Advocacy
Build the Good: For Farm Animals, People, and the Planet
Build the Good: For Farm Animals, People, and the Planet
Today’s food systems work for nearly no one. Here at Farm Sanctuary, we are working across movements to fight the worst harms of animal agriculture and to “build the good” – just and sustainable food systems that support animals, people, and the planet.
Learn More: Our Advocacy Explained
ACTION CENTER
The Farm System Reform Act
In July 2021, we joined farmer, worker, health, environmental, and animal rights organizations in officially endorsing the Farm System Reform Act (FSRA) (HR 4421/S 2332). This common-sense legislation restricts the expan…
In July 2021, we joined farmer, worker, health, environmental, and animal rights organizations in officially endorsing the Farm System Reform Act (FSRA) (HR 4421/S 2332). This common-sense legislation restricts the expansion and abuses of factory far…
In July 2021, we joined farmer, worker, health, environmental, and animal rights organizations in officially endorsing the Farm System Reform Act (FSRA) (HR 4421/S 2332). This common-sense legislation restricts the expansion and abuses of factory farms, which have been proven to harm animals, communities, and the environment.
Act Now
What do we mean by “cross-movement advocacy” for farm animals, people, and the planet?
- We work across farmer, worker, environment, health, community, justice, and animal-centered movements to advance compassionate, just, and sustainable progress across food system supply chains.
- We support community changemakers, recognizing that our access to resources does not give us the right to lead but the responsibility to serve.
- We recognize and support the work and perspectives of frontline communities – those who are most burdened by current unjust, unsustainable food systems and who are leading in the creation of new, just, and sustainable approaches.
Work Across Movements
It’s like Gene Baur, President and Co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, always says: compassion means meeting people where they are at while remaining true to our own values.
Today’s food system in the United States fails farm animals, people, and the planet. Farmer, worker, environment, health, community, justice, and animal-centered organizations can work together, organizing from a place of common ground towards systems-wide justice, compassion, and sustainability.
We’re building big-tent support for this inclusive food system transformation, using research, policy and the law, and direct interventions to support shared progress.
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Co-Signed By:
90+ Organizations representing 20 Million + Members including 10,000+ farmers, 17,000+ physicians, and 375,000+ food chain workers
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Identifying Shared Interests from Structural Harms
The 2021 comments identified important common ground and pathways to support shared progress. Every co-signing organization agreed that food system governance in the United States:
- Presents significant economic, health, and safety risks to farmers, farm workers, and farming communities.
- Deepens local and global environmental crises.
- Undermines regional food systems and household nutritional security.
- Perpetuates systemic racism and other forms of inequity.
Identifying Shared Paths for Progress
We design our advocacy research and interventions to grow and strengthen the big tent necessary to address these harms. In particular, we have identified shared interest in just and sustainable food system interventions that invest in:
- Food that nourishes people. Government policies should support sustainable and just forms of fruit, vegetable, legume, fungus, and grain production. They should not support intensive livestock, poultry, and fish production, crops raised for animal feed, or other forms of extractive commodity crop production.
- Regional food security. Anchor regional food systems using institutional purchasing, including schools, hospitals, carceral institutions and local government. Construct community food infrastructure, including food hubs and community kitchens to support public food priorities.
- Farmers’ and food chain workers’ interests, not in corporate profits. Reduce corporate power over farmers and deconsolidate U.S. food systems. Stop excluding food chain workers from basic legal protections. Support economic, environmental, and social justice across food system supply chains.
- A just and sustainable future, not simply a less unjust or less unsustainable status-quo. Reject language, processes, and policies of “food deserts” that neglect community capacities and structural inequalities. Prioritize source reduction strategies – those that eliminate waste or pollution before it is created – in pesticide and fertilizer use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water consumption and reject factory farm gas (biogas).
It’s like Gene Baur, President and Co-founder of Farm Sanctuary, always says: compassion means meeting people where they are at while remaining true to our own values.
Today’s food system in the United States fails farm animals, people, and the planet. Farmer, worker, environment, health, community, justice, and animal-centered organizations can work together, organizing from a place of common ground towards systems-wide justice, compassion, and sustainability.
We’re building big-tent support for this inclusive food system transformation, using research, policy and the law, and direct interventions to support shared progress.
