Issue 2 on the November ballot is an industry attempt to change the Ohio state constitution, establishing a “Livestock Care Standards Board” that would have unchecked power to establish standards for livestock and poultry. Technically
the product of the Ohio General Assembly, the ballot issue is heavily backed by groups representing major agribusiness interests, including the Ohio Farm Bureau and The Ohio Pork Producers Council.

While masquerading as an attempt to improve food safety and animal welfare, Issue 2 in reality is an attempt by big industry to preempt statewide initiatives like the recent Proposition 2 in California, which phased out problematic animal production practices like battery cages for chickens. In effect, the proposed Livestock Care Standards Board would give a dozen political appointees broad and unchecked power to decide rules on animal welfare, potentiallyreshaping regulations on how animals are raised, tracked or traced.

Read more on the truth about Issue 2.

The Truth Squad gets you the facts about the latest agri-business power grab in Ohio. Join us on Twitter today at 4pm EST to discuss #Issue2Tuesday.

In honor of the "No Impact Man" premier in theaters nationwide, Food & Water Watch is launching a low-impact challenge of its own. As the film's star, Colin Beavan, urges everyone to reduce their carbon footprints, two Food & Water Watch employees (perhaps the least "green" in the office) will start a six-week adventure to see who can have the smallest water footprint. They will blog every week about their experiences and explore the effects of making small yet meaningful lifestyle changes to conserve water and other natural resources. We urge readers to follow along and join in on the challenge.

Food & Water Watch's "Take Home Chef Rocky" contest has now ended and our winner is Hannah King, who submitted a wonderful Youtube video telling us why she needed to take Chef Rocky home with her.

Now she will get the chance to have a talented chef help her incorporate sustainable cooking into her lifestyle, with tips on staying on budget while producing mouth-watering dishes. 

Check out her winning video!

Join us for Dinner & a Documentary
July 30th at 6:30 pm
Bread & Brew
1247 20th Street (N & 20th) NW, Washington, DC

July 24th, 2009

 
View the Blue Gold trailer

• strengthen the management of our public water resources
• protect water safety
• keep water under public control
  
  

Not already a member of Food & Water Watch?

Become a member today.

Sam Bozzo's new film, Blue Gold: World Water Wars, follows numerous water fights around the world as people struggle to reclaim their water from morally bankrupt corporations and governments.

What: The film Blue Gold

Delicious food & drink

When: Thursday, July 30th 6:30PM

Where: Bread & Brew (N & 20th St. NW) 

             Downstairs in the bar room

Why: To nourish your body & mind

Stick around after the film to grab some Smart Water Guides and learn about how you can protect our water here in DC.

It promises to be a great night of inispiration at the Brew.

See you there!

Best,
Renee Vogelsang
Water Organizer
Food & Water Watch

- Sarah Alexander and the Healthy School Milk or Bust Crew

As we started off on the second half of our tour this morning, we feel like we have big hooves to fill. Alex, Becca and Meredith made the cows proud by getting lots of support for our campaign, and earning lots of great media coverage along the way. The first group of roadies shared their wisdom about arriving on time, leaving extra time for parking and how to be a cow, but some things you just have to learn for yourself. Today our drive was long, but we arrived in Iowa City right on time, and were greeted with a warm welcome when we arrived at the Red Avocado Café for our activist meet-up. Two supporters were already waiting for us, and a third joined us to talk about the campaign and how they could get involved. We ate some delicious food and our new friends left with lots of blank postcards in hand, eager to get help out on the campaign.

Next we headed downtown to the pedestrian mall to get people to call Senator Harkin and ask for better milk in schools. The weather in Iowa City was unseasonably cool - perfect for dressing up as a cow! We’d heard lots about the cow suits, and there was even a previous blog post, but it’s such a new and delightful experience it’s worth another mention. It’s the best of times, and the worst of times, but mostly the best of times.  Wearing a cow suit unlocks people’s inner child. People can’t stop themselves from seeing you and smiling, gravitating toward you and asking what you’re up to. Sarah was told she made someone’s day, and someone else laughed and said they’d never seen a cow with a purse before. 

