What is the Food Integrity Campaign?
If you are what you eat, then some of us may be truly terrifying on the inside. How much do you think about or investigate what is going into the foods that end up on your dinner table?
The Food Integrity Campaign – a program of the Government Accountability Project – seeks to enhance overall food integrity by making it safe and easy for food industry workers to tell the truth. They work to empower industry whistleblowers and citizen activists and protect the rights of people who speak up about compromised food integrity.
So what do they mean by “food integrity”? It’s more than just food safety, though that certainly plays a large part. From soil to plate, food integrity looks at food production, procurement, and distribution with an eye for community values, principles, and beliefs. If your food is not produced and distributed in a way that is consistent with your community’s values and beliefs, you are not getting food with integrity.
What problems exist in current food production, procurement, and distribution?
- Waste and contaminants from industrial farming endanger our ecosystem.
- Waste and contaminants from industrial farming present public health risks.
- Animals bred for consumption are subjected to inhumane handling.
- Animals bred for consumption are handled unsafely, creating contamination.
- Food workers are exploited.
- Food workers are poorly trained in safe handling procedures, creating public health risks.
- Government employees are prevented from fulfilling job duties.
- There are too few government employees to truly enforce food safety regulations.
- Citizen activists are silenced by powerful food industry giants.
- The balance of power between food industry giants and consumers is not at all in the consumers’ favor.
The Food Integrity Campaign and Government Accountability Project work with a variety of strategic partners on campaigns and events. These include:
- Food & Water Watch – promoting practices and policies to result in sustainable and safe food systems.
- The Humane Society of the United States – working to reduce the suffering of animals raised for food.
- International Brotherhood of Teamsters – protecting food industry workers rights.
- Safe Tables Our Priority – preventing illness and death from food-borne contaminants and pathogens.
- National Family Farm Coalition – empowering family farmers by reducing corporate control of agriculture.
GAP is a nonpartisan, public interest group founded in 1977. It is the nation’s leading whistleblower protection and advocacy organization. The majority of Government Accountability Project funds come from more than ten thousand individual donors and foundations. Other funds come from legal fees, settlement awards, and services provided.
Young Law Group is a nationwide leader in whistleblower representation and has successfully represented numerous clients in some of the nation’s largest qui tam cases for over a decade. For a free confidential consultation, please call Eric L. Young, Esquire at (800) 590-4116 or complete our online form.