We, the undersigned group of civil liberties, public health, food safety, environmental, food justice, animal welfare, legal, workers’ rights, journalism, and First Amendment organizations and individuals, hereby state our opposition to proposed whistleblower suppression laws, known as “ag-gag” bills, being introduced in states around the country. These bills seek to prevent investigations of farms that reveal critical information about the production of animal products.
These bills represent a wholesale assault on many fundamental values shared by all people across the United States. Not only would these bills perpetuate animal abuse on industrial farms, they would also threaten workers’ rights, consumer health and safety, law enforcement investigations and the freedom of journalists, employees and the public at large to share information about something as fundamental as our food supply. We call on state legislators around the nation to drop or vote against these dangerous and un-American efforts.
American Civil Liberties Union
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)
Amnesty International USA
Animal Legal Defense Fund
Animal Welfare Institute
Association of Prosecuting Attorneys
A Well-Fed World
Best Friends Animal Society
Brighter Green
Buckeye Forest Council
Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Effective Government
Center for Food Safety
Center for Justice & Democracy
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana
Clean Water Network
Compassion In World Farming
Compassion Over Killing
The Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund
Consumer Federation of America
Consumers Union
The Cornucopia Institute
Defending Dissent Foundation
Earth Policy Institute
Earth Save
Environmental Integrity Project
Equal Justice Alliance
Farm Animal Rights Movement
Farm Forward
Farm Sanctuary
Farm-to-Consumer Legal Defense Fund
Farmworker Justice
Food and Water Watch
Food Chain Workers Alliance
Food Empowerment Project
Government Accountability Project
Green Environmental Coalition
Hoosier Environmental Council |
Humane Society Veterinary Medical Association
Human Rights Watch
Illinois Environmental Council
In Defense of Animals
International Fund for Animal Welfare
International Labor Rights Forum
League of Humane Voters
Mercy For Animals
National Consumers League
National Council for Occupational Safety and Health
National Employment Law Project
National Freedom of Information Coalition
National Press Photographers Association
National Young Farmers’ Coalition
Natural Resources Defense Council
Nebraska Appleseed Center for Law in the Public Interest
New England First Amendment Coalition
Ohio Environmental Council
Organic Consumers Association
Public Justice Center
R Street Institute
Sierra Club
Slow Food USA
Socially Responsible Agricultural Project
Southern Poverty Law Center
Stewards of the Land
Student Action With Farmworkers
STOP (Stop Foodborne Illness)
T. Colin Campbell Foundation
The Farmworker Support Committee
The Humane Society of the United States
Unitarian Universalist Animal Ministry
United Farm Workers
United Food and Commercial Workers International Union
United Support and Memorial for Workplace Fatalities
Western Watersheds Project
Whistleblower Support Fund
Youth for Environmental Sanity |
