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Leadership Letter
Welcome to SRAP’s 2023 annual report, where we are excited to share our many accomplishments throughout the year. Corporations continue to exploit systemic loopholes to further consolidate and control the food system, but their attempts to obstruct a growing movement calling for an equitable and socially responsible agriculture system have only fueled our team’s determination.
We envision a world where independent farmers and rural communities thrive, and the SRAP team takes immense pride in the many steps we have taken to better serve the communities most harmed by industrial agriculture. Our overarching goal is to provide the knowledge, tools, connections, and networks needed to protect rural residents’ rights to clean water, air, and soil. We do this work through four primary program areas:
- Our Community Support program works with the communities most impacted by factory farms. We offer our services free of charge and have intentionally increased our outreach, developing more off-the-shelf tools, increasing access to technical support, and improving management systems to serve more diverse communities;
- Our Food & Farm Network program engages farmers and rural residents in advocating on behalf of regenerative food systems, social justice, climate initiatives, public health, and animal welfare;
- Our Water Rangers program assists impacted community groups in holding concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) and corporations accountable for water pollution, and;
- Our unique Contract Grower Transition program provides outreach and education to assist current production contract growers in leaving the industrial system and to prevent potential new growers from entering the exploitative system.
SRAP takes pride in our collective achievements, both internally and externally, building upon our unique combination of relationships, experience, and credibility developed over our organization’s history. We believe strongly in building foundational relationships with partner organizations, community groups, funders, and individuals who are mission-aligned. With your unwavering support, we are stronger than ever and well-positioned to continue this vital movement-building work for a more just and equitable food future.
In gratitude,
Mission, Vision, Values, Outcomes
MISSION
Through education, advocacy, and organizing, SRAP collaborates with communities to protect public health, environmental quality, and local economies from the damaging impacts of industrial livestock production and to advocate for a socially responsible food future.
VISION
Supported by SRAP, communities across the U.S. are able to replace industrial livestock production with ecologically sound, socially equitable, and economically viable animal agriculture.
VALUES
Socially responsible agriculture can rebuild critically needed topsoil, reduce water and air pollution, strengthen rural economies, and support human health and food security, all while providing climate resiliency. With socially responsible agriculture, we all thrive.
On the other hand, with industrial livestock production comes injustice … to the environment, to people, to animals, and to the planet. Today’s consolidated food and agriculture system drives independent family farmers off the land, abuses food system workers, perpetuates social and racial injustices, pollutes our air and water, exacerbates climate change, compromises animal welfare, extracts wealth from rural communities, and damages public health. In short, it harms every aspect of life.
SRAP provides free assistance to communities threatened by industrial livestock production facilities. Our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion is reflected in the communities we serve, many of which face social, economic, and racial injustices. We value individuality and lean on unique and varied perspectives to collaborate with communities to stand up to the abuses of factory farms while advocating for a socially responsible food future.
OUTCOMES
The outcomes by which we measure the success of all our programs are threefold:
- Fenceline communities are successful in preventing industrial livestock production from expanding, while holding existing facilities accountable;
- Communities, movement leaders, allied organizations, and SRAP have the tools, research, and data necessary to amplify unified campaigns and narratives;
- Impacted communities are connected with state and national coalitions to collectively advocate for a socially responsible animal agriculture system.
Organizational Highlights
For more than 20 years, SRAP has served as a mobilizing force to assist communities in protecting themselves from the damages caused by industrial livestock operations and advocating for a food system built on regenerative practices, justice, democracy, and resilience. Our team includes technical experts, independent family farmers, and rural residents who have faced the direct threats of factory farms in their communities.
SRAP is the only organization that works throughout the U.S. to provide direct support to fenceline communities facing the devastating environmental, human health, and socioeconomic impacts of industrial livestock operations. The organization has a unique vantage point in that it engages impacted communities at the local level but does so nationwide. This provides not only direct insight into the realities of what is happening on the ground in rural communities, but also how these conditions fit into nationwide patterns, needs, and overarching public policy initiatives.
