A row of pigs with a veterinarian crouching next to them in the background.

Defend local food safety: Put families over profits

Families deserve clean, safe food, and communities must have the right to protect it.

Across America, states and local communities are leading the way toward a healthier food system. Over the last decade, states and municipalities have introduced and passed dozens of laws that prioritize public health, transparency, and accountability over corporate profit. Now, that progress is under threat.

🛑 The Issue

A provision being advanced by the House Agriculture Committee would strip states and local governments of their authority to enact and enforce food and agricultural standards that protect public health. If this provision becomes law, communities could be blocked from keeping unsafe, contaminated, or drug-laden meat, poultry, and dairy off their plates, even when clear risks to families and children exist.

Corporate influence and lack of resources have stalled federal action for decades, which is why we must preserve the right of states and communities to act when federal standards fall short.

🧪 The Evidence is Clear

Industrialized food production practices are directly linked to higher food safety risks:

Salmonella is twice as prevalent on industrial farms compared to small or backyard farms, with one-third of industrial farms harboring antibiotic-resistant strains
1 in 25 chicken products on U.S. store shelves contains Salmonella, which causes 1.35 million infections and 420 deaths each year
Campylobacter infections are rising, causing 1.87 million illnesses annually. Poor on-farm practices can greatly increase the risk of Campylobacter contamination of end products.

Meanwhile, other countries protect consumers by encouraging on-farm practices that reduce pathogens and by testing flocks before slaughter, a safeguard not required in the U.S.

🐖 Dangerous Drugs Are Still in Our Food

Despite clear risks, some drugs remain widely used in U.S. meat production:

Ractopamine, a growth-promoting drug linked to cardiovascular damage, is used in ~80% of U.S. pork production despite being banned in 160 countries, and found in 20% of pork products sold on U.S. store shelves.
Carbadox, another growth-promoter and a known carcinogen to animals and likely to humans, is used in ~40% of U.S. pork production, and the FDA has no effective way to test for residues in meat.

🦠 Fueling Antibiotic Resistance

Meat and dairy products produced with antibiotics are more likely to be contaminated with antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Today, 73% of antibiotics sold globally are used in animal agriculture, which is fueling wider antibiotic resistance and posing a severe threat to our children's futures.

Drug companies sold over 27 million pounds of antibiotics to U.S. livestock production in 2024, including 15 million pounds of antibiotics important to human medicine.
In 2024 alone, the U.S. recorded 2.8 million antibiotic-resistant infections and 35,000 deaths. That's a 40% increase in infections and a 50% increase in deaths over the past decade.
Antibiotic-resistant infections are on track to kill 10 million people per year globally by 2050.

Europe and the United Kingdom have already banned the routine use of antibiotics to compensate for unsanitary conditions and poor animal care. States must retain the right to act when federal oversight fails to keep up with science.

🏘️ A Better Vision for Our Food System

We believe in a nation that:

🌱 Produces food holistically and regeneratively
👨 Puts families' health first
🏙️ Empowers communities to challenge Big Ag and Big Pharma
⚖️ Holds corporations accountable when profit compromises safety

It's our food, our choice.

Sign now

Sign the petition

We are calling on Congress to remove this provision and preserve the long-standing right of states and communities to:

Enact food safety standards
Protect residents from unsafe food practices
Respond to emerging public health threats

Sign this petition to defend our right to safe food.

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Petition

Dear Congress,

Across the nation, states and local communities are leading the way in food safety reform with bipartisan support, successfully removing contaminants and potentially harmful additives from our food. When federal action stalls due to Congressional gridlock, insufficient agency resources, and other reasons, local authority is a critical tool to protect our health and hold corporations accountable for ensuring their products are safe.

As such, we are deeply concerned about Section 12006 in the House Agriculture Committee's Farm Bill draft, which would effectively preempt state and local authority to enact food safety standards for meat, poultry, and dairy products.

Growth-promoting drugs such as ractopamine and carbadox that are widely used in U.S. pork production are linked to elevated heart rates in humans and are likely carcinogens. Despite ractopamine being detected in one-fifth of pork products and multiple requests for the Food and Drug Administration to ban ractopamine and other drugs, the agency has failed to act for over a decade. Furthermore, squalid, unnatural on-farm conditions that force animals to live in their own feces and eat processed feed increase the risk of pathogens such as Salmonella, E. coli, and Campylobacter, which are especially dangerous to children, in meat and dairy products. Many pathogens in meat and dairy products sourced from these conditions have also been found to be antibiotic-resistant, exacerbating the health risks posed by these products.

In addition to concerns about direct ingestion of antibiotic residues and bacteria in meat and dairy products, the routine use of antibiotics in U.S. meat and dairy production is fueling the wider antibiotic resistance crisis. Antibiotic-resistant infections killed 35,000 Americans in 2024, and are on track to kill 10 million people each year globally by 2050, which is over triple the number of COVID-19 deaths in 2020. Section 12006 would block states from keeping meat and dairy pumped with drugs and contaminated with diseases off our plates and prevent us from keeping products that are fueling antibiotic resistance out of our food supply.

Thousands of citizens, including thousands of small farmers and 228 current Members of Congress across both parties, have already opposed efforts to strip states of their right to enact food and agricultural laws. Section 12006 flies in the face of millions of Americans, including many of your own constituents, who support community-led food safety reform. Instead, it prioritizes the profits of Big Farm and Big Pharma over the well-being of American families and children.

We believe that what we feed our families and the standards to which we hold our food is our choice to make. Therefore, we respectfully urge you to strip Section 12006 from the Farm Bill and to defend our public health, our democracy, and our right to safe food.

Sincerely,

The American People

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