Climate & Environmental Protection

Industrial agriculture is among the top drivers of climate change. Increasingly it pretends to be a solution, notably through “factory farm gas,” a joint enterprise with Big Oil to turn massive amounts of animal manure into a new, supposedly sustainable form of energy. Instead, this system requires more factory-sized animal facilities to be opened to create enough manure to begin to manufacture gas. Once manure becomes something companies can profit from, the pollution itself becomes part of the business model. We work to stop the pipelines and utility programs that help expand that system while calling it climate friendly. We also work with rural communities to stop fossil fuel infrastructure from being built in their neighborhoods, and take on utilities that sell factory farm gas as a climate solution.

Industrial animal agriculture produces massive quantities of manure that is then mismanaged in ways that pollute the surrounding land, water, and air. Just one industrial-sized hog facility can produce more waste than the entire city of Philadelphia does in one year. When factory farms and fisheries pollute their neighbors and refuse to clean it up, FarmSTAND gets creative to force change that benefits rural communities.

The U.S. agricultural system was founded on land stolen from Indigenous people and built on the labor of enslaved Africans. Environmental resources as well as burdens — and the power to make decisions about the environment — are profoundly shaped by the racial makeup of a given community, not by coincidence. FarmSTAND seeks to protect the environment and build power with rural communities that animal ag megacorporations routinely exploit.

We want a food system where polluters pay for the harm they cause and farmers who protect the land are rewarded for doing it right. We use the law to stop pollution, challenge false climate claims, and shift power away from corporations whose profits depend on passing environmental costs on to everyone else — while making their customers think they are feeding their families with food grown with sustainable, climate-friendly practices.