In 2023, SRAP established organizational goals: increasing engagement and impact through Community Support, Water Rangers, and Contract Grower Transition programs; building a more identifiable national presence and strengthening movement building through the Food & Farm Network, and increasing and diversifying our funding. We achieved these goals and more.
Programmatic Accomplishments
COMMUNITY SUPPORT PROGRAM
In 2023, our Community Support program handled 45 new requests for assistance in 24 states, and we closed out the year with 33 active cases. We saw many successes in the communities where we worked including significant victories in Indiana, Missouri, and Oregon. Our team supported communities in preventing permits for new factory farms, assisted in the enforcement of environmental laws, and collaborated with local governments in enacting protective ordinances while fostering rural residents’ ongoing engagement in shaping their communities.
Throughout the year, the team worked to complete a landscape analysis of industrial livestock facility activity and growth, geography of current and past SRAP work, and where environmental justice communities exist and are impacted by CAFOs most. This knowledge helps to guide our continued outreach, coalition building, resource creation, and networking. We launched our GIS portal for widespread use by communities facing incoming or expanding operations, as well as ally organizations, and we continue to bring on new staff and consultants with organizing experience and technical and policy expertise. We continue to pursue Diversity, Equity and Inclusion training, and several on our team received outside organizing, media, and management training to better serve diverse communities and teams.
WATER RANGERS PROGRAM
Through our Water Rangers program, SRAP collaborates with communities to hold corporations accountable for water pollution by training rural residents in water testing techniques, providing tools to collect and analyze water samples, and offering instruction on documenting and reporting pollution violations to regulators. In 2023, the Water Rangers program focused on increasing capacity to provide comprehensive water monitoring guidance to communities facing industrial livestock pollution. We developed three levels of training content—general, site-specific, and field/in-person trainings— and created new web content to inform and support communities. The team completed 17 trainings, reaching 91 attendees in 2023. Special projects included state-specific action alerts, Farm Aid water sampling demonstrations, and a bacteria and antibiotic resistance testing project in Michigan in collaboration with UCLA.
CONTRACT GROWER TRANSITION PROGRAM
Contract Grower Transition program helps reduce the number of contract growers trapped by the industrial agriculture system and equips them to advocate for a socially responsible food future. In 2023, our advisory board met monthly and engaged in policy efforts, including outreach to other grower groups and submitting comments regarding the Packers & Stockyards Act and industry mergers. We conducted a social media campaign to raise awareness about our program, reaching 33,000 people, and produced a guide with resources to support current and prospective contract growers. Additionally, we conducted three surveys to gather data from current, former, and prospective contract growers to inform our strategic planning and program initiatives. The team continued efforts to expand the program’s reach and align its advocacy efforts across SRAP programs.
FOOD & FARM NETWORK
The Food & Farm Network engages farmers and rural residents to advocate for regenerative food systems, social justice, climate initiatives, public health, and animal welfare. The program focuses on three areas: leadership development, coalition/movement building, and policy advocacy.
Notable achievements include consulting with community leaders and coalition members to plan public forums and collecting community stories for wider dissemination across various platforms. Our staff also worked to track Climate Pollution Reduction Grant planning in five states, organized a campaign-planning session in Nebraska, and supported several coalitions. In policy advocacy, we co-hosted the Food, Not Feed Summit in Washington D.C. with Farm Action and other allies, and submitted an Amicus Brief in support of California’s Proposition 12, with our argument cited in the Supreme Court’s deciding opinion.
Research & Resources
In 2023, SRAP continued to provide research and education to community groups and partner organizations through FOIA trainings, webinars, social media events, and various research projects. Other research and resource efforts included:
FACTORY FARM GAS POLICY BRIEF
SRAP collaborated with Friends of the Earth on a factory farm gas policy brief highlighting SRAP research that demonstrates the correlation between digester installation and CAFO herd size increases. A draft brief was prepared by the end of the year, and the final brief was published in early 2024.
