FarmStand

10/08/2026

Farmworkers on H-2A visas are some of the most vulnerable in the food system. Heartbreaking and infuriating to read recent reporting by Prism on two workers for the same company: One died and one left permanently disabled by heatstroke. That same company is looking to hire 700 H-2A workers--and won't let outreach workers talk to them.

FarmSTAND is committed to fighting for the safety and dignity of all farmworkers, including their right to receive visitors and service providers.

10/07/2026

Corporate consolidation that hollows out local economies, puts family farms out of business, and degrades the land and water isn't progress. At FarmSTAND, we're fighting to build a better food system that feeds people, not corporate profits.

Great op-ed from our friend Tim Gibbons at National Family Farm Coalition on the false promise of "efficiency."

10/06/2026

When governments cut ag workers out of legal protections, people die. Decades of Big Ag lobbying to exclude ag from oversight and a defanged OSHA have left agricultural workers unprotected from deadly workplace conditions.

The result: tragedies like the six Colorado dairy workers who died last year in a manure pit filled with toxic gas. The company was only fined $85,000. That's not accountability--that's permission to treat workers as disposable. Civil Eats

10/05/2026

Recent ICE operations in Kansas have targeted communities near feedlots and slaughterhouses, terrifying workers and their families who are avoiding work and school.

When ICE raids take workers off the line, hurting profits, the meat industry sometimes complains for a day. But Big Ag corporations don't want justice for immigrants. They want and benefit from the climate of fear that keeps workers vulnerable to exploitation.

10/01/2026

Tragic news out of Monmouth, Illinois - on September 14, a worker was killed at a Smithfield meat processing plant.

We don't know the circumstances of the fatality, but we do know that the plant was fined by OSHA earlier this year. According to Meatingplace, safety procedures were not followed, exposing workers to "amputation hazards."

Big Ag companies like Smithfield have little regard for the safety of their workers - that's why ag workers have some of the highest injury rates of any sector. As long as profits come before people, tragedies like this will continue.

A Smithfield Foods meatpacking plant had multiple OSHA violations on record before a worker fatality occurred at the facility in North Carolina.

09/30/2026

We had such an incredible Farm Aid!

Thank you to everyone who stopped by our table and helped us knock down some Big Ag clowns! 🤡 And a special thanks to our ally the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, who tabled with us, and to everyone at Farm Aid for organizing a wonderful few days of connecting with our movement and sharing about the challenges facing our food system. Can’t wait for next year!

Farm Aid National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition The Transfarmation Project

09/22/2026

We're back at Farm Aid this year!

Farm Aid is an annual music festival put on to benefit family farmers. This Saturday, we're tabling at Farm Aid's Homegrown Village with our ally NSAC and debuting our Down the Big Ag Clown game, where players will get to knock down Big Ag enemies like Monsanto and Tyson!

If you're attending Farm Aid or any pre-festival events, let us know! Hope to see you there!

Farm Aid
NSAC

09/21/2026

We just filed a case alongside UFCW 1776 KS and Willig, Williams & Davidson challenging Pennsylvania's law that excludes ag workers from basic labor protections.

This is discriminatory and violates Pennsylvania's constitution. Exceptions like these make ag workers uniquely vulnerable and enable the rampant exploitation in the ag industry.

We're proud to stand up for workers everywhere in our fight to help create a fair food system. Learn more ➡️ https://farmstand.org/ufcw-1776-sues-state-of-pennsylvania-to-end-unconstitutional-labor-law-exception-for-agriculture/

UFCW Local 1776 United Food and Commercial Workers International Union

09/17/2026

Recent reporting from Civil Eats found that cuts to the FDA and CDC by DOGE and the Trump administration made foodborne illness outbreaks harder to track and prevent. We exposed how carelessly DOGE canceled millions in grants at the USDA, and its hard to imagine they were any less reckless when attacking the systems that manage our food supply. Get a breakdown on DOGE USDA cancelations here in our Deep Dive ➡️

In 2025, USDA abandoned farmers by recklessly terminating millions of dollars in grants, all to fall in line with the Trump administration’s crusade against DEI, environmental justice, and climate action. We suspected that the “process” for finding grants the administration found worthy of ter...

09/11/2026

The checkoff is a tax producers pay which is supposed to go toward advertising benefiting everyone who produces that product. Instead, it gets funneled into lobbying groups that work for the benefit of large industrial producers at the expense of smaller, more sustainable farmers.

Vox interviewed our Managing Director of Litigation David Muraskin for this new article exposing the corruption at the heart of the pork checkoff.

The article details the relationship between the Pork Board, which collects the checkoff, and the National Pork Producers Council, which lobbies on behalf of factory farmers. It's a great breakdown on the subject, and we appreciate the attention to this key issue keeping small farmers down.

Read the article now on Vox ➡️ https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/499438/pork-checkoff

Vox