—–
Co-Signed By:
90+ Organizations representing 20 Million + Members including 10,000+ farmers, 17,000+ physicians, and 375,000+ food chain workers
—
Identifying Shared Interests from Structural Harms
The 2021 comments identified important common ground and pathways to support shared progress. Every co-signing organization agreed that food system governance in the United States:
- Presents significant economic, health, and safety risks to farmers, farm workers, and farming communities.
- Deepens local and global environmental crises.
- Undermines regional food systems and household nutritional security.
- Perpetuates systemic racism and other forms of inequity.
Identifying Shared Paths for Progress
We design our advocacy research and interventions to grow and strengthen the big tent necessary to address these harms. In particular, we have identified shared interest in just and sustainable food system interventions that invest in:
- Food that nourishes people. Government policies should support sustainable and just forms of fruit, vegetable, legume, fungus, and grain production. They should not support intensive livestock, poultry, and fish production, crops raised for animal feed, or other forms of extractive commodity crop production.
- Regional food security. Anchor regional food systems using institutional purchasing, including schools, hospitals, carceral institutions and local government. Construct community food infrastructure, including food hubs and community kitchens to support public food priorities.
- Farmers’ and food chain workers’ interests, not in corporate profits. Reduce corporate power over farmers and deconsolidate U.S. food systems. Stop excluding food chain workers from basic legal protections. Support economic, environmental, and social justice across food system supply chains.
- A just and sustainable future, not simply a less unjust or less unsustainable status-quo. Reject language, processes, and policies of “food deserts” that neglect community capacities and structural inequalities. Prioritize source reduction strategies – those that eliminate waste or pollution before it is created – in pesticide and fertilizer use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water consumption and reject factory farm gas (biogas).
Systemic injustice in the U.S. food system – a legacy of European colonization that continues today – manifests in pervasive patterns of harm and inequity that affect people, animals, and our shared environment. From family farmers and food chain workers, to the 10 billion animals raised and slaughtered in the U.S. each year, to the lived effects of air pollution, water pollution, and human-induced climate change, we are experiencing U.S. food systems in crisis.
Supporting Community-Based Food System Transformations
When led by the communities who have most suffered from the unjust, unsustainable status-quo, a just transformation can benefit all of us. Farm Sanctuary acts – through policy and the law, direct resource intervention, and community organizing – to support these community-driven, systemic changes.
We’re excited to support organizations across the country who are building more just, sustainable, plant-based food systems. For more, see our collaborations with North Carolina’s Grounded Roots and the Green Rural Redevelopment Organization’s Eva Clayton Rural Food Institute, and stay tuned for more projects across the country. Together, these projects are building replicable and scalable pathways to building better food systems for animals, people, and the planet.
Advancing Equity Through Federal and State Legislation
- The School Hunger Elimination Act, sponsored by Representative Jahana Hayes (D-CT)
- The School Food Modernization Act, sponsored by Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Tina Smith (D-MN)
- The Healthy Future Students and Earth Pilot Program Act, sponsored by Representatives Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)
- Closing the Meal Gap Act, sponsored by Representatives Jahana Hayes (D-CT) and Alma Adams (D-NC) and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY)
- LIFT the BAR Act, sponsored by Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Tony Cárdenas (D-CA)
- Justice for Black Farmers Act, sponsored by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), Tina Smith (D-MN), Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA), and Patrick Leahy (D-VT)
Social Justice is a Shared Priority: Revisiting Our Supply Chain Comments to the USDA
Our 2021 Supply Chain Comments to the USDA made clear the consensus that the food system perpetuates inequities, and particularly racial inequities. In addition to advancing pesticide restriction, antitrust, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance, and school food policies to advance justice across supply chains, our comments made clear that the current language describing nutrition inequities fails the communities it intends to serve.
Systemic barriers to access healthy, sustainable food in marginalized communities across the U.S. result from corporate consolidation and structural injustices, creating a “food apartheid,” as defined by Karen Washington. In contrast with the USDA’s current “food desert” language, this “food apartheid” language better reflects both the challenges facing communities systemically excluded from power and resources in the United States, as well as frontline communities’ capabilities. The language of “food insecurity” and “food deserts” reflects and perpetuates systemic racism, undermining systemically oppressed populations’ right to food sovereignty and self-determination. Through participatory, community-based processes, this language should be changed to better reflects these significant differences in power, which disproportionately burden BIPOC communities.
Frontline Vision Research
The U.S. food system deepens concurrent environmental and social crises, mandating a timely and holistic transformation. The question of what comes next, of how the United States might sustainably and equitably nourish all people, is being answered at the community-level by frontline-led community organizations across the country.