It also seems to be an open invitation for people to make funny, often bordering on inappropriate, comments. We won’t go into them here, but you can use your imagination.  At first a couple of us were a little hesitant to wear the suit, worried that people wouldn’t take us seriously. This doesn’t turn out to be the case. As one passerby in Chicago put it, “whatever you’re sellin’, I’m buyin!” Because really, who can say no to a cow asking for safer milk for children?

What would happen to the ocean and the coastal communities along the Gulf of Mexico if 8.4 million gallons of oil and 180 million cubic feet of gas a day spilled?
Act Now to Prevent Another Gulf Catastrophe

Dear Supporter,

We know that an oil and gas spill of such magnitude would result in a disaster far greater than that caused by the Exxon Valdez.

That's why Food & Water Watch, along with our committed activists, is speaking out to prevent such a horror. Write now to the Secretary of the Interior and Congress to prevent a disaster.

British oil giant BP owns and operates a giant oil and gas platform in the Gulf of Mexico. They call their rig "Atlantis." And Atlantis is already leaking.

Food & Water Watch recently became aware of significant and deadly dangers surrounding Atlantis. First of all, Atlantis sits in an already-vulnerable area threatened by the current hurricane season. It would make sense that such a location would require putting safety above all else. Instead, we have learned:

• BP’s own database shows that it doesn't have the required engineering certification for 85 percent of the project’s piping and instrument diagrams and many of its safety shutdown systems logic diagrams.
• More than 6,000 documents that should have required engineering approval—including those for pipelines, flowlines, wellheads, and other important systems—do not have the required documentation.
• Over 95 percent of its subsea welding specifications have no final engineering approval, and undersea manifolds have already been leaking.

In an effort to prevent the destruction of human and marine life and environs, and to prevent harm to thousands of workers and their livelihood in the Gulf, Food & Water Watch has already written to Secretary Salazar at the Department of the Interior to ask that continuing construction on the platform be stopped. Food & Water Watch is also calling for an investigation and Congressional hearings. And now we need your voice behind us.

Write today to prevent another Gulf disaster.

Thank you for your devoted activism and for your support.

Each morning we awake and move to our feet slowly, but after a good cup of coffee and a hearty breakfast, we are on the move again. This morning began like any other, but proved to be one of the more event-filled days on our voyage. 

We were treated to a breakfast purchased from the famous Zingerman’s Deli, said goodbye to our lovely host, Sarah, and headed back into downtown Ann Arbor.  This time we hit the Farmer’s Market (all of us cow-clad) for a Call-In Day to Senator Stabenow’s offices. Well luck was smiling, and we got 53 calls in to Stabenow in just two hours! 

Feeling great, we jumped in the van and headed to Lansing for our meeting with Stabenow’s staff, who we’d already been keeping busy with calls. Two TV networks sent camera crews, and both Alex and Meredith were interviewed on camera about the campaign. Naturally, the cow got some airtime too. The meeting itself went really well. The staff graciously thanked us for the information we provided for the Senator, who has championed many children’s health issues in the past. We hope that she will build upon her past experiences by leading the movement to get rBGH out of schools too.

After all that excitement, the long drive to Chicago chilled us out. It was so nice to arrive at the gorgeous lakefront and see Bethany and Sarah’s familiar faces. We all enjoyed a late dinner where we caught them up, told stories, and shared some hard-learned tips (like always plan for parking time!).

We have been on the road for nearly a week now. This is hard to believe. It feels like only yesterday we were throwing our bags into the back of the van, wondering how we could pack our things most efficiently (young and so naïve we were - did we really believe that the car would maintain its order along the way?). That morning, as we wound our way through the streets of DC, we took the first of many wrong turns (missing our turn proved to be a theme of this leg of the trip).  However, despite our inability to keep the car organized and our tendency to lose our way, we feel that we have accomplished a great deal. Furthermore, we have met incredible people, learned a lot, and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Now it’s time for us to go home, and we turn our responsibilities over to Bethany, Sarah, Joe, and Erin. We wish them the best of luck on their continuation of the “Healthy School Milk or Bust” tour, and hope you will continue to follow them as they make their way through Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota. Thank you for your support folks- keep reading as they moove along!

- Becca, Meredith, & Alex