Protecting Food. Empowering Whistleblowers.
Protecting Food. Empowering Whistleblowers.
Let’s just be clear about this. The new pork inspection model is not about modernization; it’s about privatization. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Deputy Under Secretary for Food Safety, Alfred Almanza, seems to have a lot to say about modernizing the USDA’s inspection system lately. From what I’ve read, it appears that Mr. Almanza intends to expand a […]
People serving turkey this week for Thanksgiving dinner should know what’s happening with U.S. poultry. While we continue to challenge Hormel and its participation in USDA’s high-speed pork inspection pilot program, the agency’s corresponding program for poultry plants has already gone into effect (despite hundreds of thousands of petitioners and the agency’s own inspectors opposing […]
By Roberto A. Ferdman The pigs are not all right. An undercover video taken at one of the nation’s largest pork producers shows pigs being dragged across the floor, beaten with paddles, and sick to the point of immobility. By law, pigs are supposed to be rendered unconscious before being killed, but many are shown […]
(Austin, MN) – In light of newly released undercover video footage taken at a Hormel plant, two former USDA inspectors have come forward to speak about the food safety issues they have witnessed at Hormel’s largest high-speed processing plant. The whistleblowers each originally submitted affidavits (one anonymously) about their concerns to the Government Accountability Project […]
Hormel can’t hide from the spotlight any longer. The top pork producer’s high-speed processing plant in Austin, Minnesota is facing some serious finger wagging by food integrity advocates across the spectrum. On the one hand, Compassion Over Killing has released undercover video footage that raises animal welfare concerns at the plant. On the other, former […]
When scientists confront a problem, they need to compile all the data possible to come up with a solution. But in the case of antibiotic resistance, we’ve got an information hoarder on our hands. The agriculture industry doesn’t want to share their drug use practices, and the FDA – as the information gatekeeper – won’t release […]
This piece was originally published in the Huffington Post. An Idaho court found that agricultural whistleblowing is not a crime. Consumers who want to know the truth about the food system won a big victory this week against the culture of silence thanks to U.S. Chief Judge B. Lynn Winmill, who struck down Idaho’s anti-whistleblower […]
This piece (originally published in the Huffington Post), was authored by Louis Clark, President of the Government Accountability Project (GAP) – the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization. Nationwide, supporters of truth and transparency in the food system are mourning the enactment of North Carolina’s anti-whistleblower Ag Gag law. Designed to chill truth-tellers who […]
Two former restaurant supervisors are blowing the whistle on Pollo Campero – a business that claims to be “the world’s largest Latin American chicken chain.” Elsy Ortega and Evelin Iglesias claim they were unjustly fired in 2013 after refusing to use expired chicken at two of the chain’s establishments in Maryland. Two years later, the […]
Over the weekend, the Food Integrity Campaign team attended Washington D.C.’s Green Festival – the longest-running sustainability and green living event. It was great to see so many people who care about transparency in the food system! We spoke with hundreds of individuals about issues across the food spectrum – from Ag Gag laws to […]