Farm Sanctuary seeks to learn from, understand, and elevate frontline community food system visions, both as a form of advocacy in itself and as a process to inform long-term food system advocacy and intervention, ensuring that we are supporting emerging just food systems.
We’ll explore what a just transition means to these communities and then elevate frontline-led frameworks and perspectives among policymakers and policy organizations, food system and animal-centered advocacy organizations, academics, and the general public.
Congressional Food System Staffer Day: Celebrating Service to Food Systems; Advancing Agenda for Farm Animals, People, and the Planet Ahead of 2023 Farm Bill
In October 2022, Farm Sanctuary hosted 55 Congressional Staffers and 17 animal, nutrition, sustainability, justice, and farmer opportunity advocates to discuss food policy over vegan food and drinks. “Congressional Food System Stafer Appreciation Day,” held in the historic Rayburn House Office Building, came one month after the White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health.
The White House Conference made clear that we need an interagency approach to food issues. Farm Sanctuary agrees, but we also need a supply-chain-wide approach, one that prioritizes the well-being of animals, people, and the planet over maximizing profits for the nation’s biggest landowners and worst corporate consolidators.
Farm Sanctuary, the only animal-centered organization asked to officially endorse funding for the White House Conference, saw the benefit in bringing staffers and advocates together to discuss food system issues over vegan food and drinks.
Attendees discussed food system sustainability and justice issues, as well as how to integrate a concern for animals. Food is at the heart of what many people care about – health, sustainability, vibrant rural and urban economies, and combating environmental injustice and systemic racism. Farm Sanctuary’s goal is to meet people where they are and find common ground to build shared progress.
The event was sponsored by Rep. Blumenauer (D-OR) in coordination with the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and Farm Sanctuary highlighted key legislation to advance food system federal policy: Rep. Pingree’s Agriculture Resilience Act, Senator Booker’s Justice for Black Farmers Act, Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act, the Farm System Reform Act, Rep. Hayes’ Tipped Worker Protection Act, and much more.
For more information, see our press release highlighting the event!
Stay tuned for our “Food System Shift Roadmap,” developed after hundreds of conversations with farmer, worker, environment, health, and animal-centered organizations, as well as policymakers from across the country.
Spotlight: A Shared Approach for Farm Animals, People, and the Planet (Comments)
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) called for a “holistic” and “transformative” review of U.S. food system supply chains. Farm Sanctuary, in collaboration with the Center for Biological Diversity, shared a critique and vision of food system transformation to benefit animals, people, and the planet.
More than 90 farmer, worker, environment, health, community, justice, and animal-centered organizations representing more than 20 million members have co-signed the comments. Co-signers include thousands of farmers and more than 375,000 food chain workers:
Food Chain Workers Alliance, Family Farm Action Alliance, Regenerative Organic Alliance, Friends of Family Farmers, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, Wellness in the Schools, Slow Food USA, The West End Revitalization Association, The ASPCA, The Humane Society of the United States, The Harvard Animal Law & Policy Clinic
If you are a member of an advocacy organization and want to sign-on, it’s not too late! Click below to sign on, or e-mail [email protected] with the phrase “Supply Chain Comment” in the subject line for more information.
Identifying Shared Interests from Structural Harms
The 2021 comments identified important common ground and pathways to support shared progress. Every co-signing organization agreed that food system governance in the United States:
- Presents significant economic, health, and safety risks to farmers, farm workers, and farming communities.
- Deepens local and global environmental crises.
- Undermines regional food systems and household nutritional security.
- Perpetuates systemic racism and other forms of inequity.
Identifying Shared Paths for Progress
We design our advocacy research and interventions to grow and strengthen the big tent necessary to address these harms. In particular, we have identified shared interest in just and sustainable food system interventions that invest in:
- Food that nourishes people. Government policies should support sustainable and just forms of fruit, vegetable, legume, fungus, and grain production. They should not support intensive livestock, poultry, and fish production, crops raised for animal feed, or other forms of extractive commodity crop production.
- Regional food security. Anchor regional food systems using institutional purchasing, including schools, hospitals, carceral institutions and local government. Construct community food infrastructure, including food hubs and community kitchens to support public food priorities.
- Farmers’ and food chain workers’ interests, not in corporate profits. Reduce corporate power over farmers and deconsolidate U.S. food systems. Stop excluding food chain workers from basic legal protections. Support economic, environmental, and social justice across food system supply chains.
