Cases

We bring lawsuits in collaboration and alignment with allies across movement sectors to dismantle corporate consolidation of power in the meat industry.

Our cases seek to hold bad actors accountable, and empower those harmed by Big Ag, from meatpacking workers put at risk of contracting COVID-19 by their employers, to environmental justice communities subjected to land, air, and water contamination from factory-sized operations.

Search Cases

December 9, 2024

Daley Farm v. County of Winona (Land Stewardship Project Intervention)

This case is a dispute over the dramatic expansion of a dairy operation. The authority of local government hangs in the balance.
View Case
December 6, 2024

Stopping Big Ag Exploitation of J-1 Visa Holders (Alvarado v. Livingston)

Represented by FarmSTAND, Legal Aid of Nebraska, and Radford Scott LLP, these three Guatemalan men are suing Livingston Enterprises and Worldwide Farmers Exchange, the company that deceptively recruited them. The lawsuit targets a practice that has allowed employers like Livingston to exploit the J-1 visa program for profit, and alleges that these enterprises violated federal trafficking, racketeering, and civil rights laws, as well as state laws.
View Case
December 2, 2024

Workers' Compensation for Michigan's Undocumented Workers

Everyone should be able to work in conditions that are dignified, fair, and healthy, and getting injured at work should never mean losing your income or ability to take care of your family. However, for the past 17 years undocumented workers in Michigan who suffer serious workplace injuries have been unjustly denied workers’ compensation wages while they are recovering.
View Case
October 30, 2024

Defending the Rights of Seasonal Agricultural Workers

Agricultural workers of all kinds —including seasonal workers on H-2A visas — deserve basic workplace protections, including the right to meet with guests and service providers in the workers’ employer-provided housing without fear of retaliation and protection from injury during their commutes to work.
View Case
October 24, 2024

No Greenwashing Factory Farm Gas (Blumm v. Northwest Natural Gas Co.)

Utility companies shouldn’t be allowed to exploit public concern about climate change to prop up polluting factory farms. Customers of Oregon’s Northwest Natural Gas are suing the company over misleading claims at the heart of its Smart Energy program, which the company advertises as a...
View Case
October 24, 2024

Justice for Contract Growers Deceived by Cooks Venture (Barr v. Wadiak)

Agribusinesses exploit poultry contract growers to hold down costs and maximize company profits. The growers—the farmers who actually do the work of producing the birds—assume the risks of the business, while the big companies who contract them reap the profits of the labor and avoid...
View Case
October 24, 2024

Tackling Deceptive Climate Claims (Environmental Working Group v. Tyson)

Industrialized meat production generates tremendous volumes of climate-warming emissions at every stage of the process. Tyson, which produces about 20 percent of U.S. beef, chicken and pork, has greenhouse gas emissions that exceed those of Austria or Greece. For over three years, Tyson has been...
View Case
September 26, 2024

Better Safety Protection for Workers

Workers deserve to be safe on the job and to participate in OSHA inspections of their workplace.
View Case
September 23, 2024

Deep Dive: Hormel

Hormel wants you to make the “Natural Choice.” Documents we’ve made public reveal how that is anything but.
View Case
August 20, 2024

Morris v. Tyson

FarmSTAND (formerly the Food Project at Public Justice) represented a mass action of poultry growers in Western Kentucky who raise poultry for Tyson, the nation’s largest poultry company. Tyson acts as an “integrator,” controlling all of the inputs used by its poultry growers—such as the...
View Case
June 27, 2024

Essential Services for Colorado’s Farmworkers

Everyone should be able to work with dignity and access resources that better their working conditions and lives. However, agribusiness interests have threatened Colorado farmworkers’ right to access essential services where they work. Agricultural workers tend to be isolated and work long hours. Many live...
View Case
June 13, 2024

Beef Checkoff (R-CALF v. Vilsack and R-CALF v. USDA)

R-CALF challenges the checkoff’s First Amendment violations (R-CALF v. Vilsack et al., D. Mont.) We were lead counsel on behalf of the nation’s largest organization of independent cattle producers, R-CALF USA, in a suit raising a First Amendment challenge to the administration of the Beef...
View Case
Skip to content