FOOD & WATER WATCH
Fight like you live here
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Huge multinational corporations have taken control of our most essential resources, resulting in a broken food system that produces unhealthy food in an unsustainable way and a crumbling water infrastructure that is threatening our access to clean drinking water. Toxic pollution from industrial agriculture and a continuing reliance on fossil fuels and extreme extraction methods like fracking are threatening people and our food and water resources and are the primary drivers of catastrophic global climate change. These corporations have seized control of the very institutions that were built to protect us. Through research and public education, litigation, and grassroots organizing, Food & Water Watch mobilizes communities to reclaim their political power and make our democracy work for people and the environment we depend on to live and thrive.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Water
Through our Water Program, Food & Water Watch conducts research, policy advocacy, legal efforts and grassroots organizing to efforts to inform the public, the media, and decision makers about threats to our essential water resources and advocates for policies that will protect clean and safe water managed in the public interest. Through our advocacy campaigns, we help people and their communities to keep their water systems under public control; oppose multi-national water companies that are trying to bottle public water for private profits; and advocate for more federal resources to maintain and update our aging water infrastructure so that all people can have access to clean, affordable water. Food & Water Watch worked closely with members of Congress to get the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability (WATER) Act introduced in Congress. The WATER Act is the most comprehensive approach to improving our water systems and helping ensure that every person has access to safe and clean water in the United States. We need a major federal investment in our public water infrastructure to renovate our nation’s old and lead-ridden water pipes, help towns that are affected by PFAS contamination, stop sewage overflows and avert a looming water affordability crisis. The WATER Act will simultaneously deliver water justice to the millions of people in the United States who lack access to safe water, while creating nearly a million jobs.
Food
Through our Food Program, Food & Water Watch works behind the scenes in Congress, in statehouses, with regulatory agencies, and in the Courts to protect food safety and promote a sustainable and secure food system that provides healthy food for consumers and an economically viable living for family farmers and rural communities. The heart of the Food Program is our public education and grassroots organizing to build a powerful movement of concerned people educated about food issues and organized to achieve the political power necessary to change the policies that have allowed large corporations to control our food system. To do so, we are working to ban factory farming in several key agricultural states and move toward a sustainable, equitable food system.
Energy and Climate
We live in unprecedented times when the threats to our food, water, and the climate on which we all depend puts into question the future of human existence on earth. Agricultural consolidation and the proliferation of factory farms, decades of neglect resulting in decaying water infrastructure and privatization, an erosion of our bedrock environmental laws, and extreme extraction and use of fossil fuels are all urgent threats to our food and water. And one overarching problem looms largest – climate change – which must be addressed in a systemic way in the next decade if we are to avoid its worst impacts on our lives. That is why Food & Water Watch created an Energy and Climate program. At a time when we should be making the maximum investment possible in renewable energy sources, we are instead being urged to make staggering investments in fossil fuels – including expanded fracking operations and a plethora of related infrastructure to transport, store, and export natural gas and oil. This new development would harm the environment and commit us to decades of reliance on fossil fuels. When Food & Water Watch became the first national group to call for an outright ban on fracking, no one thought it was possible. Rallying with grassroots allies and concerned people, we have won bans on fracking in Vermont, New York, Maryland, and in 2019, Washington state. We are continuing to oppose and stop fracking and related infrastructure in key regions across the country. Together, we have proven that when people unite to demand what's right, we can turn the tables and win against the powerful oil and gas industry that seeks to maximize its profits regardless of the impact on people and our food, water, and livable climate. True energy security will only come when we are able to meet our needs without sacrificing public health, environmental protection and a stable, livable climate. Fossil fuels threaten all of this. Our goal is to stop catastrophic climate change by working to eliminate the use of fossil fuels and mandate a rapid, just transition to 100% renewable energy
Where we work
External reviews

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Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of petition signatures
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
This includes digital and in-person petition signatures and online actions
Number of monthly donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
Food & Water Watch is building a movement of grassroots groups and concerned people to activists to pursue three primary goals that will protect our food, water and climate for coming generations. By putting power back in the hands of local residents, we can demand elected leaders make the bold policy changes that will have a lasting impact. We will pass comprehensive federal climate change legislation by 2023, with a specific focus on banning fracking, and stopping pipelines and the expansion of fossil fuels. We will pass the Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity and Reliability Act (WATER Act) by 2026, which will establish a Clean Water Trust fund that will dedicate sufficient federal funding to ensure that all communities have access to clean, affordable water. And we will pass legislation to ban factory farms in Iowa and Oregon by 2026.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Food & Water Watch believes in the power of communities. Our strategies for achieving bold, uncompromising change rely on growing a movement of people to demand accountability from their leaders. As we activate local residents and leaders, we create the infrastructure for long-term change.
