News

February 19, 2025 In News

Sentient Media: Iowa Slaughterhouse Routinely Pollutes Waterways With Excessive Waste, Advocacy Groups Allege

The intent to sue notice was co-authored by Driftless Water Defenders, a non-profit Iowa-based group working to protect Iowa waterways from agricultural polluters, as well as Public Justice and FarmSTAND, both non-profit legal advocacy groups....

February 4, 2025 In News

Teen Vogue: How Trump’s Admin Will Make Bird Flu Worse

Every day, my organization FarmSTAND sees the extent to which industrial animal agriculture is a system built on a foundation of harm. A handful of ag megacorporations have so much power that they control most of what ends up on grocery store shelves, leaving people...

February 3, 2025 In News

CBS 2 Iowa: Iowa meatpacking plant faces legal threat over repeated, “unchecked” pollution

“The Clean Water Act does provide citizens like Driftless Water Defenders an avenue for addressing that government under-enforcement and protecting the right to clean waterways,” said attorney Holly Bainbridge of FarmSTAND, a group supporting the lawsuit. ...

January 23, 2025 In News

Vox: Meet the new neighbors: 7.5 million chickens and their mountains of manure

“Everyone has a right to use and enjoy their property” under common law, said David Muraskin, managing director for litigation at FarmSTAND. “What the Right to Farm laws have done is basically say, ‘If you move next to a farm, no, you don’t — that...

January 15, 2025 In News

Sentient Media: 81% of Meatpacking Workers at High Injury Risk, USDA Warns

“Industrial animal agriculture operates on a model of systemic exploitation to increase their profit margins at the expense of the well-being of animals, workers and rural communities. Today’s USDA studies on swine and poultry processing workers clearly show the human cost: life-altering injuries, painful work...

December 31, 2024 In News

The Cedar Rapids Gazette: Environmental group poised to sue Postville kosher meat plant

The group also is being represented by Public Justice and FarmSTAND, both of Washington, D.C., which have litigated environmental concerns on behalf of residents in other states....

December 18, 2024 In News

Investigate Midwest: USDA’s investigation into Tyson Foods has collected thousands of documents. Would Donald Trump end it?

“We would expect to see an investigation like this closed or just die,” said Muraskin, citing Trump’s history of deregulation and business-friendly policies....

December 4, 2024 In News

Michigan Public Radio: Stateside: Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024

[T]his week the Michigan Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case about whether undocumented immigrants are able to receive lost wages when they are injured at work. David Muraskin, a managing director for Litigation at FarmSTAND, who is representing the Michigan Immigrant Rights Center...

November 25, 2024 In News

Bloomberg Law: Pork Producer Exploited J-1 Exchange Visa Holders, Suit Claims

“I’m a part of this lawsuit because I want to force companies like Livingston to follow the law, and give people better opportunities to improve themselves economically and professionally, instead of being allowed to use J-1 visas to lie and harm people."...

October 11, 2024 In News

Portland Business Journal: NW Natural accused of greenwashing with customer ‘Smart Energy’ program

"'They ignore the excess methane that's created by the cows, there are not reliable in measuring claimed emissions benefits, they're notoriously leaky (and) equipment can malfunction,' Kelsey Eberly, a senior staff attorney at FarmSTAND, said."...