Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) is an international nonprofit organization working to promote a
vegan
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...
lifestyle and
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...
through public education and grass roots outreach.
["Holocaust survivor heads animal rights group Alex Hershaft throws himself into cause"](_blank)
''Baltimore Sun''. Retrieved 2014-2-2. It operates ten national and international programs from its headquarters in
Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda () is an unincorporated, census-designated place in southern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. Located just northwest of Washington, D.C., it is a major business and government center of the Washington metropolitan region ...
. FARM has the abolitionist vision of a world where animals are free from all forms of human exploitation, including, food and clothing, research and testing, entertainment and hunting. FARM's mission is to spare the largest number of animals from being bred, abused, and slaughtered for food, as this accounts for 98% of all animal abuse and slaughter.
FARM was co-founded by
Alex Hershaft in 1976 as the Vegetarian Information Service to distribute information on the benefits of a
vegetarian diet. In 1981, it became the Farm Animal Reform Movement by embracing
veganism
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a vega ...
and the right of animals not to be used for food. In 2011, it adopted the
DBA of Farm Animal Rights Movement to emphasize its commitment to ending the use of animals for food, rather than merely reforming their treatment.
History
In August 1975, Alex Hershaft
["The Brains Behind the Great American Meatout"](_blank)
''VegNews''. Retrieved 2014-2-2. became involved in the vegetarian movement after attending the World Vegetarian Congress in Orono, ME, and meeting
Jay Dinshah.
In 1976, Hershaft founded the Vegetarian Information Service (VIS) to distribute information on the benefits of a vegetarian diet. That same year, he participated in the hearings before the
Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs, which led to the publication of
Dietary Goals for the United States
In nutrition, diet is the sum of food consumed by a person or other organism.
The word diet often implies the use of specific intake of nutrition for #Health, health or #Weight management, weight-management reasons (with the two often being r ...
, and eventually to the periodic publication of the
Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Subsequently, VIS testified before Congress in favor of the 1978 National Consumer Nutrition Information Act and the
Federal Meat Inspection Act
The Federal Meat Inspection Act of 1906 (FMIA) is an American law that makes it illegal to adulterate or misbrand meat and meat products being sold as food, and ensures that meat and meat products are slaughtered and processed under strictly ...
of 1978. Accordingly, in the summer of 1981, Hershaft organized Action For Life, a national conference in
Allentown, Pennsylvania
Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in eastern Pennsylvania, United States. The county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, it is the List o ...
, that effectively launched the U.S.
animal rights movement
The animal rights movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that advocates an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, ...
. Participants included such animal rights pioneers as
Cleveland Amory,
Ingrid Newkirk,
Alex Pacheco,
Peter Singer
Peter Albert David Singer (born 6 July 1946) is an Australian moral philosopher who is Emeritus Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. Singer's work specialises in applied ethics, approaching the subject from a secu ...
,
Henry Spira,
Gretchen Wyler
Gretchen Wyler (born Gretchen Patricia Wienecke; February 16, 1932 – May 27, 2007) was an American actress and dancer. She was also an animal rights advocate and founder of the Genesis Awards for animal protection.
Biography
Early lif ...
, as well as radio host
Thom Hartmann
Thomas Carl Hartmann (born May 7, 1951) is an American radio personality, author, businessman, and progressivism, progressive pundit, political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, ''The Thom Hartmann Progr ...
. These conferences continued for seven more years in San Francisco (1982), Montclair, NJ (1983), Los Angeles (1985), Chicago (1986), Cambridge, Massachusetts (1987), and Washington (1984 and 1991).
Immediately following the 1981 conference, Hershaft co-founded the Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM) to promote a vegan lifestyle and animal rights. FARM's early programs were Gentle Thanksgiving (1976), Action for Life conferences (1981–1991), Compassion Campaign (1982–1992), Veal Ban Campaign (1982–1986), World Farm Animals Day (1983), Great American Meatout (1985), Letters from FARM (1996), the second series of annual national animal rights conferences (1997), Consumers for Healthy Options in Children's Education (CHOICE) (1999–2009), Sabina Fund (1999), and Vegan Earth Day (2001). As of 2020, Eric C. Lindstrom is the executive director of FARM.
World Day for Farmed Animals
World Day for Farmed Animals (WDFA) was launched in 1983 (as World Farm Animals Day) to expose the abuses of
animal farming and to memorialize the billions of cows, pigs, and other innocent, sentient animals slaughtered for food throughout the world. The date selected was October 2, the birthday of
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...
, world's foremost advocate of nonviolence. The occasion is observed each year with
slaughterhouse
In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a mea ...
protests and other dramatic events by hundreds of activists in the U.S. and two dozen other countries.
