Rural Partnerships for a More Just Food System
The Food Integrity Campaign’s (FIC) Rural Partnerships campaign houses initiatives that focus on the people who produce our food and their neighboring communities. FIC recognizes that rural food system whistleblowers (such as processing plant workers, farmers, and neighbors of industrial ag operations) face extraordinary and unique challenges. To overcome those hurdles, our Rural Partnerships campaign works to align values and foster lasting local partnerships. FIC works closely with grassroots and community organizations to line up whistleblower disclosures with existing local efforts to improve food safety, workplace safety, worker rights, and public health.
People living in rural areas account for 14% of Americans. Compared to urban residents, rural residents are at a higher risk of poor health outcomes because of a range of health disparities they face, according to the American Public Health Association. These health disparities include poverty, food deserts, exposure to significant environmental hazards, and less time for leisurely physical activity. These health disparities are even greater for racial/ethnic minorities and tribal groups.
Environment: Keeping Clean Energy Honest – Challenging False Solutions
As the impacts of climate change intensify, so does the public outcry for new energy sources and improved food production. In this rapidly evolving landscape, “silver bullet” new technologies are popping up more frequently as corporations continue to make illusory promises to “go green.” FIC and our organizational partners are committed to making sure that the public knows the truth about what’s really happening behind the scenes. We believe that food is a right and that feeding our families does not need to come at the expense of others—or at the expense of future generations. We work both at the federal and state levels to make sure that food and agricultural technologies designed to improve our shared environment are operating to improve the common good and that our regulatory agencies are effectively protecting the public’s health.
Public Health: Fighting Antibiotic Resistance and Stopping Future Pandemics
They say sunlight is the best disinfectant. At FIC we couldn’t agree more. We work directly with farmers on the ground who are concerned about threats to the food supply. Whistleblower farmer, Craig Watts, spoke out against antibiotic use in the chicken industry and what he was seeing on his poultry farm. Craig Watts has reason for concern. It is estimated that more than one-half of all available antibiotics are used on animals bred for consumption and it’s commonly accepted that antibiotic use in these settings is putting consumers at risk. But antibiotic resistance isn’t the only problem on factory farms. Rudy Howell, also a chicken farmer, spoke publicly to VICE News and in the documentary, The End of Medicine, about on-farm pathogens and how little is being done to make sure that eaters, especially children, can be assured the food they are eating won’t make them sick.
Then there are diseases that spread on factory farms—the Covid-19 pandemic illustrated how deadly the spread from animal viruses to humans (also called zoonotic disease spread) can be. FIC believes that farmers are in the best position to warn us when poor conditions create opportunities for disease to spread. We work with regulators to make sure that farmers are being educated about their critical role in sounding the alarm, and that when they speak out, they can do so without fear of retaliation from industrial agriculture companies. To that point, we’ve submitted public comments to USDA to empower farmers to speak out safely.
Environmental Justice: Creating a System with “Food and Justice for All”
At FIC we believe that food is right to be enjoyed by all and that we all have a stake in producing abundant and nutritious food. Our current food system relies heavily on extractive and exploitative means to secure our food future, a topic we explore in our blog, Racial Injustice: The Truth About Industrial Agriculture. FIC believes that model is unsustainable and short-sighted. We work across the country to expose how big corporations who profess to “feed the world” do so at the peril of vulnerable populations.
Hog CAFOs in North Carolina: Knowing the Facts and Believing Whistleblowers
In addition to daily emissions of greenhouse gases, the massive open lagoons that store the waste from tens of thousands of hogs at industrial hog farms pose a significant threat in the face of worsening weather events. Flooded lagoons can spread livestock waste, pharmaceutical residues, and bacteria across the landscape and into people’s homes and drinking water.
An overhead view of hog barns and waste lagoons in Duplin County, NC.
But the problems with waste lagoons don’t end there. Truth-teller René Miller, who lives in Duplin County, NC (where pigs outnumber people thirty-to-one) told the Food Integrity Campaign (FIC) about her experiences with industrial hog farms. To manage the level of liquid pig waste in lagoons, producers spray the fluid from the lagoons onto fields near residential communities. The spray goes airborne and can cake everything in the vicinity with fecal waste. Not surprisingly, René has had multiple health problems and routinely deals with the stench of hog waste sprayed on her home and car. Her situation is not unique. Hers is the struggle of hundreds of families of color affected by neighboring hog farms. In fact, a documentary film was recently produced about her community’s environmental justice struggle. When FIC investigators met with René at her home, she asked us to spread the word about one thing: “Please don’t support this industry.”
René Miller
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Above: Sitting on her front porch, René Miller captured this video of hog waste being sprayed on fields just across the road.
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