Protecting Food. Empowering Whistleblowers.
Protecting Food. Empowering Whistleblowers.
Is USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack so desperate to push his poultry inspection plan forward that he’ll try to find evidence supporting it where there is none? Many poultry industry whistleblowers have told FIC that the USDA’s plan, including the increase of already-too-fast line speeds at poultry processing plants, is a threat to public and worker […]
Last month, Idaho became the first state to pass an anti-whistleblower Ag Gag bill since 2012, a disappointing blow. But transparency in the state (already known for its history of anti-transparency legislation) isn’t going down without a fight! A group of organizations and journalists filed a lawsuit this week to overturn the law, which criminalizes […]
More voices have come out against Idaho’s Ag Gag bill as attention on the state increases. First, Chobani has issued a statement against the anti-whistleblower legislation. Now, a USDA whistleblower from Idaho, Dr. Daryl Jacobs – who has witnessed many abuses on dairy farms in the state – has come forward to FIC with his […]
A huge development has emerged as food integrity supporters continue to monitor Idaho’s potential passing of its anti-whistleblower Ag Gag bill. As the legislation reached Idaho Governor C.L. “Butch” Otter’s desk for approval yesterday (after both state houses passed the controversial measure), FIC and our coalition partners decided to put pressure on yogurt company Chobani […]
Idaho has a $2.5 billion dairy industry … with a lot to hide, apparently. The state Senate passed Idaho’s anti-whistleblower Ag Gag bill (S.1337) last Friday, which would make it a crime to photograph or videotape wrongdoing on a farm. The state has a history of enacting laws that make it easier for CAFOs (concentrated […]
According to a 2014 Harris Poll, 73 percent of Americans think there should be more government oversight of the food supply. Someone should alert the USDA, since the agency is proposing the exact opposite: the removal of government inspectors in poultry plants and transferring their duties to private industry workers (who are not empowered to speak […]
Several biotech/pesticide companies kept their word by filing a lawsuit on Friday against the County of Kauai to block implementation of the recently passed pesticide disclosure bill (now Ordinance 960). This news is very disappointing, but not entirely surprising, as the industry shows where its real priorities lie – certainly not with public health. FIC […]
We already got a taste of it last year, but according to Food Safety News, Big Ag has revamped its legislative strategy for 2014 when it comes to silencing whistleblowers. As evidenced by the defeat of all 11 anti-whistleblower Ag Gag bills in 2013, it’s clear that the states won’t allow the animal agriculture industry […]
Where there’s risk of animal cruelty at slaughterhouses, food safety concerns are probably not that far behind, and vice versa! USDA whistleblowers have revealed in the last two years the threats to public health caused by the agency’s poultry processing inspection plan (which would increase line speeds to 175 birds per minute), but now poultry […]
FIC and many of our diverse coalition partners contributed to a statement released today by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) regarding anti-whistleblower Ag Gag legislation. The statement reads in part: … a broad spectrum of public interest groups today welcomed the defeat of all 11 ag-gag/anti-whistleblower bills that were […]