- A just and sustainable future, not simply a less unjust or less unsustainable status-quo. Reject language, processes, and policies of “food deserts” that neglect community capacities and structural inequalities. Prioritize source reduction strategies – those that eliminate waste or pollution before it is created – in pesticide and fertilizer use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water consumption and reject factory farm gas (biogas).
Victory! Supporting Funding for the White House Conference on Food, Hunger, and Health
In 1969, President Nixon and the White House hosted a conference on Food, Nutrition, and Health to address the growing issues of food insecurity and malnutrition spreading across the United States. This conference assembled professionals and experts from various food-related disciplines to come together to generate policy recommendations to address these growing problems. The results of the conference included the federal food and nutritional spending policies that are still in place today, including food stamps (now SNAP), the supplemental feeding program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), and school breakfast and lunch programs for students.
More than 50 years later, these policies have remained largely unexamined and unchanged from their original iterations. In 2022, Farm Sanctuary joined a campaign to endorse funding for a new, and much-needed, White House Conference on Food, Nutrition, Hunger, and Health. Farm Sanctuary was the only farm animal-centered organization invited to officially endorse funding of the Conference, which was led by Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Mike Braun (R-IN) and Representatives Jim McGovern (D-MA) and the late Jackie Walorski (R-IN).
Farm Sanctuary’s participation in this campaign involved outreach to stakeholders across the agricultural, environmental, food chain, health, and social justice sectors to better understand what priorities, opportunities, and challenges exist for people and communities.
The Biden-Harris Administration released its National Strategy and hosted the Conference on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health in September 2022 to address the challenges of “ending hunger, improving nutrition and physical activity, and reducing diet-related diseases and disparities.” This conference was an important step toward our vision of holistic food system transformation that prioritizes equity and justice. We look forward to continuing to bring these issues to the center of the table in conversations about the U.S. food system.
What do we mean by “shifting food system assets” for farm animals, people, and the planet?
- We shift policy – Public investments in agriculture, conservation, nutrition, and food service should support more just, sustainable, plant-based food system supply chains, not factory farming. We fight for this future through state and federal policy advocacy.
- We shift resources – We don’t have to wait for policy change to support community-driven, plant-based food system transformations. We’re working with community-centered organizations to design scalable interventions that shift resources in support of just and sustainable supply chains.
- We recognize and learn from abundance – The United States has all of the resources needed to nourish each other in ways that are compassionate, just, and sustainable. We must decide, individually and collectively, to prioritize these shared ends over maximizing industry profit.
Shift Food System Assets
Photo Credit: marilyn barbone/shutterstock.com
Shift Federal Government Policy
Federal, state, and local governments spend tens of billions of dollars every year on nutrition, agriculture, conservation, and feeding programs. Yet today’s food systems reflect and deepen systemic inequalities, accelerate local and global environmental crises, and enable the immense suffering of more than 10 billion farm animals every year in the U.S. We work across movements to shift government spending in agriculture, conservation, nutrition, and food service to strengthen just and sustainable food system supply chains.
Community Food Infrastructure
Today’s food system is not designed to support universal nutritional security. It requires critical infrastructure investments to build families’ and communities’ nutritional security and promote market access for farmers.
Community food infrastructure is an approach that can aid in building vibrant local economies that support families, workers, and farmers. Regional food economies have already seen success with community food infrastructure, and we advocate for investments from the federal government that can better support nutritional security through:
- Permanent “Build American Bonds” to cities and municipalities to build public food infrastructure.
- Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results (SIPPRA) Food Bonds to nonprofit organizations supporting the advancement of public food infrastructure projects.
- Grants to cities, countries, or regional economic development councils and authorities to design and implement projects.
School Food Choice
We believe that all students should have the option to choose nutritious foods that align with their values and dietary needs, and school food choice is a critical component of our advocacy work at the federal and state levels.
We are proud endorsers of the Healthy Future Students and Earth Pilot Program Act, introduced by Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY). The bill would create a voluntary grant program for school districts to help schools cover the costs of 1) training, technical assistance, and labor required to provide healthful and culturally appropriate plant-based meals, 2) procurement of plant-based foods from socially disadvantaged, local, women, veteran, and beginning producers, and 3) marketing and student engagement.
Creating opportunities for youth leadership is essential in this work, and we’re active members of a coalition that centers students’ voices in support of the bill.
