Legislation

A letter signed by hundreds of clergy and faith leaders across traditions is being hand-delivered to every U.S. Senate office, calling on senators to strip the “Save Our Bacon” amendment from the 2026 Farm Bill.

Farm Forward argues that salmonella in poultry is a system-wide food safety issue driven by poor animal welfare across the supply chain, urging the USDA to expand regulation beyond slaughterhouses and implement stronger, upstream reforms.

The factory farm gas industry—backed by major meat and dairy corporations—continues to thrive not because of market demand or climate benefits, but because of government-sponsored greenwashing. What was once sold as a climate solution is increasingly exposed as a thinly veiled subsidy to prop up industrial animal agriculture. And the latest boost comes courtesy of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill.

We were proud to play a part in federal legislation reintroduced today: the Enabling Farmer, Food worker, Environmental, and Climate Targets through Innovative, Values-aligned, and Equitable (EFFECTIVE) Food Procurement Act of 2025. Put forward by Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass) and Congresswoman Alma Adams (NC-12), this legislation would direct and support USDA to leverage billions of dollars to help build a more just, healthy, and sustainable food system.

New pushes for manure biogas, also known as Factory Farm Gas, risk cementing factory farming’s worst practices.

Three U.S. Senators, working closely with Farm Forward, have urged the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) to strengthen its guidelines on animal welfare and environmental labeling claims, citing widespread deception in food marketing that harms both consumers and independent farmers.

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

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.

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

A federal judge struck down North Carolina’s “Ag-gag” law, ruling that several of its provisions are unconstitutional and violate the First Amendment.

Whole Foods Market has claimed all of their meat products come from animals not treated with antibiotics, but our findings suggest otherwise.

The history of Farm Forward’s efforts to reveal the truth behind Whole Foods advertising practices around animal products tells its own tale.

The U.S. District Court ruled that Farm Forward and a coalition of animal and environmental protection organizations have standing to sue the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), regarding regulations at pig slaughterhouses.  

Oregon Senate sees the need to course correct its dairy industry, but the misconceived “methane digester” tax credit may have them heading in the wrong direction.

Farm Forward supports the mega-dairy moratorium which would allow a pause in the permitting of new and expanding mega-dairies until meaningful protections can be enacted to protect Oregon’s air, water, climate, rural communities, small farmers and animal welfare.

Hello again from 2050. We want you to know that your efforts in 2020 to create a more just food system won’t be for nothing.

Today Farm Forward and more than 120 groups launched a week of action against Tyson Foods Inc. (NYSE: TSN) demanding the company address the rising number of COVID-19 cases affecting workers at its chicken, pork, and beef processing facilities.

USDA proposed harmful inspection rules that we have a chance to stop! Learn more about the rules and how you can make a difference here.

Today, Farm Forward along with a coalition of family farm, animal welfare, and environmental groups sent a letter to Oregon Governor Kate Brown condemning the reappointment of Marty Myers, general manager of Threemile Canyon Farms for a second four-year term on Oregon’s Board of Agriculture.

Public Justice filed a motion for summary judgment asking the Court to enjoin North Carolina from enforcing the “Anti-Sunshine Law” and declare it unconstitutional.

Farm Forward joined a coalition of nearly two dozen farming, consumer, animal welfare, and environmental groups in asking Oregon leaders to put a moratorium on large, commercial dairies.

Global conference to address climate crises chose a meat-heavy menu equivalent of burning more than 500,000 gallons of gasoline. Learn more.

The factory farming industry harms human workers as well as the living animal products they must process at breakneck speed. Learn more here.

The report, titled “Animal Welfare in the National Organic Program: The USDA Must Act Quickly to Ensure Consumer Trust,” documents how farmers, retailers, and consumer advocates overwhelmingly support—and expect—stronger welfare standards for animals raised under the organic program.

Farm Forward believes that a sustainable and just food system treats animals and humans with dignity. We’re facing a new administration whose agricultural advisory committee will include outspoken opponents of wage reform and animal welfare policies.

What sets Farm Forward apart from other animal welfare groups is our visionary leadership that looks beyond suffering reduction to the overall institutional and cultural change that will end factory farming.

In a major blow to small and independent farmers the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Grain Inspection, Packers and Stockyards Administration (GIPSA) announced it will withdraw an interim final rule from the Obama Administration that would have set proof of harm standards under the Packers and Stockyards Act.

In response to the Trump Administration’s second delay of the Organic Livestock and Poultry Practices rule, Farm Forward joins The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI) to entreat the USDA to implement the rules without further delay

Factory farming isn’t just bad for animals, humans, and the planet, but also for investments! See what FAIRR is saying about the risks here.

A strong national movement is developing to ban one of the cruelest practices in animal agriculture—the use of cages and crates for confinement on factory farms.

Want to know one of the greatest barriers to promoting better animal welfare and greater sustainability in farming? Learn more here.

A California law that has protected the public from consuming meat from animals that are too sick or injured to even stand was overturned. Learn more of the implications here.

The story behind the joint efforts of egg-industry and animal welfare professionals from the unique perspective of Farm Forward’s founder.

A huge victory in the fight against industrial agriculture in Ohio. The details of the agreement, and history of it coming in to being through actions of the public and public servants working together are here.

Farm Forward applauds these changes and especially the trend in agribusiness to sit at the negotiation table. That said, over the course of the next decade more than 6.3 billion laying hens will live and die without basic space requirements. This victory is to be celebrated but not overestimated.