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

Brussels — “The EU today surprised and angered consumers with a half-hearted ‘ban’ on cloning in the EU that failed to extend the ban to imported products from clones, and food from clone offspring.

“The Commission has completely dodged the real issues and placed the EU in a completely hypocritical situation. They acknowledged the ethical minefield posed by cloning, yet apparently feel it is ok to profit from it as long as it happens outside the EU. It is an ethically indefensible policy.

“What’s worse, we have seen no indication that the Commission has in any way dealt with the overwhelming public rejection of food from cloning and consumers’ fundamental right to know what they are eating. We ask the Commission again: When will the food from clones and their offspring carry a proper label?

“We will continue to urge the Parliament to reject this measure and press for a complete ban on all foods from clones and their offspring. Anything less perpetuates the horrendous suffering cloning brings and does EU consumers a huge disservice.”

Read our updated fact sheet.

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, +44 (0)1381 610 740, emitchell(at)fweurope.org or Gabriella Zanzanaini, +32 (0)488 409 662, gzanzanaini(at)fweurope.org

Lire ce communiqué de presse en français.

Paris – Le soi-disant «modèle français» de gestion de l’eau privée n’a pas seulement échoué en France, mais aux États-Unis aussi, selon l’ONG pour la défense des consommateurs Food & Water Europe. En conjonction avec la première mondiale du film documentaire Water Makes Money, le groupe publie aujourd’hui un rapport sur les nombreux échecs et problèmes de service de Veolia Environnement infligés à de nombreuses communautés nord-américaines et aux consommateurs.

“Le palmarès de Veolia aux Etats-Unis est catastrophique,” a déclaré Wenonah Hauter, directrice exécutive de Food & Water Europe. “Néanmoins, la grave crise financière rend les communautés plus vulnérable aux efforts de Veolia à développer leur entreprise. Il est important que les communautés possèdent l’ensemble des faits avant que leurs réseaux d’eau soient ciblés.

Le rapport se focalise sur 10 villes ayant eu des problèmes sérieux suite à la signature de contrat avec l’entreprise, y compris:

• Indianapolis: En 2002, Veolia, alors nommée USFilter, a signé un contrat de 20 ans d’une valeur de 1,5 milliard $ pour fournir plus d’1 million de personnes en eau, à Indianapolis et ses alentours. Les plaintes de consommateurs ont plus que doublé durant les 10 premiers mois du contrat. Des consommateurs cherchant le statut d’action collective ont déclaré avoir été surchargés et ont poursuivi la société et la ville. L’affaire était encore en suspend en août 2010.
• Nouvelle Orléans: un incendie électrique dans l’une des usines de traitement, a entrainé des opérateurs à détourner des eaux usées brutes pendant deux heures dans le fleuve Mississippi. En 2001 et 2002, l’usine a déversé à 50 reprises des eaux usées dans le fleuve, violant régulièrement les normes de qualité d’eau et donnant lieu à des amendes s’élevant à plus de 107,000 $. Entre décembre 2000 et avril 2003, le Conseil d’Assainissement et de l’Eau a retenu plus de 2.5 millions $ des paiements de l’entreprise pour les pénaliser de leur mauvaise performance. Le directeur du Conseil a accusé l’entreprise de négliger les entretiens de routine et de ne pas maintenir des effectifs adéquats dans l’usine.
• Puerto Rico: En 2002, Porto Rico a décidé de ne pas renouveler un contrat annuel d’une valeur de 145 millions $ avec une filiale de Veolia (alors dénommée Vivendi) qui gérait les systèmes des eaux et des égouts depuis 1995. Une commission gouvernementale a révélé que la compagnie avait accumulé plus de 695 millions $ de pertes d’exploitation, 6.2 millions $ d’amendes et plus de 3,000 carences opérationnelles, administratives et d’entretien.

« Les nombreux problèmes rencontrés par les communautés, dont le mauvais entretien et une augmentation des factures illustrent pourquoi le mouvement pour la cessation de la privatisation de l’eau gagne du terrain partout dans le monde. Les gouvernements doivent assumer la responsabilité pour la fourniture de cette ressource essentielle afin de s’assurer qu’elle soit propre, abondante et abordable pour tous », note encore Hauter.