Blog: Plant-Based Choice in California Schools
Shift the Farm Bill
Farm Bill spending puts industry interests ahead of those of farmers, workers, and families. The largest commodity crop farms receive a generous government bailout every year, while small farmers lose out on the subsidies they need to support their families and communities. These commodity crop subsidies do not successfully combat nutritional insecurity, as most are allocated to corn and soy instead of healthful fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes to which American families need better access.1,2
The next Farm Bill must remedy these shortcomings. We advocate for a shift in the next Farm Bill that stands up for family farmers and invests in crops that nourish people. These include lowering the income cap for subsidies, strengthening eligibility and reporting requirements, and raising the earned income deduction.
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1“CBO’s June 2017 Baseline for Farm Programs.” 2017. Congressional Budget Office.
2“Farm Bill Math Updated in New Congressional Budget Office Baseline.” 2017. Farm Bureau.
Photo Credit: marilyn barbone/shutterstock.com
Shift Federal Government Policy
Federal, state, and local governments spend tens of billions of dollars every year on nutrition, agriculture, conservation, and feeding programs. Yet today’s food systems reflect and deepen systemic inequalities, accelerate local and global environmental crises, and enable the immense suffering of more than 10 billion farm animals every year in the U.S. We work across movements to shift government spending in agriculture, conservation, nutrition, and food service to strengthen just and sustainable food system supply chains.
Community Food Infrastructure
Today’s food system is not designed to support universal nutritional security. It requires critical infrastructure investments to build families’ and communities’ nutritional security and promote market access for farmers.
Community food infrastructure is an approach that can aid in building vibrant local economies that support families, workers, and farmers. Regional food economies have already seen success with community food infrastructure, and we advocate for investments from the federal government that can better support nutritional security through:
- Permanent “Build American Bonds” to cities and municipalities to build public food infrastructure.
- Social Impact Partnerships to Pay for Results (SIPPRA) Food Bonds to nonprofit organizations supporting the advancement of public food infrastructure projects.
- Grants to cities, countries, or regional economic development councils and authorities to design and implement projects.
School Food Choice
We believe that all students should have the option to choose nutritious foods that align with their values and dietary needs, and school food choice is a critical component of our advocacy work at the federal and state levels.
We are proud endorsers of the Healthy Future Students and Earth Pilot Program Act, introduced by Reps. Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY). The bill would create a voluntary grant program for school districts to help schools cover the costs of 1) training, technical assistance, and labor required to provide healthful and culturally appropriate plant-based meals, 2) procurement of plant-based foods from socially disadvantaged, local, women, veteran, and beginning producers, and 3) marketing and student engagement.
Creating opportunities for youth leadership is essential in this work, and we’re active members of a coalition that centers students’ voices in support of the bill.
Blog: Plant-Based Choice in California Schools
Shift the Farm Bill
Farm Bill spending puts industry interests ahead of those of farmers, workers, and families. The largest commodity crop farms receive a generous government bailout every year, while small farmers lose out on the subsidies they need to support their families and communities. These commodity crop subsidies do not successfully combat nutritional insecurity, as most are allocated to corn and soy instead of healthful fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes to which American families need better access.1,2
The next Farm Bill must remedy these shortcomings. We advocate for a shift in the next Farm Bill that stands up for family farmers and invests in crops that nourish people. These include lowering the income cap for subsidies, strengthening eligibility and reporting requirements, and raising the earned income deduction.
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1“CBO’s June 2017 Baseline for Farm Programs.” 2017. Congressional Budget Office.
2“Farm Bill Math Updated in New Congressional Budget Office Baseline.” 2017. Farm Bureau.
Photo Credit: etonastenka/Shutterstock
Sustainable, Healthy, Interconnected, Frontline-Led Transformations (SHIFT)
Farm Sanctuary pursues justice, compassion, and sustainability for people, animals, and our shared environment through food system change. We believe that the most important action an organization like ours can take is to shift resources. We seek to support shifts to advance the following values:
Our Question
How can organizations like Farm Sanctuary best use our resources to support just, sustainable, community-driven food system transformation? Working with experts on community food justice, equitable relationship development, and the racial wealth gap, we aim to learn how Farm Sanctuary’s resources can best support partners’ capabilities and goals. In supporting existing community-driven transformation, we can both prioritize equity and maximize overall impact.