WISCONSIN WASTE APPLICATION MAP
SRAP used Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) data to create a map of fields used for waste application by the state’s CAFOs. In 2023, SRAP enhanced the map to show which fields are used by each CAFO, which allowed us to identify fields that illegally accept waste from multiple facilities. We informed the DNR of this regulatory violation.
CAFO GUIDES
We finalized 47 state-specific CAFO guides, which are available on our website.
NCEJN FACTSHEETS
As part of SRAP’s efforts to support a North Carolina Roundtable coalition, we designed a series of factsheets with content developed by the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network. The factsheets are intended to be used for public education in the coalition’s efforts to improve the state’s CAFO general National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
SRAP GIS PORTAL
We continued to refine and enhance our GIS Portal, which we soft-launched in early 2023. We created a map demonstrating the correlation between livestock density and water pollution in the U.S. using data from USDA’s Census of Agriculture and EPA’s 303(d) list of impaired waterways. We printed a 4’x6’ version of the map for display at our booth at the Farm Aid Festival held in Indiana in September.
By the Numbers
45—New Community Support requests for assistance
282—Virtual and in-person community meetings
93—Public comment period engagements
73—Community partnerships
26—Total states worked in during 2023
85—Media features on either SRAP or SRAP community partners
200,000—People reached through social media
Board of Directors and Staff
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
- Mike Callicrate
- Jessica Culpepper, Chair
- Austin Frerick
- Robert Lawrence, MD, Secretary
- Monica Richardson Brooks, Treasurer
- Don Stull
STAFF
- Reva Baylets, Operations Associate
- Ashlen Busick, Food & Farm Network Manager
- Rachel Casteel, Regional Representative
- Chris Culbreth, Community Support Team Associate
- Susie Crutchfield, Regional Representative, Contract Grower Transition
- Michael Diaz, Regional Representative, Contract Grower Transition
- Cole Dickerson, Water Rangers Coordinator
- Mary Dougherty, Senior Field Representative
- Sherri Dugger, Executive Director
- Maegan Eichinger, Communications Associate
- Teresa Mitchell Clausen, Regional Representative
- Tina Empey, Community Support Program Director
- Katie Engelman, Operations and Human Resources Director
- Lynn Henning, Water Rangers Program Director
- Eli Holmes, Senior Counsel
- Chris Hunt, Deputy Director
- Donald Hutchinson, GIS, Research & Resources Specialist
- Lia Kahan, Impacted Communities Coordinator
- Maria Payan, Senior Regional Representative
- Michael Payan, Regional Representative
- Eric Stack, Development Manager
- Mercedes Taylor-Puckett, Finance Manager
- Craig Watts, Contract Grower Transition Program Director
- Julie Wilson, Communications Manager
Professional & Team Development
In early 2023, SRAP Senior Counsel Eli Holmes was awarded the Kerry Rydberg-Jack Tuholske Award for Excellence in Public Interest Environmental Lawyering at the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference. SRAP welcomed a host of new staff members, including Chris Culbreth as Community Support Team Associate, Lia Kahan as Impacted Communities Coordinator, Mary Dougherty as a Senior Field Representative, and Reva Baylets as Operations Associate.
We held our annual staff retreat in Indianapolis, Indiana, to coincide with the 2023 Farm Aid Festival. In addition to internal team meetings, we incorporated a tour of nearby CAFOs to provide new staff members with firsthand insight into our work. SRAP also had a significant presence at Farm Aid. SRAP’s Executive Director served as the moderator for the farm-policy-focused People’s Hearing, and our team staffed a booth at the festival, which featured our full-size livestock density and water pollution map. Our Water Rangers team offered two water sampling demonstrations at the event, and the day after, we hosted a film screening of “Right to Harm” in Bloomington, Indiana.
Financials
For more than 20 years, SRAP has served as a mobilizing force to help communities protect themselves from the damages caused by industrial livestock operations and to advocate for a food system built on regenerative practices, justice, democracy, and resilience.