Cases

FarmSTAND / 
September 15, 2025 In Cases

Deep Dive: Checkoff

Farmers and ranchers have beef with the checkoff. Food checkoff programs penalize independent producers of food by funneling money to the lobbying and trade organizations that boost the largest corporate producers, according to research featured in this latest edition of FarmSTAND’s Deep Dive series....

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November 15, 2022 In Cases

Deep Dive: Hormel

Hormel wants you to make the “Natural Choice.” Documents we’ve made public reveal how that is anything but....

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October 27, 2021 In Cases

Ag-Gag Litigation

A just, healthy, and thriving food system requires transparency. Public Justice engages in litigation to strike down the Ag-Gag laws that penalize whistleblowers who expose the truth about the factory farm system....

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June 26, 2020 In Cases

Arkansas Ag-Gag

Arkansas' Ag-Gag statute is modeled after the North Carolina statute, but it makes a few tweaks to try to protect it from being overturned as unconstitutional. The Arkansas Ag-Gag law provides an employer liquidated damages against any person who “exceeds the[ir] authority” in a “nonpublic...

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November 12, 2019 In Cases

Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Hormel

FarmSTAND (formerly the Food Project at Public Justice), the Animal Legal Defense Fund, and the Richman Law Group filed a joint lawsuit in the District of Columbia Superior Court against Hormel Foods, alleging the company was misleading consumers through the advertising of its Natural Choice®...

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September 25, 2019 In Cases

Dakota Rural Action v. USDA

A coalition of groups representing family farmers, sustainable agriculture advocates and concerned citizens throughout the country filed suit against the United States Department of Agriculture. The suit aims to stop a USDA policy allowing industrial agriculture facilities to set up operations in communities without undergoing...

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September 25, 2019 In Cases

Utah Ag-gag (Animal Legal Defense Fund v. Herbert)

In a victory for transparency in the food system, FarmSTAND (formerly the Food Project at Public Justice) successfully challenged a Utah statute that criminalized whistleblowing in the animal agricultural industry—in particular, slaughterhouses, meat processing plants, and factory farms. The law at issue—enacted by the state...

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September 25, 2019 In Cases

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

For an in-depth explanation on how checkoff programs hurt independent farmers and how FarmSTAND uses litigation to fight for a fairer system, read our Deep Dive. R-CALF challenges the checkoff’s First Amendment violations (R-CALF v. Vilsack et al., D. Mont.) We were lead counsel on behalf of...

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May 30, 2019 In Cases

Western Watershed Project et al v. Peter Michael

This case is a federal constitutional challenge to two newly enacted Wyoming statutes (the “Data Laws”) that are designed to prevent the public from gathering “resource data” on public or private “open land” in the State of Wyoming. See W.S. 6-3-414 (criminal statute) and W.S....

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