for Action, and Center for Health, Environment and Justice, nearly 50 organizations across the country and individuals in every state called on Obama to ban fracking.

“President Obama has got an energy problem on his hands,” says Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. “Citizens, many of whom helped to get him elected, are becoming increasingly worried about fracking and other dirty energy schemes the administration is assessing, like the Keystone XL pipeline. Our water resources should not be sacrificed for energy, and he’s hearing this in no uncertain terms from people all over the country.”

The calls to the White House come in the lead up to next month’s critical vote by the Delaware River Basin Commission on whether or not to open up the watershed to fracking. President Obama has one of five votes on the Commission, along with the Governors of New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. The Delaware River is the drinking water source for 15.6 million people in New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

“Fracking is not clean, or green,” says Lois Gibbs, Executive Director of the Center for Health, Environment & Justice. “We don’t have to look any further than Dimock, Pennsylvania or Dish, Texas to see the devastating effects of fracking, and we must ban the practice to ensure that no other communities are made unsafe or unlivable in its wake.”

“There are hundreds of reasons not to frack, any one of which provides sufficient reason to stop hydraulic fracturing,” says David Braun, co-founder of United for Action and the National Grassroots Coalition. “However, we don’t just have one good reason, we don’t just have five, but we’ve got hundreds. So why are we doing it?”

Food & Water Watch is also bringing fracking to the attention of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva this week, where UN observers are weighing in on Catarina De Albuquerque’s report on the human right to water and sanitation. In her U.S. assessment, De Albuquerque, the special rapporteur for the human right to water and sanitation, reported on water contamination found in the U.S. from fracking and recommended “a holistic consideration of the right to water by factoring it into policies having an impact on water quality, ranging from agriculture to chemical use in products to
energy production activities.”

“Now that the human right to water is legally binding and has been officially recognized by the UN General Assembly, and De Albuquerque has determined that fracking could further imperil the human right to water in the U.S., we believe that the U.S. should stand behind its commitment to safeguarding this precious right to water and ban fracking,” said Darcey O’Callaghan, International Policy Director at Food & Water Watch.

According to Food & Water Watch’s recent joint letter with UNANIMA International to the UN Human Rights Commission, fracking isn’t only a problem in the U.S. The oil and gas industry has its sights set on fracking in Europe, with the U.S. energy information administration forecasting 187 trillion cubic feet of gas resources available in Poland, followed closely by France at 180 trillion cubic feet. France, however, following strong civil society protests, currently has a moratorium against fracking.

“Poland is the Marcellus Shale of Europe,” said Gabriella Zanzanaini, Director of European Affairs for Food & Water Europe, the European program of Food & Water Watch. “Energy security is a real concern for Poland, given its current reliance on Russia, but the government and citizens should also be aware that fracking can cause explosions, well contamination and public health effects that could be devastating to rural communities—as communities in the U.S. have experienced.”

The groups participating in the call-in day to President Obama include:

Advocates of Apple Valley NY
Ashtabula County Farmers’ Union
Bakken Watch
Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy
Catskill Mountainkeeper
CCARE
Center for Health and Environmental Justice
Citizens for Elbert County
Climate Action Coalition of New Paltz
Damascus Citizens for Sustainability
Food & Water Watch
Fort Worth Can Do
Frack Action
Frack-Free Catskills
Gardendale Accountability Project
Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition (GDAC)
Grassroots Environmental Education
Josh Fox and Gasland
Marcellus Outreach Butler
Marcellus Protest
Moveon.org’s Denver Council
National Grassroots Coalition
NEOGAP (Network for Oil and Gas Accountability and Protection)
New Yorkers for Clean Water
No Frack NY Coalition
Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York
NY Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD)
NYC Friends of Clearwater
NYH20
Ohio Alliance for People and Environment
Peaceful Uprising
Protect Idaho’s Natural Resources
Protecting Our Waters
Russian Riverkeeper
Sharon Springs Against Hydrofracking
Stop Arkansas Fracking
Students Against Fracking
Sustainable Ostego
T.A.S.K. (Take Action Spread Knowledge)
Tribeca for Change
Ulysses Gas Drilling Advisory Board
United for Action
Westchester for Change
Western Colorado Congress
Wharton Valley Alliance
What the Frack
Working Families Party

Contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-4905, kfried(at)fwwatch(dot)org.