Pour lire un rapport sur Suez Environnement

Food & Water Europe est un programme de Food & Water Watch, une ONG à but non-lucratif représentant les droits des consommateurs basée à Washington, DC, qui vise à garantir une eau propre et une alimentation sûre en Europe et dans le monde. Nous luttons contre le contrôle et l’abus de nos aliments et des ressources en eau par l’industrie en donnant aux citoyens les moyens d’agir et de transformer la conscience collective autour de ce que nous mangeons et buvons.

Contact: Gabriella Zanzanaini, Food and Water Europe, Bruxelles – [email protected], +32488409662

Read this press release in French.

Paris – The so-called “French Model” of private water management has not only failed in France, but in the United States as well, according to consumer advocacy group Food & Water Europe. In conjunction with the world premiere of the documentary film Water Makes Money, the group today released a report on the numerous failures and service problems of Veolia Environnement on United States communities and consumers.

“Veolia’s U.S. track record is abysmal,” said Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Europe. “Nevertheless, the daunting fiscal crisis is making U.S. communities vulnerable to Veolia’s efforts to expand their business. It’s important communities have the facts before their water systems are targeted.”
The report looks at 10 cities that have experienced serious problems after contracting with the company, including:

• Indianapolis: In 2002 Veolia (then USFilter) signed a 20-year, $1.5 billion contract to provide water service to more than 1 million people in and around Indianapolis. Consumer complaints more than doubled in the first 10 months of the contract. Customers seeking class-action status sued the company and the city, claiming the company overcharged them. The case was pending as of August 2010.
• New Orleans: An electrical fire at one treatment plant caused operators to divert raw sewage into the Mississippi River for two hours. During 2001 and 2002, the plant released sewage into the river a total of 50 times, often violating water quality standards and resulting in more than $107,000 in fines. Between December 2000 and April 2003, the Sewerage and Water Board withheld $2.5 million in payments from the company to penalize it for its poor performance. The board’s director accused the company of neglecting routine maintenance and failing to properly staff the plant.
• Puerto Rico: In 2002, Puerto Rico decided against renewing a $145 million annual contract with a subsidiary of Veolia (then Vivendi), which had operated the water and sewer systems since 1995. A government commission found the company had raked up $695 million in operational losses, $6.2 million in fines, and more than 3,000 operational, maintenance and administrative deficiencies.

“Numerous problems experienced by communities including poor maintenance and rising bills illustrate why the movement to stop the privatization of water is gaining momentum around the world. Governments everywhere need to take responsibility for the delivery of this essential resource to ensure that it is safe, plentiful and affordable for all,” noted Hauter.

Read more in our report.

To read a report on Suez Environnement: http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/report/united-water/

Food & Water Europe is the European program of Food and Water Watch, Inc (a non-profit consumer NGO based in Washington, DC), working 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, affordable, 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.

Contact: Gabriella Zanzanaini, Food and Water Europe, Brussels – [email protected], +32488409662

Today, Food & Water Europe condemned statements from UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) Chair Lord Rooker about food from clones in Wednesday’s FSA Board meeting, where media reports quoted him saying, “You can’t regulate what you can’t count and what you can’t check on. That is an impossibility.”  1

Despite claims that clones are indistinguishable from other animals, studies have shown that roughly 95% of clones die in utero or shortly after birth due to a variety of health complications, and there is insufficient research on the safety of eating meat or drinking milk from cloned animals.

“Consumers’ instinct to reject food from clones is right — it is not properly tested for safety,” says Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Europe. “The FSA admits that it can’t track the technology, so it’s throwing up its hands. That’s not safety oversight—that’s a cop out.”

The group is calling today for immediate moves to trace all imports of products related to breeding clones and their movements in order to prevent them from entering the food chain.

“In reality there is little to discuss. The EU Parliament voted for a full ban on food from both clones and their offspring in July,” said Eve Mitchell, food policy consultant for Food & Water Europe. “The Commission should bring forward that legislation as soon as possible and enact a moratorium until the ban is implemented.”

The comments from the group come on the heels of the application from the Scottish farmer at the center of this summer’s maelstrom over meat from clones entering the food chain illegally now for a license to sell “premium-priced bottled milk” from his clone offspring as early as next year. [2]

“This is an embarrassment for the FSA,” said Hauter. “It underscores yet again the FSA’s impotence in regulating the matter. The license should not be granted, but if it is, this milk must be labelled clearly as coming from clone offspring. Consumers have an absolute right to know where their food comes from.”

For more information, see our updated Cloned Animal Fact Sheet.

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, +44 (0)1381 610 740, emitchell(at)fweurope.org

Brussels – Food & Water Europe today renewed calls for a moratorium on deepwater oil drilling in Europe after BP admitted the oil industry is not ready to deal with a subsea explosion in deep water.

