Please leave this field empty
Donate Monthly Make a Gift Renew Your Membership Ways to Give
Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch
  • About
  • Problems
  • Campaigns
  • Impacts
  • Research
  • Contact
Donate Monthly Make a Gift Renew Your Membership Ways to Give
  • facebook
  • twitter
Please leave this field empty
Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch
$
Menu
  • About
  • News
  • Research Library
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Donate
Search
Please leave this field empty
  • facebook
  • twitter

How a California Activist Learned to Think Locally

How activist Lani Miller has been building community to protect California’s water.

  • facebook
  • twitter
  • google-plus
  • envelope

We all need safe food and clean water.

Donate
Lani Miller
08.29.16

At Food & Water Watch, we fight hard for healthy food and clean water for everyone. We rely on the passion, dedication and resourcefulness of our supporters to get involved and active in their communities—and love being able to share how they’re making a difference.

When she was fourteen, Lani Miller joined her local Sierra Club since she couldn’t find anyone else to go backpacking with her. A year later, she took a bus by herself to camp at Yosemite, sparking a passion for the outdoors that she still maintains today—these days, mostly by taking day hikes. But Lani’s love for the California landscape has also led her to work with Food & Water Watch to protect the water, air and environment of her neighborhood and favorite national parks, like Joshua Tree.

“When you get older,” she says, “a lot of the impressions you have [of these beautiful places] are there front and center and you still want to somehow participate and honor them.” Her activism is one way of doing that.

Concerned about the water table and dropping groundwater levels in her community with the worsening California drought, Lani realized the water bills she was receiving seemed strange.  She discovered that the water agency bills did not reflect water usage in the same units—gallons per capital per day—used by state agencies and journalists who compared water usage regionally. Most concerned citizens couldn’t tell where they stood in terms of water consumption. She began writing letters to the editor to help people understand an easy conversion calculation—and the water agency finally included it on customers’ bills.

As an avid gardener and member of the horticultural society, she also tries to demonstrate to people how beautiful gardens can be grown, even with the cutbacks in watering from the drought. “We use water from the shower and kitchen sink to water our plants,” she says.

Lani, a former OB/GYN who still sometimes does expert witness work, was drawn to Food & Water Watch because of her background as a scientist. “I was amazed at how evidence-based [a Food & Water Watch booklet on fracking] was,” she says. “I fell for it, hard. It was scientifically impressive. As a scientist, that is really important to me.”

After reading the report on fracking, Lani met with Food & Water Watch’s Regional Director of Development Patricia Cronin for lunch, who inspired her to come into a group of other Food & Water Watch activists so she could get her friends politicized and involved. And she’s found the transition from delivering babies to full time activism every bit as satisfying as her medical work.

“Working at the local level is more gratifying personally because you see the steps and how you can have an impact,” she says. “I feel that with time, over the last year, I’ve really connected with a lot of people who have been out there all along. That’s been one of the biggest rewards—not feeling you’re alone doing the work.”

As Lani continues her work, she remains hopeful by looking at the little victories she’s racked up with the support of Food & Water Watch. “There are so many examples nationally and internationally of what’s happening—good stuff! We need to recognize what’s going well and what’s starting to take hold.”

Most importantly, she’s grateful for the connections she’s built in her time as an activist. With help from Walker Foley, a southern California organizer with Food & Water Watch, Lani’s learned how to build a group of local activists who care about water access, pollution and conservation. She’s even gained name recognition in her community with local representatives and city council members, and is regularly quoted in newspapers for her points of view on water issues.  

Now, Lani is using her passion and what she’s learned by building a campaign with other local activists to fight corporations from gobbling up their water. “When you have connections with other people who are saying what they think is right and what they need, you are winning,” she says. “And then it’s only a matter of time.”

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Monsanto's Roundup is a "probable human carcinogen." We need to ban it!

Get the latest on your food and water with news, research and urgent actions.

Please leave this field empty

Latest News

  • Trump’s Out, Biden’s In! Now The Fight Of Our Lives On Climate Begins.

    Trump’s Out, Biden’s In! Now The Fight Of Our Lives On Climate Begins.

  • Biden’s 100-Day Must-Do List for a Cleaner, Healthier Country

    Biden’s 100-Day Must-Do List for a Cleaner, Healthier Country

  • Fracking, Federal Lands, And Follow-Through: Will President Biden Do What He Promised?

    Fracking, Federal Lands, And Follow-Through: Will President Biden Do What He Promised?

See More News & Opinions

For Media: See our latest press releases and statements

Food & Water Insights

Looking for more insights and our latest research?

Visit our policy & research library
  • Renewable Natural Gas: Same Ol' Climate-Polluting Methane, Cleaner-Sounding Name

  • The Case to Ban Fracking on Federal Lands

  • Dangerously Deep: Fracking’s Threat to Human Health

Fracking activist with stickersFracking activist in hatLegal team loves family farmsFood & Water Watch organizer protecting your food

Work locally, make a difference.

Get active in your community.

Food & Water Impact

  • Victories
  • Stories
  • Facts
  • Trump, Here's a Better Use for $25 Billion

  • Here's How We're Going to Build the Clean Energy Revolution

  • How a California Activist Learned to Think Locally

Keep drinking water safe and affordable for everyone.

Take Action
food & water watch logo
en Español

Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold & uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people’s health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.

Food & Water Watch is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Food & Water Action is a 501(c)4 organization.

Food & Water Watch Headquarters

1616 P Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20036

Main: 202.683.2500

Contact your regional office.

Work with us: See all job openings

  • Problems
    • Broken Democracy
    • Climate Change & Environment
    • Corporate Control of Food
    • Corporate Control of Water
    • Factory Farming & Food Safety
    • Fracking
    • GMOs
    • Global Trade
    • Pollution Trading
  • Solutions
    • Advocate Fair Policies
    • Legal Action
    • Organizing for Change
    • Research & Policy Analysis
  • Our Impact
    • Facts
    • Stories
    • Victories
  • Take Action
    • Get Active Where You Live
    • Organizing Tools
    • Find an Event
    • Volunteer with Us
    • Live Healthy
    • Donate
  • Give
    • Give Now
    • Give Monthly
    • Give a Gift Membership
    • Membership Options
    • Fundraise
    • Workplace Giving
    • Planned Giving
    • Other Ways to Give
  • About
  • News
  • Research Library
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Donate
Learn more about Food & Water Action www.foodandwateraction.org.
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • 2021 © Food & Water Watch
  • www.foodandwaterwatch.org
  • Terms of Service
  • Data Usage Policy