Factory Farming Awareness Coalition

Our Vision:
A just and sustainable food system for all.

Our Mission:
We empower people to end factory farming.

Our Values:
Fierce Competence
We focus on achieving the greatest impact by effectively empowering the largest number of people.

Humble Self-Awareness
We recognize that we don’t have all the answers and will listen to others, including those we believe we disagree with, to grow as individuals and as an organization.

Ready Adaptation
We understand that social and informational contexts evolve, and seek new knowledge to update our perspectives and optimize our approach.

Inclusive Collaboration
We strive to see beyond our egos to meet others where they're at and collectively strengthen our impact.

Caring Accountability
We show our commitment to one another and our cause by holding ourselves to a standard no lower than excellence, openly addressing issues with honesty and directness.

Diversity Statement:
In pursuit of a more just food system, FFAC is guided by values of inclusivity, compassion, and collaboration, and we recognize that equity, access, and belonging must be core facets of our organization. We are committed to hiring and retaining a diverse and culturally competent staff, engaging in anti-racism and anti-oppression work, and creating an environment in which all team members can thrive.

FFAC educates people on factory farming’s devastating impacts on people, animals, and the planet, and empowers them to advocate for systemic change in their communities. Our approach is intensive, long-term, multifaceted, and designed to build significant and lasting capacity for the movement.

Our three programs integrate to cultivate powerful feedback loops in students’ communities. FFAC educators visit high school and college classrooms to teach engaging lessons on the impacts of factory farming. These hourlong lessons also provide a space for us to encourage enthusiastic students to apply for our Advocacy Institute, where they gain a deeper understanding of the impacts of factory farming as well as strategies to become successful advocates. Students who complete the Advocacy Institute become members of FFAC’s Leadership Collective, where they receive lifelong support to become effective agents of change.

We are concentrating on high school and college students in six major regions across the United States—Seattle, the Bay Area, Southern California, Denver, Chicago, and New York City— with a particular emphasis on relationship building with “higher engagement schools,” where we are visiting multiple classrooms and have multiple trained student advocates. Once we gain traction in these schools, we connect our advocates to partner organizations, such as Better Food Foundation, Friends of the Earth, and The Humane League, to effectively implement their campaigns.

Classroom Programming
Our classroom programming educates high school and college students about the impacts of factory farming on the environment, marginalized groups, public health, and nonhuman animals. Because we can connect and customize our lessons to nearly all curricula, we’re able to reach students in multiple grades and various subject areas. As freshmen, they may hear us in their health class, as sophomores, their environmental science class, as juniors, their English class. Each time, they learn more about the consequences of animal agriculture as well as the power of their votes as citizens and consumers.

Advocacy Institute
Motivated students apply to participate in FFAC’s semester-long Advocacy Institute. The Advocacy Institute, which has both an educational and a practical component, equips them with comprehensive knowledge and experiential training to advocate successfully in their communities. Not only do they gain a broad and systematic understanding of factory farming’s impacts through a thoughtfully prepared curriculum, but we directly support them in running institutional campaigns, giving our presentations in their classes and organizations, creating and sharing social media, and writing articles, among other efforts.

Diversity is integral to a strong and resilient movement. We seek to recruit from a multiplicity of backgrounds and to promote marginalized voices. Students are often members of other movements and organizations tied to environmental and social justice as well as public health. Through their work with us, they learn to connect the impacts of factory farming to the mission and values of their other communities.

Leadership Collective
Students who complete the Advocacy Institute become members of FFAC’s Leadership Collective. The Leadership Collective aims for both near-term impacts in members’ communities and long-term capacity building. This program offers specialized support with members’ projects and opportunities to attend professional development workshops we offer in conjunction with partner organizations. Through these partnerships, members gain access to training in lobbying, journalism, public health, and food tech. Members learn from experts and have ample opportunities to network and benefit from the support of their peers.

Since 2014, FFAC has grown from one employee to employees in fifteen regions across North America. Our reach has grown from 3,000 people per year to around 57,000 people per year, and our scope of programmatic activity has expanded from the first phase of humane education to mentoring activists and leading institutions towards meaningful change.

In post-presentation surveys, 88% of audience members indicate an intention to reduce or eliminate their consumption of animal products. Qualitative feedback indicates that we’re transforming people's perception of the food system and empowering them to speak with their friends and family about what they have learned.

FFAC’s powerful presentations provide us access to diverse and important audiences that lead us towards opportunities to inspire and engage future activists and interns or volunteers and to institute food policies at schools, on campuses, at companies, community centers, and cities/municipalities. Other notable numbers include:
- Since 2010, over 240,000 students have attended our classroom programming (We've already worked with 420 schools across the country of which 56 are high engagement schools—30 high schools and 26 colleges.)
- From 2018 to 2022, our internship program grew from 10 to 91 interns.
- In 2018 and 2019, over 150 FFAC staff and volunteer activists spread the word at 500 rallies, strikes, festivals, and community events, distributing over 100,000 flyers and generating 20,000 email sign-ups.
- Since 2018, FFAC has worked with 26 corporations, 26 universities, 15 faith groups, seven non-profit groups, six cities, five government agencies, and three K-12 schools/districts to institute plant-based foods programming into cafeterias and institution culture.