In his testimony at the UK House of Commons’ Energy and Climate Change Committee yesterday, BP’s CEO Tony Hayward admitted that the reason the industry had not prepared for such an event was that, “The risk was seen as being zero.”

Since no risk was presumed, no money has been invested into developing technology or detailed plans for capping a well should such an explosion occur. BP’s own internal documents stated that, “The oil spill consequences of a catastrophic failure of a deep sub-sea well head, either due to equipment failure or accidental damage, have never been considered in detail.” [1]

Now, the same excuse is being given for operations in the North Sea. Since the conditions are slightly different, oil companies are saying that the risk of the same thing happening are near impossible. “BP claims to have no High Pressure/ High Temperature (HP/HT) wells in deep water in the North Sea, but they are not the only operators, “ warns Gabriella Zanzanaini, Director of European Affairs for Food & Water Europe. Other oil companies are also beginning exploration west of the Shetland Islands, which do include HP/HT wells. “The Commission should take the fact that the entire industry is not yet capable of dealing with a subsea explosion seriously and push the Member States to enforce a moratorium on deepwater drilling now.”

“Saying that they have a good safety record is not enough,” says Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director of Food & Water Watch. “The simple fact is that they do not have the capping mechanisms in place and should not be allowed to drill without detailed emergency contingency plans.”

After meeting with oil companies in July, the European Commissioner for Energy stated that he fully believed a moratorium on all new drilling permits was necessary and that a coordinated European effort was essential. “We are still waiting to see progress from this public announcement,” said Zanzanaini. “We want follow-through on this to convince us it was a substantive attempt to ensure drilling safety and not just a way to silence the opposition.”

Contact: Gabriella Zanzanaini, +32488409662, gzanzanaini(at)fweurope.org

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

Washington, DC — “A recent report by the Deepwater Horizon Incident Joint Information Center (a collaboration between the federal government and BP) claiming that only 25 percent of spilled oil remains in the Gulf has been refuted by researchers with the Georgia Sea Grant and University of Georgia, who released a report yesterday concluding that in fact nearly 80 percent of the oil remains in the Gulf. The report confirms the fact that the federal government should have taken a more cautious and responsible approach to testing marine life before opening the Gulf for fishing.”

“The report affirms what many have thought: that the oil could not have realistically vanished like ‘sugar dissolves into water’ — a ludicrous statement the federal officials used to describe what happened to the millions of gallons spilled into the Gulf.”

“This independent analysis of the regulators’ claims raises some important questions about the Joint Information Center’s report. Is BP’s influence at play in presenting the findings in a more positive light? Was the report an attempt at crisis communications that simply backfired?”

“The FDA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are the two regulatory agencies charged with protecting consumer health after the spill. NOAA is one of the many federal agencies involved in BP’s Joint Information Center. Unfortunately, these agencies have been anything but forthcoming and transparent in notifying consumers and the Gulf fishing communities about safety concerns resulting from the spill.”

“Every day that the Gulf is closed to fishermen is a day BP must pay out additional claims to them. Is this why regulators opened the Gulf for commercial fishing, despite warnings from fishermen and documented cases of oil in marine life? Unfortunately, this hasty decision is currently jeopardizing not only consumers but the future reputation of the Gulf fishing industry.”

“Prematurely opening the Gulf is not the only incidence of poor decision making. Rather than employ careful microbiological testing of seafood, the federal agencies continue to predominantly use sniff tests to determine the presence of oil. And instead of immediately testing seafood for contamination by Corexit, the controversial dispersant banned in Europe but used widely in the Gulf by BP, they feed the media a vague date for future testing.”

“At this point, it appears that FDA and NOAA oversight is as lacking as the Minerals Management Service’s ’oversight’ that led to the initial Deepwater Horizon rig explosion.”

“Ultimately, it is this regulatory negligence that would be responsible for any widespread consumer illness resulting from the unprecedented effects of oil and dispersant on the Gulf and its marine life – effects that would go undetected due to poor testing regimes.”

“In order to restore the public’s trust, NOAA and the FDA must perform more comprehensive and timely tests and present us with reliable and unbiased findings rather than continue in their attempt to sweep millions of barrels of oil and controversial dispersants under the proverbial rug. The Gulf should not have been opened for fishing until this occurred.”

Contact: Lauren Wright, 202-683-4929; lwright (at) fwwatch (dot) org