News

A bill has been introduced in the Michigan legislature that would enrich factory farms. Numerous environmental groups, among many others, oppose it.

Farm Forward strongly endorses the Industrial Agriculture Conversion Act, along with over 100 environmental, public health, family farmer, consumer, and animal protection organizations.

A coalition of environmental and animal protection groups gathered in Lansing to oppose a bill in Michigan that would enrich factory farming and fossil fuel interests.

The government is freaking us out on bird flu. It’s not what they’re saying—it’s what they are not saying.

A USDA testing program finds that at least 20 percent of tested cattle samples labeled “raised without antibiotics” or “no antibiotics ever” tested positive for antibiotics. USDA buries findings and reports no punitive action.

Antimicrobial Resistance is an increasing threat to human and animal health. Solving the problem requires significant reforms to agricultural policy and industrial animal farming practices. Yet, the largest international One Health programs largely fail to acknowledge industrial animal farming as a key threat to the One Health mission.

Even as the seriousness of the bird flu outbreak increases, the government refuses to address the underlying cause: factory farming.

Pressure is building on Alexandre Farm a month after the release of Farm Forward’s investigation into their harmful dairy farming practices as new alarming photos and videos emerge.

Alexandre’s abuses and deceptions have continued well into 2024, with no sign of abating.

Much has happened in the week since Farm Forward’s groundbreaking investigation into Alexandre Family Farms.

Our investigation of fraud, deception, and animal welfare abuses at Alexandre Family Farm (Alexandre) revealed that Alexandre’s national reputation for high animal welfare is largely a mirage. It is highly likely that milk sold across the country—including in products like toddler formula and ice cream—came from abused, neglected, and mistreated cows who were allowed to linger in their suffering.

Farm Forward’s recent investigation and report describing humanewashing and fraud by what is arguably the nation’s leading certified organic, humane, and “regenerative” dairy, Alexandre Family Farms, suggests serious problems with USDA Organic dairy. Our report was covered in The Atlantic.

This week Farm Forward published a new investigation and report describing humanewashing and fraud by a leading certified organic, humane, and “regenerative” dairy, Alexandre Family Farm. Our report was covered in The Atlantic. 

The timeline of our recent investigation into Alexandre dairy.

An investigation by Farm Forward and Our Honor, covered by The New York Times, shows how the federal government has allocated hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars to poultry companies like Tyson and Hormel for bird flu outbreak losses, despite these companies’ factory farming practices being linked to the outbreaks.

Farm Forward is engaging with major retailers and food companies, including Trader Joe’s, Walmart, and Publix, urging them to validate “raised without antibiotics” claims through independent lab testing and to uphold accurate labeling.

In anticipation of the 2024 Farm Bill, we are proud to play a part in introducing new federal legislation that would leverage billions of dollars of food spending by USDA to help build a more just, healthy, and sustainable food system.

Farm Forward submitted a comment to the CDC and HHS we consider critical for addressing zoonotic disease and public health preparedness: factory farming creates perfect petri dishes for endemic and emergent zoonotic diseases. Deintensifying existing poultry and pig farming—while placing a moratorium on new factory farm construction—is the public health measure that would most dramatically reduce the risk of the next pandemic virus. 

In the Vatican Gardens after a private audience with the Pope, author of “Eating Animals” and Farm Forward founding board member, Jonathan Safran Foer, gave a keynote address in response to Pope Francis’s new Apostolic Exhortation, Laudaute Deum.

Farm Forward sent a letter to state attorneys general encouraging them to take action on antibiotic labeling.

Farm Forward sent a letter to the Deputy Undersecretary of Food Safety at the USDA sharing our concerns and offering actionable recommendations that would help ensure consumer trust in meat labeling.

The Good Food Purchasing Program (GFPP) recently released Version 3.0 of its standards for food service institutions, which include important changes for animal welfare and meat reduction.

This year, we partnered with the research firm Data for Progress to test some of our hypotheses about consumer understandings of everything from “pasture raised” to Global Animal Partnership’s “Animal Welfare Certified” label.

A federal judge in California ruled that the consumer protection lawsuit alleging Whole Foods Market falsely advertised its beef as “no antibiotics, ever” can proceed.

Whole Foods is objecting to proceeding with discovery. It’s not a good sign that the largest natural retailer in the country, which built a reputation on being honest and transparent, won’t share even the most basic information with the public about who supplies their meat or give assurances that they’ve taken steps to ensure their marketing claims are true.

The USDA announced changes to the guidelines meat companies must follow if they want to label their products as “humanely raised,” “free range,” or “raised without antibiotics.”

Farm Forward is collaborating with Yale Law School’s CAFE Law and Policy Lab and several other NGOs to develop innovative policy approaches that can be enacted at the state and municipal level to challenge factory farming practices.

Why has Costco kept its price for rotisserie chickens at $4.99 since they were first sold in 2009, despite inflation? Costco knows that cheap chicken helps to bring customers through the door, who then spend money on other products with greater profit margins. Costco capitalizes on this trend by selling rotisserie chickens in the back of the store. However, the low price point comes at a high cost for the welfare of the chickens, the environment, and public health.

The high price of eggs is just one outcome of bird flu. Far more worrying is the possibility that the disease could adapt to human bodies and lead to the next global pandemic. Though eating chicken or eggs is unlikely to lead to illness, experts agree that the pandemic risk of avian flu is real, stemming largely from the way birds are raised on factory farms and the particular breeds of birds that have come to dominate the supply chain.

Forests play an important role in maintaining a healthy global environment. They influence the weather and even the acidity of the oceans, affecting ecosystems thousands of miles beyond their borders. Unfortunately, forests are being destroyed by human activity as they are cleared to make way for grazing animals and their feed, as well as for other agricultural and industrial purposes.

People who consume dairy may believe they are not encouraging the slaughter of any animals by doing so. But industrial dairy production requires that cows must repeatedly be made pregnant to produce milk, bringing many calves into the world who the industry must either use productively or dispose of. One of the ways to use the male calves born as a “byproduct” of dairy production is to turn them into meat known as veal.

Over the last several years controversy surrounding lab-grown, or cultured, meat has exploded. Ranchers have argued over whether or not it should be considered meat, while vegans have argued about whether or not it should be considered vegan. One thing is clear: lab-grown meat has the capacity to dramatically change the way we eat, and the impacts that our diets have on the world around us.