News

March 20, 2025 In News

Courthouse News Service: Federal judge upholds Iowa’s ban on trespassers using cameras to document animal abuse

David Samuel Muraskin, an attorney with the Washington, D.C.-based FarmSTAND representing the plaintiffs, told Courthouse News the ruling enables the state to “hide businesses’ misconduct and suppress civil disobedience if the government simply asserts it is seeking to protect private property.” “Until the legislature has the...

March 3, 2025 In News

U.S. Right to Know: Blood, body parts and bacteria pollute wastewater from meatpacking plants. New rules could help clean it up

Holly Bainbridge, staff attorney at FarmSTAND, a legal advocacy organization, agrees that the rules don’t go far enough. “After decades of inaction, it is not nearly enough to truly counter the massive scale of water pollution from these facilities nationwide,” she says....

February 26, 2025 In News

The Denver Post: Colorado lawmakers consider repealing key farmworker protections in light of Supreme Court ruling

Despite this denial, farmers are now bringing “unfounded and legally incorrect claims to the legislature when really they belong in court,” said Kelsey Eberly, a senior staff attorney at FarmSTAND, a legal advocacy organization litigating this issue. “This bill is legislator overreach, circumventing an ongoing...

February 24, 2025 In News

CBS 2 Iowa: Iowa meatpacking plant sued over years of alleged water pollution

"People have the right to enjoy their local waterways, in the Driftless Region and everywhere," said FarmSTAND attorney Holly Bainbridge in the press release. "After 60 days of notice, it’s time to enforce the Clean Water Act through the courts and make Agri Star stop...

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....