Farmers & Rural Communities
USDA Grantees Sue Trump Administration to Stop Illegal Grant Terminations
Today’s suit alleges that following several Trump executive orders targeting climate action and efforts to support diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, “Defendants began engaging in a policy, pattern, and practice…
Trump’s Anti-Farmer Moves Are Designed to Keep Us From A Better Food System
Devastated. Betrayed. Heartbroken. Like the rug was pulled out from under them — that’s how farmers describe the Trump Administration’s sudden dismantling of several Biden-era programs that had begun to…
LSP Applauds State Supreme Court’s Rejection of Daley Appeal
“The Minnesota Supreme Court’s decision not to take up this appeal affirms the right of the people of Winona County to govern themselves, and to decide what the future of…
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…
Driftless Water Defenders Files Federal Clean Water Lawsuit Against Agri Star for Polluting Iowa’s Yellow River and Hecker Creek
“People have the right to enjoy their local waterways, in the Driftless Region and everywhere,” said Holly Bainbridge, a staff attorney for FarmSTAND, and one of the attorneys representing DWD.…
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…
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,…
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…
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…