Francesca Vietor

Francesca Vietor is a philanthropist and political activist who is currently President of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. She previously served as the first director of the San Francisco Commission on the Environment (SFDOE)  under Mayor Willie Brown. In 2008 Vietor was appointed by Mayor Gavin Newsom to a seat on the five person San Francisco Public Utilities Commission.

In February, 2010 she was named the Executive Director of the Chez Panisse Foundation begun by celebrity chef and natural foods advocate Alice Waters in Berkeley, California. In the winter of 2010/2011 Francesca Vietor left her position at Chez Panisse Foundation, rose from Vice President to President of the SFPUC, and took a position on the Board of Directors of the Environmental Working Group. In March, 2010, Alice Waters refused to publicly oppose growing food in toxic sludge, and instead issued a statement endorsing Francesca Vietor, statement vetted and approved by the SFPUC.

Email Contact

 * francesca AT chezpanissefoundation.org

Chez Sludge
The Food Rights Network released a major investigative report on July 9, 2010 titled: Chez Sludge: How the Sewage Sludge Industry Bedded Alice Waters. It examines the conflicts of interest and collusion between the Chez Panisse Foundation and the SFPUC based on an extensive open records investigation of the SFPUC internal files. (To view the internal documents see: SFPUC Sludge Controversy Timeline.)

Sewage Sludge to Gardens Controversy
In 2009 and 2010 a major controversy erupted in San Francisco involving Vietor in her role as Vice President of the SFPUC when the Center for Food Safety and the Organic Consumers Association called on the SFPUC to permanently stop its give-away of toxic sewage sludge as 'organic compost' for gardeners. In advance of a March 4 sludge protest at City Hall by the Organic Consumers Association, the SFPUC temporarily halted the give-away.

The misleading labeled "organic compost," which the PUC has given away free to gardeners since 2007, is composed of toxic sewage sludge from San Francisco and eight other counties. Very little toxicity testing has been done, but what little has been done is alarming. Just the sludge from San Francisco alone has tested positive for 1,2-Dibromo-3-Chloropropane (a.k.a. DBCP), Isopropyltoluene (a.k.a. p-cymene or p-isopropyltoluene), Dioxins and Furans.

The Organic Consumers Association conducted a noon hour picket of Chez Panisse April 1, 2010, after Alice Waters refused a request to oppose growing food in sewage sludge. The industry front group ACSH is now making Alice Waters a poster child for toxic sludge. Francesca Vietor has formally threatened the UK Guardian for an article it published that Vietor and Alice Waters do not like. Author and blogger Jill Richardson has analyzed the Guardian article and defended its accuracy.

Biography
According to her official biography,  she "is Vice President of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). She served as President of the City’s Commission on the Environment from 1997 to 1999 and as Director of the Department of the Environment from 1999 to 2001. In 2003, she co-founded 1000 Flowers, a non-partisan non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to registering and mobilizing women to vote across the country. She has worked for many nonprofit organizations, including Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, Island Press, and CARE Madagascar.  She currently runs an environmental consulting firm, Ecoworks, with current contracts at Commonweal, an environmental health nonprofit in Marin County, and the Green Schools Initiative, a Berkeley-based NGO bringing environmental practices to schools in the state. She serves on several boards, including Friends of the San Francisco Public Library (spearheading the greening of the library initiative), the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, Slide Ranch , and Bioneers. She is also pursuing a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts at the California College of the Arts while she raises her three-year-old daughter with her husband, writer Mark Hertsgaard." She is also on the CorpWatch advisory board.

In July, 2010, she started a blog.

2000 - 2003

 * Press Release, National Alliance to Phase-Out PVC Plastics in Construction to be Launched, February 3, 2000.
 * Jane Kay, PROFILE / Francesca Vietor / Socialite takes break from beautifying S.F. / Resigning from Environment Department, SFGate.com, April 22, 2001.
 * Peter Montague, San Francisco Adopts the Precautionary Principle, Environmental Research Foundation's Rachel's News #765, March 19, 2003.

2008

 * Amanda Witherell, New appointees coming to a PUC near you, San Francisco Bay Guardian,  July 25, 2008.
 * Amanda Witherell, PG&E grantees: Revealed SF Bay Guardian, August 10, 2008.
 * Sarah Phelan, SFPUC shuffle: Powerful commission lies dormant until the mayor can find picks acceptable to the board, San Francisco Bay Guardian, August 6, 2008.