World Day for Farmed Animals has been covered in the media including ''The Washington Post'', ''Delaware Online'', and ''New York Daily News''.
Great American MeatOut
Playing off the "Great American Smokeout", the Great American MeatOut was launched in 1985 to protest a U.S. Senate resolution proclaiming National Meat Week.
It has since grown into one of the world's largest annual grass roots diet education campaigns. The date of
March 20
Events Pre-1600
*1206 – Michael IV of Constantinople, Michael IV Autoreianos is appointed Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
*1600 – The Linköping Bloodbath takes place on Maundy Thursday in Linköping, Sweden: five Swedish n ...
marks
the first day of spring, symbolizing renewal and life-changing opportunity.
The occasion is observed each year by hundreds of activists in the U.S. and two dozen other countries with food samplings, leafleting, information tables, and other educational events. Visitors are asked to pledge that they will kick the meat habit on March 20 (first day of spring). Special MeatOut proclamations have been issued by 40 governors and 47 mayors of large American cities.
In 2021, MeatOut was met with intense opposition by ranchers across the West when Colorado Governor Polis proclaimed MeatOut Day across the state. In 2022, MeatOut Day was proclaimed in:
# Dallas, Texas
# Houston, Texas
# Charlotte, North Carolina
# Durham, North Carolina
# Columbus, Georgia
# Louisville, Kentucky
# Cincinnati, Ohio
# Madison, Wisconsin
# Riverside, California
# Fort Wayne, Indiana
And for the first time, MeatOut Day was proclaimed in New York City by Mayor
Eric Adams
Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is an American politician and former police officer who has served as the 110th mayor of New York City since 2022. Adams was an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York City P ...
.
The MeatOut campaign has received media coverage including ''Time'', ''Huffington Post'', ''Washington Post'', and ''Los Angeles Times''.
10 Billion Lives
FARM's 10 Billion Lives campaign paid people $1 to watch a four-minute video that begins by noting the viewer's respect for the unique personality of the family pet and the parallel with farmed animals. It continued with graphic
factory farm and
slaughterhouse
In livestock agriculture and the meat industry, a slaughterhouse, also called an abattoir (), is a facility where livestock animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a mea ...
footage and closed by empowering the viewer to change the horrors he/she just witnessed by pledging a number of
vegan
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a ve ...
days per week. The video was screened at rock concerts (including the
Warped Tour
The Warped Tour is a Concert tour, touring Rock music, rock music festival that toured the United States and Canada each summer from 1995 until 2019, and returned in 2025 for its 30th anniversary. By 2015, Warped was the largest traveling music ...
) and college campuses by a specially designed truck and mobile kiosks.
Each viewer received a series of eight weekly introductions to
veganism
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a vega ...
, then a weekly Meatout Mondays newsletter containing a recipe, product or book review, health news, and human interest story. This reflects FARM's concept of "sustained vegan advocacy," which posits that the initial contact must be followed by weekly support to prevent regression.
Animal rights conferences
FARM's 1981 first-ever
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...
conference laid the foundation for the U.S.
animal rights movement
The animal rights movement, sometimes called the animal liberation, animal personhood, or animal advocacy movement, is a social movement that advocates an end to the rigid moral and legal distinction drawn between human and non-human animals, ...
. Seven additional annual conferences followed in 1982 (San Francisco), 1983 (Montclair, NJ), 1984 (Washington, DC), 1985 (Los Angeles), 1986 (Chicago), 1987 (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and 1991 (Washington, DC). Between 1987 and 1996, the annual conferences were taken over by the National Alliance for Animals.
In 1997, FARM resumed management of the animal rights movement's annual conferences, alternating locations between
Washington, DC, and
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
. A typical conference involves a thousand attendees, 90 presenters from 60 organizations, a hundred sessions, 90 exhibits, and several new video documentaries.
Beginning in 2000,
conference
A conference is a meeting, often lasting a few days, which is organized on a particular subject, or to bring together people who have a common interest. Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always d ...
presenters have been inducting to a U.S.
Animal Rights Hall of Fame national leaders, authors, or other key agents of change who have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of animal rights in the U.S. for at least ten years.
Legacy
Aside from the specific accomplishments of its own 14 programs (including the three defunct ones), FARM has had a number of impacts on the U.S. Animal Rights Movement, in particular, and U.S. dietary and social justice advocacy, in general:
* FARM's 1981 Action for Life conference provided the springboard for formation of the U.S. animal rights movement. FARM's current annual conferences still offer the only national networking opportunity for movement leaders and activists.
* FARM has been largely responsible for turning the U.S. animal rights movement mission from vivisection to animal farming, which accounts for 98% of all animal abuse and killing. FARM's Veal Ban Campaign and World Farm Animals Day were the first farmed animal advocacy programs in the U.S.
