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Aerial view hog barns surrounded by floodwaters. It appears a manure lagoon is inundated with flood water and has breached its boundaries

October 25, 2024 In Blog

When the Hurricane is Gone, But Toxic Factory Farm Waste Remains

As climate change drives ever stronger and more frequent natural disasters, communities across the country are facing deadly weather events with alarming regularity. Recovering from disasters like hurricanes and flash flooding is hard enough, but people living near industrial factory farms face an additional threat:...

A middle-aged adult woman working in a dairy farm

September 27, 2024 In Blog

The Government Should Be Protecting People, Not Profits, from Bird Flu

We’ve known about the spread of bird flu to dairy cows, dairy workers, and poultry workers since early 2024, yet we still know very little about how many people and animals are getting sick and how we’ll be able to contain the spread of disease....

Thousands of young chickens inside a broiler house. A person in white protective coveralls walks through, facing away form the camera

August 23, 2024 In Blog

Why We Don’t Wait on Corporate Ag Promises

“What happened to antibiotic-free chicken?” So asked a recent article examining the unfortunate but predictable arc of a years-long campaign to get excessive antibiotics out of chicken feed. For decades, global public health leaders have been sounding the alarm on the overuse of antibiotics, including in...

A person's arm picks up a head of lettuce from a bin of lettuces in a grocery store

July 23, 2024 In Blog

How Industrial Animal Ag is Making Lettuce Dangerous

It is no secret that industrial animal agriculture has devastating impacts on our air, water, and communities. A recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) study confirms that factory farms are contaminating the lettuce at your grocery store, too. ...

Exterior of Oklahoma State Capitol Building

July 9, 2024 In Blog

Big Ag Needs Governments to Keep Bailing It Out

Our rights to enjoy clean water, fresh air and land free of life-threatening toxins should be non-negotiable. But when it comes to Big Ag, our elected officials are consistently willing to give those rights away. In June 2024, Oklahoma passed a law shielding poultry giants like...

Empty butchering workshop poultry with overhead conveyor. Poultry processing plant line. Production of chicken meat.

June 24, 2024 In Blog

Why Big Ag Makes Children Do Their Dirty Work

Our food system should nourish kids and make sure they grow up to be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy. Children need healthy food to grow. They also need sufficient sleep, access to education, and responsible adults around them to keep them safe from dangerous situations...

Horizontal photo of two latin adult workers working in a cow milking shed

May 16, 2024 In Blog

Factory Farms Are A Breeding Ground For Disease. We Deserve A Healthier Food System.

These industrial-scale operations come at an extreme cost to animal welfare and public health. Close confinement of animals can increase disease transmission. More contact with other animals, longer contact, poor ventilation, and lack of sunlight all mean more and better chances for disease to spread....

A person in boots and PPE bends down to collect a water sample from a stream. The person is stylized in yellow, while the rest of the image is tinted dark blue.

July 27, 2023 In Blog

Six clean water wins in the first half of 2023

Community organizers alongside public interest attorneys continue to stand against factory farms to defend our health and protect our waterways. Thanks to the tireless efforts of people on the ground and legal experts, we’re moving closer to a world with healthy waterways and healthy communities....

A shopping cart in the aisle of a grocery store

May 25, 2023 In Blog

Voting With Your Pitchfork: Beyond the Consumer-Worker Binary

As much as our current food system would have us believe that we are all primarily and merely consumers, other roles we play — as workers, advocates, and community members — offer much more effective avenues we can take to organize for a just food...

Photo of farmland with text superimposed. The text reads "Farmworkers have rights to meet with who they want without fear of retaliation."

April 10, 2023 In Blog

Representing Isolated Farmworkers

Every person, regardless of where they come from, what they do for work, or where they live, should have access to fundamental services like healthcare, education, and legal help. As the managing attorney for Colorado Legal Services’ Migrant Farm Worker Division, Jenifer Rodriguez leads a team...