FarmSTAND

Background

FarmSTAND (formally the Food Project Association) is a group of animal activist lawyers formed in 2023 as a spinoff from Public Justice. Public Justice was originally founded in the 1980s as Trial Lawyers for Public Justice and is associated with the Ralph Nader movement. 

Ties to Radical Anti-Farm Activism

FarmSTAND is run by Jessica Culpepper, who was a staff attorney for the Humane Society of the United States, a radical anti-meat group that pushes policies that attack farmers. She is also on the board of the Socially Responsible Agriculture Project, an organization that seeks to shut down modern livestock farms.

FarmSTAND’s David Muraskin has represented PETA and the Animal Legal Defense Fund, two radical animal-rights organizations. FarmSTAND also employs two former lawyers with the Animal Legal Defense Fund, as well as staff with backgrounds at a variety of other activist groups.

Representing Environmental Extremists

FarmSTAND has represented the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental extremist group based in Arizona. CBD’s agenda, according to the New Yorker, is a “de-technologized” society. “We will have to inflict severe economic pain,” said one cofounder. “We’d like to see belly-high grass over millions of acres,” commented another. “[W]e could bring industrial civilization to its knees,” commented a third. The ultimate effect, according to the publication, would be: “Settlements would be reduced, structures would be taken down, jobs would be lost.” 

FarmSTAND has also represented Food and Water Watch, a radical environmental group that opposes everything from crop biotechnology to natural gas to data centers. 

Funding

FarmSTAND’s revenue in 2024 was about $2.5 million, including $570,000 in attorney fees. Almost all of the rest of its funding, totaling $1.75 million, came from four sources: 

• Silicon Valley Community Foundation, a donor-advised fund. 
• The Columbus Foundation, a donor-advised fund. 
• ImpactAssets Inc, a donor-advised fund. 
• The Schmidt Family Foundation, which supports radical environmental causes and is funded by former Google CEO Eric Schmidt. 

Donor-advised funds are middlemen that allow a donor to make anonymous donations to a nonprofit.