Sustainable
According to the seminal United Nations report Our Common Future, “Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” The immense harm caused by the current extractive, exploitative food system is socially, economically, and environmentally unsustainable, failing to secure basic needs for many in the present while threatening the capacity of future generations to serve themselves.
Healthful
Healthy refers to the “possession” of good health; healthful refers to that which is “conducive” to good health. The American Public Health Association has used healthful in relation to housing, and public nutrition experts use healthful in food discourse to refer to healthful food choices, healthful food production and distribution processes, and healthful environmental outcomes. Healthful recognizes health as a fundamental human right and the primacy of health to well-being, but also the systemic nature of health as a social-ecological phenomenon. Healthful also takes the onus off the individual to be “healthy” and assumes that policies and programs have the duty to provide “healthful” opportunities to achieve good health in individuals and communities. The immense harm caused by the current extractive, exploitative food system creates barriers to health, whether for humans, animals other than humans, or our shared environment.
Interconnected
To be interconnected is to be intertwined, to have multiple points of connection across each constituent part. In network theory, interconnected systems are less “efficient” than hierarchical or centralized systems, but they are more resilient and responsive to change. The immense harm caused by the current extractive, exploitative food system results in interconnected, intersectional systems of oppression and vicious cycles for individuals and communities.
Frontline-Led
The Climate Justice Alliance the concept of frontline-led leadership in this way: “decades of Indigenous/frontline wisdom and organizing, and a myriad of contributions from the climate justice movement have paved the way to the current Green New Deal moment. Climate Justice Alliance members have made local versions of the Green New Deal a reality from New York City to Oregon, centering traditional ecological and cultural knowledge and creating pathways for a regenerative future. It’s imperative that we build off of these community-based, frontline-led victories, and that we place frontline communities at the center of the solutions equation.” The immense harm caused by the current extractive, exploitative food system disempowers frontline communities and diminishes their political, economic, and social voice.
Transformations
A transformative approach recognizes the obligation “to build new or better relationships” as opposed to merely repairing harms. It is a “radical” approach in that it gets as close to the roots of a problem as possible. Transformations require individual and systemic change and therefore the space and security to change. The immense harm caused by the current extractive, exploitative food system cannot merely be “repaired.”
Spotlight: Food System Shift Trust
Farm Sanctuary is working with farmers and community-based partners across the country to design a Food System Shift Trust to secure and shift land and needed resources away from industrial animal agriculture to support pre-existing, aligned, community-driven efforts. The project will combine the principles of a land trust, real estate investment trust, and resource network, allowing the intervention to scale.
In 2021 and early 2022, we performed case study analysis of 28 existing land trusts, community investment trusts, and real estate investment trusts to understand the current intervention landscape. We learned that no national agricultural land trust currently prioritizes both sustainability and justice. Throughout the rest of 2022, we explored legal frameworks and identified opportunities to pilot specific core trust functions. We are now working with consultants on the overall design and small-scale pilots for 2023.
Through this trust, we will shift land and critical resources to support aligned community-driven food system transformations without changes to existing policy.
Photo Credit: Kevin Doherty / Jabari Brisport for State Senate
State farmland preservation programs should promote farmer opportunities, not factory farm consolidation. That’s the argument behind legislation introduced by New York State Senator Brisport through a collaboration with Farm Sanctuary.
If passed, the bill will shift farmland preservation funding away from industrial consolidation and toward more diverse farmer opportunities, which can in turn promote new market opportunities and sustainable community partnerships. The bill also increases funding for new farmers, prioritizing Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian-American applicants. This financial support is critical because the investment structure of the existing New York agricultural system reflects and perpetuates the advancement of white land owners and farmers over those of historically marginalized identities. New York farmers are disproportionately white, but people who identify as Black, Indigenous, Hispanic/Latino, and Asian are the fastest-growing populations within New York farming. Additionally, it supports community-based partnerships, particularly those that prioritize land equity and nutritional security.
The current policies make entry into farming more difficult for these populations, as they aren’t designed to support beginning farmers. For example, three factory farms received more state funds in a single “Dairy Farmland Preservation” grant cycle than all new farmer grants from 2014-2021 combined. For every dollar invested in new farmer grants, dairy farmland protection grants – 71% of which increased factory farm consolidation – received $32.
We applaud Senator Brisport for his leadership on the bill and appreciate the support the legislation has already gained:
- “We fight for environmental solutions that advance justice, equity, health, and a compassionate world…the landmark Brisport Farmer Opportunity bill represents a decisive shift in service of that vision of sustainability.” — Center for Biological Diversity
- “We support the Brisport Farmer Opportunity bill because we have experienced the power of transition first-hand. We need new, sustainable, forward-looking farmer opportunities. We applaud Senator Brisport’s efforts, and we look forward to the diverse agricultural opportunities that will flourish as a result of this legislation.” — Former Beef Farmers, Current Vegetable Farmers, David Rose and Molly Cummings
- “Agriculture is at a crossroads today. Climate change, declining soil health, rising energy costs, and changing markets are causing stress for farmers…Brisport’s reforms will support farmer-led solutions.” — Northeast Organic Farmers Association “Farmer of the Year” Klaas Martens
What do we mean by “fighting factory farming” for farm animals, people, and the planet?
- We recognize that factory farming reflects and deepens systemic oppression. We support justice for workers, farmers, and communities.
- We change the way society views and treats farm animals through public communications, education, and legal and policy advocacy.
- We design scalable, evidence-based, systems-level interventions to end factory farming and support environmentally sustainable and socially just food transitions.
Fight Factory Farming
Since its founding in 1986, Farm Sanctuary has worked to address the immense harm caused by factory farms by promoting farmed animal welfare and preventing abusive animal agricultural practices. Over the last 36 years, we have learned more about how factory farming hurts not only farmed animals, but also farmers, workers, communities, families, and the earth. Today, we see a food system in crisis, where few people are truly nourished and a small number of corporate monopolists benefit. We see a food system that looks more like a factory farm: designed for maximum extraction rather than mutual benefit.
Our advocacy seeks to shift the food system away from exploitation and toward Sanctuary. We recognize that today’s industrialized food system creates division rather than interconnectedness, resulting in a food apartheid that benefits a select few at the expense of many others. Today’s factory food system prioritizes the financial value of industry production and total consumption rather than animal, farmer, worker, and family well-being. It accelerates our local and global environmental crises at a time when we already have the resources to nourish everyone while regenerating natural systems. Our research supports advocacy to ask how government, business, and civil society can best advance a food system of true sustainability and justice.
We believe in food’s transformative power to bring people together and to nourish everyone. We recognize that we are joining an existing food justice movement to support all people in securing their rights to clean air, water, and nourishing, culturally-appropriate food.
Since its founding in 1986, Farm Sanctuary has worked to address the immense harm caused by factory farms by promoting farmed animal welfare and preventing abusive animal agricultural practices. Over the last 36 years, we have learned more about how factory farming hurts not only farmed animals, but also farmers, workers, communities, families, and the earth. Today, we see a food system in crisis, where few people are truly nourished and a small number of corporate monopolists benefit. We see a food system that looks more like a factory farm: designed for maximum extraction rather than mutual benefit.
Our advocacy seeks to shift the food system away from exploitation and toward Sanctuary. We recognize that today’s industrialized food system creates division rather than interconnectedness, resulting in a food apartheid that benefits a select few at the expense of many others. Today’s factory food system prioritizes the financial value of industry production and total consumption rather than animal, farmer, worker, and family well-being. It accelerates our local and global environmental crises at a time when we already have the resources to nourish everyone while regenerating natural systems. Our research supports advocacy to ask how government, business, and civil society can best advance a food system of true sustainability and justice.
We believe in food’s transformative power to bring people together and to nourish everyone. We recognize that we are joining an existing food justice movement to support all people in securing their rights to clean air, water, and nourishing, culturally-appropriate food.
Photo Credit: Dusan Petkovic/shutterstock.com
Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act
The Protecting America’s Meatpacking Workers Act would prevent the Secretary of Agriculture from issuing line speed waivers unless meat and poultry plants agree to a USDA inspection which must show that an increase in line speeds will not adversely impact worker safety. It would also implement important worker protection and government accountability measures related to meatpacking, industry consolidation, and racial discrimination in the food system supply chain.
Farm Sanctuary began supporting the bill in federal meetings in 2022, and we continue to elevate it in conversations with policymakers who want to engage on industry protection and worker justice issues.
The Tipped Worker Protection Act
The Tipped Worker Protection Act, introduced by Rep. Jahana Hayes (D-CT), would establish additional protections for tipped workers by amending the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 to repeal the separate minimum wage for tipped employees. In addition to discontinuing the federal tipped minimum wage, the bill requires that all employees receive payments equal to at least the federal minimum wage and that these wages be paid directly by their employers.