Statement from Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Europe

Brussels –“It seems to us the UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has given supermarkets and milk processors a green light on price fixing.
The OFT today issued a decision following its dairy products retail pricing investigation stating that Arla, Asda, Dairy Crest, McLelland, Safeway, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, The Cheese Company and Wiseman infringed antitrust regulations by co-ordinating increases in the prices, leading consumers to pay an estimated UK£270 million extra for cheese and milk in 2002 and 2003. This co-ordination was achieved by supermarkets indirectly exchanging retail pricing intentions with each other via the dairy processors.

“The competition authority has fined eight of the nine firms for price fixing (Arla having gained immunity), yet the fines to all companies involved only total UK£49.51 million. The companies’ admission of liability appears to have earned them the right to pocket an extra UK£220 million at consumers’ expense at a time when around three British milk farmers a week go out of business. How much of this money went back to farmers? How big is the OFT bill to taxpayers for this result?The OFT says their decision, ‘sends a strong signal to supermarkets, suppliers and other businesses that [we] will take action and impose significant fines where it uncovers anti-competitive behaviour aimed at increasing the prices paid by consumers.”

“We’d like to hear from the OFT how they think this will work if the guilty keep more cash than they have to pay in fines.

“Make no mistake, dairy farmers across the EU need to be paid more. They are struggling as supermarkets and processors use milk as a loss leader by paying less than the cost of production to hard working farmers. A decent living for dairy farmers will not be achieved, nor consumers’ interest served, by giant companies like Tesco and Wiseman acting in concert to raise retail prices when they know the only penalty is a slap on the wrist nearly a decade later. This is exactly the kind of thing a new Ombudsman should tackle, and soon.”

Food & Water Europe is a program of Food & Water Watch, Inc., a non-profit consumer NGO based in Washington, D.C., working to ensure clean water and safe food in Europe and around the world. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Contact: Eve Mitchell, Food & Water Europe, emitchell(at)fwweurope.org, +44 (0)1381 610 740

Brussels – Civil society organisations, collectives and trade unions gather around public water fountains today in Brussels to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the UN General Assembly resolution on the human right to water.

2011 has been an important year for public water in Europe, increased citizen participation has played a major role in the issues of water supply management and wastewater treatment, allowing populations to take a giant step toward re-municipalisation – the process of bringing water under public control.

Paris, the birthplace of the French water privatisation model, successfully managed to re-municipalise its water and in one year has reduced its water prices by 8%.

In Berlin, more than 700,000 citizens came out to vote in a referendum on February 13th to disclose the details of privatisation contracts between water companies, Veolia, RWE and the government. It was the first time a citizen’s initiative managed to pass a referendum in Berlin.

Finally, the biggest success so far this year is probably the Italian referendum. On June 12th and 13th, more than 27 million eligible Italian voters came out to keep their water safe from private hands.

These cases provide proof that a growing number of communities are becoming frustrated by the broken promises of water privatization. Claims of lower prices, more transparency and new jobs never materialize. More and more communities in Europe are now considering going back to public water. This failure of the privatisation model has shown that it is in direct conflict with the human right to water.

Despite this victory at the UN last year, the battle for the right to water is not over. Only 11 European countries voted for the UN resolution (amongst them Belgium, Spain and Germany), while 16 abstained. These included the UK, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands and the Czech Republic.

Currently, more than 1 billion people still do not have access to drinking water and more than 2,5 billion people have no access to sanitation. To change this we need to come up with alternative solutions to privatisation. An Alternative World Water Forum will take place next year in Marseille, France. (www.fame2012.org) The event is being organized by associations, trade unions, citizens and elected representatives from all over the world, with the aim to defend water as a common good and as a fundamental human right.

