Protecting Food. Empowering Whistleblowers.

Food Integrity Campaign Blog

GAP Goes to Court: North Carolina’s Anti-Whistleblower Law Cannot Stand!

Anna Myers | January 13, 2016

The Government Accountability Project (GAP), along with a coalition of watchdog organizations, filed a federal lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s harmful anti-whistleblower legislation. The state’s law, which aims to punish those who conduct undercover investigations of any private entity in North Carolina, is one of the most appalling overt attempts to silence whistleblowers in GAP’s 38-year […]

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Turkey Plants with Poor Food Safety Records Avoid Oversight

Food Integrity Campaign | November 24, 2015

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 […]

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Holding Hormel Accountable: USDA Whistleblowers Come Out Against High-Speed Pork Inspection

Food Integrity Campaign | November 11, 2015

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 […]

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Smoothing the Path for USDA Whistleblowers: Dean Wyatt’s Story and the Evolution of Federal Protections

Sarah Nash | November 10, 2015

This week marks the fifth anniversary of the passing of Dr. Dean Wyatt, a former Government Accountability Project (GAP) client who blew the whistle on violations of humane handling and food safety regulations in Oklahoma and Vermont slaughter plants. His story is an important one to tell because it illustrates the trap that federal whistleblowers […]

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Blowing the Whistle on McDonald’s: Workers Speak Out Against Abuses

Roxanne Darrow | November 6, 2015

It’s no easy task to stand up against one of the world’s largest fast food chains, especially without adequate legal safeguards. Food and farm workers in McDonald’s wide-reaching supply chain are bravely coming forward with their stories of abuse and retaliation. Our friends at the Food Chain Workers Alliance brought together a great panel this […]

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What Does “Antibiotic-Free” Really Mean? Insight from a Contract Chicken Farmer

Food Integrity Campaign | October 13, 2015

There’s a lot of confusion around antibiotic-free labeling, promises by Big Ag, and what decisions (or lack thereof) the majority of U.S. farmers can make when it comes to their chicken’s health. To clear things up, the Food Integrity Campaign asked contract farmer-turned-whistleblower Craig Watts some key questions. Craig has been raising chickens for Perdue […]

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USDA Investigators Need a Higher Standard Than What Big Ag Considers “Normal”

Roxanne Darrow | October 7, 2015

What the agricultural industry considers “normal” production practice is very different from what consumers think of as food produced with integrity. Whistleblowers, including former U.S. Meat and Animal Research Center (MARC) scientist Dr. James Keen, have exposed for decades that what is common practice in industry should not always be our standard for comparison. Someone […]

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FDA Veteran Says Secrecy Around Antibiotic Use is “Laughable and Sad”

Food Integrity Campaign | September 15, 2015

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 […]

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Media Blackout on GMOs

Roxanne Darrow | August 6, 2015

Why does mainstream media refuse to cover the genetically modified organism (GMO) issue in a balanced way? Last Wednesday, at the Whistleblower Summit for Civil and Human Rights, a panel of two journalists, an author, and a scientist spoke to a packed room about the media’s biased coverage of GMOs. “Scientists and other scholars are […]

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Idaho’s Anti-Whistleblower Ag Gag Law Ruled Unconstitutional

Amanda Hitt | August 4, 2015

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 […]

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