We develop our campaigns using a sophisticated blend of policy expertise, advocacy, legal tactics, strategic communications, and grassroots organizing to address threats to our most essential resources and make our democracy work for people, not powerful corporations. In short, Food & Water Watch’s work is based on our analysis that it takes a movement of educated and engaged people to overcome the overwhelming power of money in our political system. As a result, our organizing model is based on creating powerful campaigns with people and local groups that are directly impacted by a problem and then developing a strategy to influence the decision maker to support (or oppose) a given policy change. We then link these more localized campaigns to larger national issues. While all elements of an advocacy campaign are important, grassroots and community organizing is at the heart of all of our work.
In addition to our strategic organizing, we advance our work through the publication and dissemination of research about the impact of corporate profit-seeking over our food, water, and energy and the failure of piecemeal solutions and half measures to protect our planet.
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What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Food & Water Watch was founded in 2005. Since then, with the support of our members, individual donors, and foundations, we have grown to more than 100 staff in 10 locations in 8 U.S. States (including DC) and satellite operations in Europe. We have an online activist base of over 1,500,000 people and a volunteer network of real world activists linked to our field offices. Our full-time, professional organizers do the necessary grassroots education and mobilization so that regular people in their local communities can take action around specific national, state, and local issues in order to protect the health and safety of our food and water sources.
We support and amplify our online and real world organizing with Food & Water Watch’s research, policy advocacy, litigation, and broad-based communications capacities. While our mission is focused on long-term systemic changes that will result in healthy food, clean water for all, and a livable climate, we develop shorter-term campaigns to take on pressing national, state, and local issues.
Our Food & Water Justice program uses the courts to shine a light on corporate abuses and hold government officials accountable to protect our access to healthy food and clean water. Our affiliated organization, Food & Water Action, runs hard hitting advocacy campaigns to hold elected officials accountable in elections, as well as applying lobbying pressure for laws we need to protect our most vital resources.
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What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
In the 15 years since our founding in 2005, Food & Water Watch has won significant victories that bolster our fight for bold, uncompromising solutions for our communities and our planet. We owe each of these successes to the tireless fight of grassroots groups and local residents across the United States.
In 2007, we stopped an attempt to deregulate inspection in meat and poultry processing facilities. In 2010 our advocates pushed the United Nations to recognize a human right to water and sanitation, which was later adopted by the state of California. In 2011, Food & Water Watch was the first national group to call for a complete ban on fracking and an end to fossil fuel infrastructure. Our grassroots campaign won statewide fracking bans in New York (2014), Maryland (2017), and Washington state (2019). Since 2005, we have helped dozens of communities across the country keep public control of their local water systems and are fighting to keep our essential water resources managed in the public interest, not for corporate profits.
In the coming years, we are turning our sights to passing significant federal legislation to protect our water, food, and climate. By 2023, we plan to pass comprehensive federal climate legislation to ban fracking, as well as stopping pipelines and the expansion of fossil fuels. By 2026, we will pass the WATER Act to stop corporate control of water and make clean water affordable and accessible for all people in the United States. And also by 2026, we look to ban factory farms in Iowa and Oregon to help create a more just and equitable food system that protects our air, water, communities, family farmers, and climate, enroute to securing federal legislation to limit factory farms.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
FOOD & WATER WATCH
Board of directorsas of 05/08/2023
Maude Barlow
Council of Canadians (ret)
MAUDE BARLOW
COUNCIL OF CANADIANS
MARY RICCI
WENONAH HAUTER
FOOD & WATER WATCH
RUDOLF AMENGA-ETEGO
GRASSROOTSAFRICA
LISA SCHUBERT
CATHEDRAL OF SAINT JOHN THE DIVINE IN NEW YORK
ROBERT HOWARTH
CORNELL UNIVERSITY
ELIZABETH PEREDO BELTRAN
SOLON FOUNDATION
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Sexual orientation
No data
Disability
No data
Equity strategies
Last updated: 04/06/2023GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.