Conversation Spotlight: Alianza Agrícola and The Food Chain Workers Alliance
Blog: Farmworker Justice – In Solidarity and Deep Appreciation
Photo Credit: Jo-Anne McArthur
Farm System Reform Act
Farm Sanctuary has supported the Farm System Reform Act (introduced by Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and others) through direct lobbying, public education, and coalition work. The bill would immediately stop the growth of the largest factory farms and phase out their operation by 2040, in addition to providing $100 billion over ten years to support farmer debt forgiveness and voluntary transitions to more sustainable, just agriculture.
Farm Sanctuary formally endorsed the bill when it was reintroduced in July 2021. In April 2022, we became the only farm animal-centered organization invited to join Sen. Booker Rep. Khanna’s “anti-factory farming working group” to support the bill. We now coordinate FSRA lobbying efforts with coalition partners, including the Sierra Club, Farm Aid, Sunrise Movement, ASPCA, Food and Water Watch, and the Center for Biological Diversity.
Learn More: The Farm System Reform Act
Blog: Biogas is Unjust, Unsustainable Greenwashing
Protecting America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act
This legislation would update the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act of 1972 (FIFRA) by banning the most damaging pesticides that have been scientifically proven to harm the safety of people and our environment. The bill also creates important transparency and public engagement opportunities, enabling communities to protect themselves from harm.
Farm Sanctuary began supporting the bill in federal meetings in 2022, and we continue to elevate it in conversations with policymakers who want to engage in environmental justice and community protection issues.
Rhode Island is now poised to outlaw the extreme cruelty of foie gras production.
Senator Alana DiMario (D-36) and Representative Brandon Potter (D-16) have introduced legislation (S 0471/H 5731) that would prohibit the sale of foie gras in Rhode Island. Foie gras, or “fatty liver,” is the diseased and enlarged liver of ducks or geese, produced through violent force-feeding via a tube shoved down the bird’s throat. We directly supported the passage of a foie gras ban through the Rhode Island House of Representatives, and the bill will now progress to the Senate.
This common-sense measure will prevent the intolerable cruelty of force-feeding birds to make foie gras. More than a dozen countries, plus the state of California and New York City, have enacted measures to prevent this abuse, and we support this effort for Rhode Island to do the same.
Farm Sanctuary has worked to end the sale and production of foie gras for decades, sponsoring California’s landmark 2004 legislation to ban foie gras in the state, and joining a coalition that successfully banned the sale of foie gras throughout New York City—one of the country’s largest markets—effective 2022, while also rescuing birds from this horrific industry. Ducks who have come to Farm Sanctuary after being rescued from foie gras farms are among the sickest and most traumatized animals the group has cared for in its 35 years.
Coordinated Litigation
We engage in legal advocacy with partner organizations to protect farm animals. We have active campaigns against the slaughter of downed pigs, against the agency’s elimination of limits on slaughter speeds, and in defense of California’s Proposition 12, which criminalizes some of the worst forms of animal confinement on factory farms.
In January 2022, we celebrated an important win: access to the USDA’s slaughter records, settling a lawsuit filed by Farm Sanctuary and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI). Any member of the public can now monitor USDA enforcement and the records exposed the inhumane treatment of the animals.
Thought Leadership
Farm Sanctuary reaches millions of consumers annually through op-eds placed in mainstream media.
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The Washington Post
Read the ArticleOpinion | Why are we accepting the mass slaughter of animals through heatstroke?
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The Guardian
Read the ArticleIt’s time to dismantle factory farms and get used to eating less meat / Gene Baur
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The Hill
Read the ArticleCoronavirus and the karmic interconnectedness of humans, animals / Gene Baur
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The Washington Post
Read the ArticleThe best way to help dairy farmers is to get them out of dairy farming / Gene Baur
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Des Moines Register
Read the ArticleOpinion: Avian flu isn’t something just for the birds. It reveals agriculture’s ills. [Photo credit: AP]
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Youth Advocacy
For students age 13-18 who are interested in creating a more just, sustainable, and compassionate food system, Farm Sanctuary’s online resource hub, Youth for a Just and Sustainable Food System, offers tools and inspiration, and our Youth Leadership Council provides a sense of community and the chance to connect with like-minded student peers from across the country. Through the Youth Leadership Council, we offer education on food system issues and support for school- and community-based advocacy projects aligned with each student’s personal interest.