2009

 * Josh Harkinson, Did Sewage Sludge Lace the White House Veggie Garden With Lead?, Mother Jones, June 17, 2009.
 * CFS Petitions San Francisco Mayor to Stop Giving Away Poison Compost to Public, Center for Food Safety Website, September 23, 2009.
 * Heather Knight, Nonprofit calls PUC's compost toxic sludge, San Francisco Chronicle, September 27, 2009.
 * Barry Estabrook, Sludge Fest: Center for Food Safety vs. San Francisco. It’s a battle that may be coming soon to a city near you, Politics of the Plate, November 30, 2009.
 * Barry Estabrook, Free Compost--Or Toxic Sludge?, The Atlantic, December 1, 2009.
 * Sajid Farooq, Alice Waters' Toxic Nightmare Bares the White House Fruit, San Francisco NBC, Dec 17, 2009.

2010

 * Catherine Bigelow, And across the bay, Francesca Vietor is the new executive director of the Chez Panisse Foundation, Social City, SFGate February 7, 2010.
 * Anna Werner, Concern Over SF Compost Made from Sewage Sludge, CBS Channel 5, March 3, 2010.
 * Josh Harkinson, |+The+Blue+Marble%29&utm_content=Twitter A Backlash After San Francisco Labels Sewage Sludge Organic, Mother Jones magazine, March 4, 2010.
 * Photo Gallery: Activists Praise Poop, Deliver Dirt to Mayor's Office, SF Appeal, March 4, 2010.
 * Chris Roberts, News Farmers Call PUC's Shit, Will Dump it on City Hall Today, San Francisco Appeal, March 4, 2010.
 * What SF calls compost, activists call 'toxic sludge, San Francisco ABC affiliate KGO TV, March 4, 2010.
 * Evelyn Nieves, Claim: San Francisco giving gardeners toxic sludge, Associated Press in the Boston Globe, March 5, 2010.
 * John Upton, The City’s free compost causes stink SF Examiner, March 5, 2010.
 * Jill Richardson, Food Sunday: Toxic Sludge as 'Organic Fertilizer', FireDogLake, March 7, 2010.
 * John Stauber, Waiter, There Is Toxic Sludge in my Organic Soup!, PRWatch.org, March 16, 2010.
 * Brady Welch, Shit show: What has the SFPUC has been dumping in city gardens?, San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 23, 2010.
 * Organic Consumers Association, The Organic Consumers Association To Picket Chez Panisse Restaurant on Thursday, April 1st, Noon, in Berkeley, CA Alice Waters, World Famous Organic Food Chef and Promoter of Safe School Gardens, Does Not Oppose Growing Food on Toxic Sewage Sludge, News Release, March 31, 2010.
 * John Stauber, Chef Alice Waters and Chez Panisse in a Toxic Sludge Protest, PRWatch.org, March 31, 2010.
 * Brady Welch, Alice Waters protested for supporting using human waste as compost San Francisco Bay Guardian, March 31, 2010.
 * Suzanne Goldenberg, US chef Alice Waters criticised over sewage fertiliser: Top US healthy-eating chef Alice Waters attacked for supporting fertiliser made of sewage that activists say contains toxins, UK Guardian, April 1, 2010.
 * Tracey Taylor, Toxic sludge demonstrators picket Chez Panisse, April 1, 2010.
 * Raymond Barglow, Organic Consumers Association Pickets Chez Panisse, The Berkeley Daily Planet, April 1, 2010.
 * John Birdsall, Alice Waters Demands Apology from Sewage Sludge Protestors, SF Weekly, April 1, 2010.
 * Peter Fimrite, Groups make stink over S.F. 'biosolid' compost, SF Chronicle, April 7, 2010.
 * Brady Welch, The Shit Show's Extended Run SF Bay Guardian, April 7, 2010.
 * Jill Richardson, Francesca Takes Legal Action over Sludge Article, La Vida Locavore blog, April 6, 2010.
 * Jill Richardson, What San Francisco Found in Their Own Sludge, La Vida Locavore blog, April 8, 2010.
 * Leora Broydo Vestel, Food Groups Clash Over Compost Sludge, New York Times Green Inc. blog, April 9 2010.
 * John Stauber, ACSH Makes Alice Waters a Poster Child for Toxic Sludge, PRWatch.org, April 12, 2010.
 * Susan Galleymore, The Green Mayor Has Toxic Sludge on His Hands, Op-Ed News, April 25, 2010.
 * Barry Estabrook, Composted Sewage Stirs Up Bay Area Food Fight, The Atlantic, May 3, 2010.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Food Rights Network
 * San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
 * Chez Panisse Foundation
 * Alice Waters
 * biosolids
 * sewage sludge
 * OCA, Alice Waters, Exchange on Toxic Sewage Sludge, March, 2010
 * Jill Richardson
 * Mark Dowie
 * Mark Hertsgaard

Francesca Vietor on Social Networking Sites

 * Facebook
 * spoke