PETA to Congress: Axe the Ag Fees in the 2023 Farm Bill That Kill Animals in Labs

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A U.S. Senate committee is currently working to produce the 2023 Farm Bill, which will set national policy for agriculture, nutrition, conservation, and forestry for the next five years. We need your help to urge lawmakers to eliminate ridiculous fees imposed on farmers that pay for pointless, gruesome tests on animals that aren’t even required by law.

“Research and promotion” boards, otherwise known as “checkoffs,” set up by the U.S. Department of Agriculture impose the mandatory fees on farmers. There are 21 of these boards in total, each overseeing a particular commodity. There’s one for mushrooms, another for blueberries, and so on.

The fees are no joke. They totaled more than $885 million in 2016, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Individual farmers can face fines of $10,000 if they refuse to pay them.

The fees, in part, bankroll gruesome animal testing. The 12 promotion boards that require the fees—including the blueberry, mango, and mushroom boards—use the results in attempts to bolster human health claims for agricultural products. It’s marketing, plain and simple. And it’s entirely unnecessary.

The tests are no joke, either. More than 2,600 animals were poisoned, force-fed, starved, irradiated, douched, bled, suffocated, beheaded, and/or dissected in experiments funded by these promotion boards between 2015 and 2019.

The tests are pointless. The animals tormented and killed in them are not miniature humans, and the results simply don’t apply to humans.

Kill Animal Testing, Not Animals
Congress has the power to kill these fees, save animals’ lives, and reduce an undue burden on farmers by banning promotion boards from imposing the fees in the 2023 Farm Bill. That’s where you come in.

Please TAKE ACTION today by telling members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry to stop gouging farmers to pay for deadly and pointless tests on animals.

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Sen. Debbie Stabenow

Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry

Dear Senator Stabenow and Members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry:

I’m writing to you today to strongly urge you to ban fees imposed on farmers by agricultural research and promotion boards, otherwise known as “checkoffs,” that are overseen by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and fund pointless and deadly animal testing in attempts to promote human health claims for marketing agricultural commodities to consumers.

You can see examples of such animal testing here: https://www.peta.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/Animal-Experiments-Funded-by-the-Research-and-Promotion-Boards.pdf.

It’s appalling that these mandatory fees—totaling more than $885 million in 2016—are extracted from farmers and bankroll animal torment for testing that isn’t even required by law.

And it’s gruesome that more than 2,600 animals were poisoned, force-fed, starved, irradiated, douched, bled, suffocated, beheaded, and/or dissected in tests funded by these agricultural checkoffs between 2015 and 2019.

You can stop this cruelty by banning the use of these farmer assessment fees to fund animal testing in the 2023 Farm Bill, currently under your consideration.

I urge you to do so.

Thank you for your time and attention.

Sincerely,
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