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Why we need to end the influence of ‘Big Sugar’

May 13, 2022

Florida Sportsman publisher – and VoteWater Board President – Blair Wickstrom makes the case: In 2020 alone, Florida’s sugar industry — the home of Big Sugar — put at least $11 million into congressional campaign coffers. This happened on both…

‘No Big Sugar’ campaign hopes to sour politicians on industry political donations

May 12, 2022

Florida’s powerful sugar industry spends millions to buy influence in the halls of power. Today begins a new campaign to make that money toxic. In conjunction with a broad array of environmental groups, companies and political leaders on both the…

Vote as if your water depends on it – because it does

May 11, 2022

This commentary was first published in late April, by Ryan Smart of the Florida Springs Council – no relation to VoteWater Executive Director Gil Smart – as a depressing post-mortem on this year’s legislative session: Going into the 2022 legislative…

TCPalm gets it: As Florida waters go downhill, lawmakers avoid the tough choices

May 10, 2022

As they usually do, the folks at TCPalm get it right in an editorial, this one dated May 6, titled “Manatee deaths, algal blooms suggest Florida’s waters getting worse, not better”: When will legislators address the widespread problems facing Florida’s…

DeSantis endorsement of Simpson not a good sign for clean water

April 26, 2022

It looked like there was a real wedge between the two most powerful Republicans in Florida – Gov. Ron DeSantis and current Senate President Wilton Simpson, who’s running for state Agriculture Commissioner. But they’ve kissed and made up. And that…

$22 on April 22: Your Earth Day contribution fuels the fight for cleaner water

April 22, 2022

On the first Earth Day in 1970, organizers said the goal was to “shake the political establishment out of its lethargy.” Fifty-two years later in Florida, we’ve still got a long way to go. Already this year, toxic blue-green algae…

Will Gov. DeSantis let this terrible bill define his environmental legacy?

April 20, 2022

What’s it going to be, Governor? Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has styled himself as a Teddy Roosevelt Republican, a conservative who makes a point of conserving our natural environment. And he’s done some good things: He’s steered massive amounts of…

Algae Blooms, Seagrass Loss, and Manatee Deaths

April 12, 2022

Article Reference: Algae Blooms, Seagrass Loss, and Manatee Deaths By Save the Manatee Club Trouble for Manatees in the Indian River Lagoon The Indian River Lagoon (IRL) stretches for 156 miles along Florida’s east central coast. There are more than 4,400 species…

We’re making red tide worse

April 11, 2022

We’ve met the enemy. And, go figure, he’s us: In a new study that is the first to explain what some have long suspected, researchers found that human activity helps sustain and intensify naturally occurring red tide blooms in Southwest…

Is Gov. DeSantis taking backdoor sugar money?

April 6, 2022

Call this a master class in how politics really works in Florida. And yet another reason we should all Vote Water. On Substack, Jason Garcia’s “Seeking Rents” takes a look at “Associated Industries of Florida,” a lobbying group whose name…

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