Signatories,

ACME France

Aquattac

Aqua Publica Europea

Association pour un Contrat mondial de l’Eau (France)

CGSP-ACOD « poste »

EGEB Etat Generaux des Eaux de Bruxelles

EPSU European Public Services Union

Food & Water Europe

IERPE Institut Européen de Recherche sur la Politiques de l’Eau

For more information, contact:

Gabriella Zanzanaini – gzanzanaini(at)fweurope.org, +32 488 409 662

Statement by Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Europe

Brussels, Belgium – “While a number of the initiatives in today’s announcement are welcome, Food & Water Europe is worried they play too much to current public concerns over discards, treating the symptoms of the problems in our fisheries but leaving the causes to get increasingly worse.

“Of course we need to end discards, and public agitation on this is a good thing, so the intention to require all catch to be landed so quickly by 2015 will be a big step in the right direction. We look forward to working with consumers to ensure that the market works to accommodate this change. We all need to learn to eat different kinds of fish.

“However, discards are a symptom, and current levels of attention on them to appease public concern is diverting attention from the deeper causes of the problems. If the goal genuinely is ‘to make fishing sustainable environmentally, economically and socially’, then proposals to rely on privatized fishing resources through transferable catch shares (ITQs) and promote aquaculture take us in the wrong direction and threaten to make matters worse.

“ITQs are a root cause of the problems facing our fisheries, driving more and more local fishers out of business in favour of unaccountable companies whose motive, and legal responsibility, is to return a profit – sustainability is not part of their equation, whatever they may say. Any fees introduced to buy such quotas, as is proposed, ensure that only the largest, wealthiest players can play, meaning the envisaged cuts in fishing capacity will continue to come from small coastal communities with a fishing tradition, impeding rural development and increasing poverty in remote coastal areas. It is unclear how uneven exemption of ‘small-scale fisheries’ from the quota scheme will work or help. Any system that puts local fishers, processors and others out of business while ‘slipper skippers’ continue to own and profit from fishing rights can’t be right.

“Open water aquaculture is a damaging practice that should be curbed, not encouraged. It is fundamentally unsustainable because the ‘fuel’ that drives fish farms comes either from dwindling wild fish stocks or destructive land-based soy monocultures, including genetically modified crops, heavily depending on chemicals and petroleum. The international soy industry is overjoyed at the upsurge in interest in fish farms, which should set alarm bells ringing for anyone who cares about the communities and environment in the countries producing most of the soy the EU imports.

“We’ve heard too many times that overfishing will be stopped and brought into line with scientifically established total allowable catch, but the enforcement simply does not happen, and those who overfish have good reason to believe nothing will be done to stop them or prevent them doing it again and again.

“A truly radical reform of the CFP would eliminate the current catch shares model and introduce a system that leases fishing rights based on best practice, real enforcement with meaningful sanctions for breaches of the law, and a preference for locally-based operations that plow money back into local communities. Those leaving fishing would see their quotas reallocated to other fishers, not sold for private profit at public expense. Fishing grounds and the fish in them must be managed as a public good.

“The answer to sustainability in European fishing is not to continue to search for ways to somehow increase catch without doing more damage. It is to educate consumers and enforce the law. We need to learn to eat different kinds of fish so as to not overfish particular species, and to end the shameful waste of fish in our over-complex food supply chain. Greed is causing the problems. Ending discards is only part of the answer.“

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Food & Water Europe is a program of Food & Water Watch, Inc., a non-profit consumer NGO based in Washington, D.C., working to ensure clean water and safe food in Europe and around the world. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink.

Contact:

Eve Mitchell, Food & Water Europe, emitchell(at)fweurope.org, +44 (0)1381 610 740

Darcey Rakestraw, Food & Water Watch, drakestraw(at)fwwatch.org, +1 202-2683-2467