Over 30 environmental organizations want USDA to stop subsidizing manure-to-biogas machinery that they argue entrenches large, polluting livestock operations, promotes farm consolidation, and wastes taxpayer dollars.
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JBS will buy undisclosed assets from Iowa hog producer TriOak, locking up a supply of Prop-12 compliant hogs and vertically integrating an already consolidated industry.
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Shell buys biogas company that will turn cow manure into burnable gas. Opponents say these taxpayer supported projects expand dirty gas infrastructure and polluting industrial animal farms.
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Recently unsealed legal evidence documents how Hormel misled consumers by selling the same industrially raised animals under its Natural Choice and conventional product lines.
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The National Pork Producers Council says California’s Prop. 12 will drive small farms out of business. But a group of small farmers argues that the anti-crate law gives them a rare market opportunity.
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Methane emissions from industrial hog and dairy operations are rising and contributing to climate change, yet the industry faces little regulation.
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While hundreds of millions for cheated customers is nothing to sneeze at, it is not clear if these recent settlements will discourage future collusion.
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Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced 10 new appointments to an independent committee advising food safety and inspection policy.
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A group of farmers and ranchers last week joined the leading meatpacking workers’ union to demand greater protections for meatpacking workers, acknowledging a shared fight against mistreatment by large meatpackers in the wake of COVID-19.
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While the country grapples with the COVID-19 crisis, USDA food safety officials have been making decisions that could further sicken Americans and threaten frontline food workers.
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On Monday, the USDA thwarted a decade of efforts to help farmers seek justice for discrimination, retaliation, and unfair treatment by meatpackers. Trump’s USDA introduced new criteria to determine whether a meatpacker violated the Packers and Stockyards Act, after withdrawing an Obama-era proposal two years ago. This latest proposal omits several critical farmer protections from the previous rule and introduces new language that could codify abusive industry practices.
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This week, livestock farmers and advocacy groups from across the country flew to Capitol Hill to share stories of exploitation by large meatpackers and call for greater farmer protections. At issue is a pending rule by the USDA that will clarify farmers’ grounds to sue meatpackers for retaliation, discrimination, and other abusive practices.
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