Food & Agriculture
We work to rapidly transition our food system to one that is sustainable, healthy, and just.
Food & Agriculture
For decades, United States food and farming policy, corporate power and agricultural science have been directed toward a narrow goal: producing as many calories as possible as cheaply as possible.
The confluence of these forces has created a powerful river of toxic, energy-intensive factory farming. We are eroding public health, worker safety, local economies, animal welfare, and the resilience of the ecosystems we depend on. Solutions are available — if policymakers, people and businesses make vitally needed changes. We must farm in a way that protects the health of people and the planet. We seek three fundamental shifts in our food system: from toxic and chemical intensive to healthy and ecologically regenerative; from corporate controlled to democratically governed; and from a system that embodies the deepest inequities in our society to one that advances justice and fulfills the needs of all eaters now and in the future.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Food and agriculture policy includes the laws, programs, and decisions that shape how food and other agricultural products are grown, processed, distributed, and sold. Friends of the Earth focuses on policies that protect public health, support farmers, reduce dependence on toxic pesticides, and create a fair, humane, and sustainable food system.
Industrial agriculture is large-scale farming that relies heavily on chemical pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, factory farming, and monoculture crops. This system can harm the environment, public health, biodiversity, and small farmers.
Regenerative agriculture is a farming approach focused on improving soil health, protecting biodiversity, reducing chemical use, and supporting healthier ecosystems. Practices may include crop rotation, composting, cover crops, and reduced pesticide use.
Friends of the Earth supports policies that:
- Transition away from factory farming and pesticide-intensive agriculture toward regenerative and organic food systems that prioritize human health, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, and thriving local communities
- Reduce pesticide use
- Promote organic and other regenerative approaches to farming
- Protect pollinators like bees and butterflies
- End factory farming and support farmers to transition to more sustainable and humane forms of agriculture
- Promote plant-forward, organic, and local public food purchasing.
- Support diversified, independent, and sustainable farmers
- Increase transparency in the food system
- Ensure dignity and livable wages for all food system workers
- Promote fair and competitive markets for farmers and ranchers
- Strengthen food safety protections
- Build climate resiliency and address climate impacts from agriculture
- Ensure everyone has access to healthy, sustainable, and delicious food
Friends of the Earth opposes policies that:
- Expand or further entrench factory farming
- Increase reliance on toxic insecticides and herbicides
- Weaken food safety or environmental protections
- Promote harmful genetically engineered crops without proper oversight
- Promote and worsen corporate control of the food system
- Increase pollution from industrial agriculture
- Harm pollinators, soil, water, or biodiversity
- Harm human health
- Undermine the rights and wellbeing of food and farm workers
Friends of the Earth recommends:
- Expanding organic and other regenerative approaches to agriculture
- Shifting subsidies away from chemical-intensive commodity crops and factory farms
- Eliminating toxic pesticide use by passing laws that prohibit the use of the most toxic pesticides
- Reducing chemical fertilizer use
- Requiring stronger air and water pollution regulations of industrial agriculture operations
- Supporting plant-forward, organic, and local food systems through public procurement, like school meals
- Protecting pollinators and biodiversity
- Protecting farmworker rights
- Improving animal welfare standards
- Reducing food-related pollution and waste
- Holding large agribusiness companies accountable for harms to the workers, farmers, communities, animals, and the environment
- Strengthening food safety net programs like SNAP and supporting universal free school meals
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We’ve been defending the Earth and fighting for a healthy and just world for more than 45 years. But we need your help to keep going. Become a friend of the earth and join the movement to protect our planet and all its inhabitants.
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Tell Target to stop selling food grown with toxic pesticides!
Organic For All
In this peer-reviewed study, we compared pesticide levels in the bodies of four American families for six days on a non-organic diet and six days on a completely organic diet — and we found that an organic diet rapidly and dramatically reduced pesticide exposure.
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