* FARM's 10 Billion Lives, Live Vegan, and Meatout Mondays programs have promoted vegan advocacy by recognizing that new vegans need sustained support to keep from reverting to consumption of animal products.
* FARM's Great American Meatout was a forerunner to similar annual grassroots diet education campaigns by the
American Heart Association
The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate Heart, cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability ...
,
American Cancer Society
The American Cancer Society (ACS) is a nationwide non-profit organization dedicated to eliminating cancer. The ACS publishes the journals ''Cancer'', '' CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians'' and '' Cancer Cytopathology''.
History
The society w ...
, and
Center for Science in the Public Interest
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is a Washington, D.C.–based non-profit watchdog and consumer advocacy group.
History and funding
CSPI is a consumer advocacy organization. Its focus is nutrition and health, food safety ...
, as well as the 2003 revival of the
Meatless Monday campaign by the
Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future and the 2009 Meat-Free Monday campaign by
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...
.
* FARM's Congressional testimonies, participation in numerous national
party platform
A political party platform (American English), party program, or party manifesto (preferential term in British and often Commonwealth English) is a formal set of principal goals which are supported by a political party or individual candidate, t ...
hearing and conventions, and national polls of candidates for public office brought the concept of
veganism
Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products and the consumption of animal source foods, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals. A person who practices veganism is known as a vega ...
and
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...
to key U.S. legislators, executives, and journalists.
* Equal Justice Alliance is bringing the concept of freedom of advocacy for
animal rights
Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have Moral patienthood, moral worth independent of their Utilitarianism, utility to humans, and that their most basic interests—such as ...
and other social justice issues to the highest levels of U.S. legal community.
A number of animal rights movement leaders got their start at FARM, including
Gene Baur, Peter Link (organizer of the 1990 March for Animal Rights),
[Norm Phelps. ''The Longest Struggle''. Lantern Books, 2007; pp. 249-250.] Mike Markarian (Exec. VP,
The Humane Society of the United States), Jack Norris (co-founder of
Vegan Outreach),
Alex Pacheco, and
Paul Shapiro.
Prominent supporters of FARM's campaigns have included screen and television celebrities
Ed Asner,
Bob Barker,
James Cromwell,
Doris Day
Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff; April 3, 1922 – May 13, 2019) was an American actress and singer. She began her career as a big band singer in 1937, achieving commercial success in 1945 with two No. 1 recordings, "Sentimental Journey ...
,
Casey Kasem
Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem (April 27, 1932 – June 15, 2014) was an American disc jockey, actor, and radio presenter who created and hosted several radio countdown programs, notably ''American Top 40'', as well as the weekly syndicated televi ...
,
Bill Maher
William MaherStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', January 12, 2016, PBS; on a series that lists "Jr." and "Sr." distinctions, Bill Maher's birth name was listed simply as William Maher, while his father was William Aloysius Maher Jr., and his pa ...
,
Mary Tyler Moore
Mary Tyler Moore (December 29, 1936 – January 25, 2017) was an American actress, producer, and social advocate. She is best known for her roles on '' The Dick Van Dyke Show'' (1961–1966) and ''The Mary Tyler Moore Show'' (1970–1977), whic ...
,
Alicia Silverstone
Alicia Silverstone ( ; born October 4, 1976) is an American actress. She made her film debut in the thriller ''The Crush (1993 film), The Crush'' (1993), earning the 1994 MTV Movie Award for Best Breakthrough Performance, and gained further pro ...
, and
Jane Velez Mitchell, as well as social reformers
Cesar Chavez,
Thom Hartmann
Thomas Carl Hartmann (born May 7, 1951) is an American radio personality, author, businessman, and progressivism, progressive pundit, political commentator. Hartmann has been hosting a nationally syndicated radio show, ''The Thom Hartmann Progr ...
,
Michael Jacobson,
Frances Moore Lappe,
Heather Mills, and
Jeremy Rifkin
Jeremy Rifkin (born January 26, 1945) is an American economic and social theorist, writer, public speaker, political advisor, and activist. Rifkin is the author of 23 books about the influence of scientific and technological changes on the eco ...
.
Animal Charity Evaluators review
Animal charity evaluator
Animal Charity Evaluators has named FARM as a Standout Charity in their May 2014 and December 2014 reviews.
The December 2014 review states that FARM's openness to change based on new evidence, their stable leadership and organizational structure, and their transparency are all reasons for their selection as a Standout Charity.
See also
*
List of animal rights groups
References
External links
*
World Day for Farmed AnimalsGreat American MeatoutLive VeganCompassionate HolidaysVegan Videos
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farm Animal Rights Movement
1976 establishments in the United States
American animal rights organizations
Organizations established in 1976
Vegan organizations