Water is the most precious and essential element to life on Earth. Recognizing how critical water is to growing food, CFS works to protect the quality of our freshwater and ensure that the access to and use of our freshwater resources is fair and sustainable.
Water lies at the heart of most conflicts created by industrial agriculture’s abuse of natural resources in the United States, especially in the western part of the country. While toxic run-off from industrial farms pollutes aquatic ecosystems and contaminates groundwater, large-scale agriculture operations suck more rivers and aquifers dry, consuming unsustainable amounts of the most important building block to life on this planet.
Freshwater scarcity is certain to get worse with climate change, exasperating existing conflicts and creating new ones. Money will continue to act as the favored arbiter of the distribution of limited water resources, whether in the form of a water marketplace, political influence, or pollution credits, and its influence will surely grow. But we know who loses when money becomes king: impoverished communities, the politically disconnected, the voiceless -- whether people, fish, birds, animals, or entire ecosystems.
CFS is thus committed to resisting the influence of money in water. Water is too precious and too essential to be left in the hands of any system that not only creates, but requires, haves and have-nots. CFS advocates for better, more equitable, more sustainable, and more democratic distribution of these shared resources. And we work to ensure that the protection of the environment is always the starting point of any solution.
Our work is focused on three campaigns:
Keeping Water Public
Protecting Freshwater Quality
Fighting for the Sustainable Use of Our Shared Water Resources