ASPCA Opens New Grant Fund to Support the Movement to End Factory Farming

May 31, 2022

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At any given moment, there are over 1.6 billion chickens, pigs, cows and other land animals being raised for food across the U.S. Most of these animals are living in crowded, brutally inhumane conditions on factory farms. In addition to the suffering animals endure in factory farms, these facilities are a major contributor to climate change and harm the health and well-being of workers, farmers and local communities. Despite this, there are almost no federal laws or regulations governing factory farms. The lack of transparency and accountability has allowed industrial animal agriculture to dominate our food system and block desperately needed reforms.
 
To address the urgent need for transparency and solutions to this complex problem, the ASPCA has announced $100,000 in grant funding. Our new Fund to End Factory Farming will support projects that expose the harms of industrial animal agriculture and speed up the transition to a more humane food system. Among other themes, the ASPCA is seeking projects that:

  • Measure the financial burden that factory farming inflicts on individuals or communities.
  • Reveal new benefits to the environment, public health, local economies, worker or farmer well-being created by more humane food production (for example, higher-welfare farming methods or plant-based products).
  • Explore new strategies to assist farmers in transitioning from conventional animal agriculture to higher-welfare and plant-based farming practices.

The ASPCA has worked to improve the lives of animals raised for food in the U.S. since our founding in 1866. Over the past 10 years, we have distributed more than $4 million to 66 organizations working to reform our food system, collectively improving the lives of hundreds of millions of animals through grant funding alone. 

These far-reaching grants included support for major farmed animal-protection campaigns like the California Proposition 12 anti-confinement ballot measure initiative; funding to expand the number of farms certified by meaningful animal-welfare certification programs; backing for public policies that promote higher-welfare and plant-based food in schools and other institutions; and underwriting programs that aid farmers in adopting higher animal welfare standards or leaving the factory farming system. As part of this work, more than 35,600 animal lives were directly improved through grants to farm sanctuaries that care for former farmed animals who have been saved from neglect or abuse. 

Applications for the ASPCA Fund to End Factory Farming will be accepted from June 1-July 18, 2022. For more information about the eligibility requirements or to submit a proposal for consideration, please visit aspcapro.org/farmrfp.

For more information about the ASPCA’s work to protect farmed animals, please visit aspca.org/farmanimals.