In an attempt to bolster its alarmist and unscientific campaign, “Californians Against Fracking,” Food & Water Watch circulated a petition to California chefs seeking support for a state moratorium on fracking. There’s just one problem: At least two signatures – Jessica Pounds and Richard Yoshimura of Bakersfield’s Moo Creamery – were obtained under false pretenses.
The petition seeks to emulate the success of New York’s “Chefs for the Marcellus,” which helped scare New Yorkers into maintaining a moratorium on fracking. No word yet as to whether these chefs have also stopped cooking with fracked natural gas.
Yoshimura and Pounds first learned their signatures appeared on the Food & Water Watch list when local residents, who have generations of experience with the safety and effectiveness of fracking, began picketing their establishment in protest of their perceived opposition. They were “both completely astonished” at their names being included without their knowledge or consent. They didn’t even know what fracking was: “I thought fracking was a euphemism for the F-work,” Yoshimura said.
They are now demanding that their names be removed; however, the list has already been presented to Gov. Jerry Brown. Conveniently, Food & Water Watch claims that it is not sure what happened, hypothesizing that Yoshimura and Pounds filled in an online form using the restaurant’s name and email address. Here’s another theory, one that’s more consistent with Food & Water Watch’s history of alarmist fracking fabrications: The names were added to the list by the group itself in an effort to bolster their unscientific campaign.