Sign the Letter: Tell the USDA to Stop Depopulation Payments

Depopulation is a form of mass animal slaughter that results in an excruciatingly cruel death, suffocating over the course of hours. Please sign this letter urging USDA to stop depopulation payments and shift these resources to support food-system-wide sustainability and justice.

We, the undersigned, call on the USDA to halt all future animal depopulation funding and shift public resources to support food-system-wide justice and sustainability. This request is consistent with a letter you received on June 22, 2021 from 90 organizations representing more than 19.9 million members, including thousands of farmers, more than 375,000 food chain workers, and organizations that advance progress for the environment, human health, and animals’ well-being.

We join their call for USDA to “Invest in a just and sustainable future, not simply a less unjust or unsustainable food system. Prioritize source reduction strategies to eliminate waste or pollution before it results in pesticide and fertilizer use, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and water consumption, and to reject factory farm gas (biogas).”

Instead of funding animal depopulation, expenditures that disproportionately benefit the largest farmers in the most consolidated industries, we need to reimagine food system investments. We can create sustainable opportunities for farmers, thriving wages and benefits for workers, and a food system that prioritizes nourishing everyone without exploitation. Unfortunately, as the diverse network of organizations noted in their [date] letter, we have a food system that:

1) Presents significant economic, health, and safety risks to farmers, farm workers, and farming communities.
2) Deepens local and global environmental crises, a stated Biden Administration national security priority.
3) Undermines regional food systems and household nutritional security.
4) Perpetuates systemic racism and other forms of inequity.

The USDA has committed to engaging in a holistic food system approach. We hope this starts with a shift in funding priorities: away from extraction and exploitation toward supporting sustainability and justice for all beings.

Thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration.