SOCIAL JUSTICE BLOG
Read and share the extraordinary stories from the frontlines of social change
Pursuit of Water Protection: Clean Water Access for Communities in the San Joaquin Valley
The Clean Water Project, which spanned our legal, training, and grantmaking programs, focused on bringing communities together to advocate for and gain access to potable water and on funding impact cases that address clean water issues faced by residents of unincorporated communities in the San Joaquin Valley in California. Although we have distributed all the Clean Water Project funds, the Impact Fund remains committed to funding environmental justice cases through our Just Earth program. We will continue to fund cases working to ensure that people’s right to clean water is protected.
Fighting to Protect Residents From an Industrial Animal Agriculture Giant’s Wasteful Water Use
While residents face water shortages that adversely impact their quality of life, Foster Farms’ Livingston chicken slaughterhouse and processing plant use vast amounts of water for a particularly wasteful and inhumane method of slaughter that also results in diminished water quality in the region. The Impact Fund is standing up for Livingston residents by providing critical funding to the Animal Legal Defense Fund in support of its groundbreaking lawsuit challenging Foster Farms’ excessive water use. The lawsuit seeks to enjoin the company from using its current water-wasting slaughter method, based on a provision in the California Constitution that states that the right to water “shall not extend to the waste or unreasonable use or unreasonable method of use.”