The Accountability Board

Background and Goals

The Accountability Board (TAB) is a shareholder activist group launched in 2022 by two animal liberation extremists. TAB was launched with $10 million in funding through the Open Philanthropy Project. The Project has sent tens of millions of dollars to animal rights groups to fund corporate campaigns, which generate astroturf pressure on food companies. 

The Accountability Board’s CEO is Josh Balk. Balk is a longtime vegan activist who was an executive with the Humane Society of the United States.

The Accountability Board’s COO is Matt Prescott. Prescott is a former PETA activist who created the notorious “Holocaust on Your Plate” campaign. The campaign, so offensive it was banned in Germany, compared modern farms to Nazi concentration camps. Prescott later served as food policy director for the Humane Society of the United States before joining TAB. 

ESG Activism

Antibiotics

The Accountability Board has targeted two companies on the issue of antibiotics. It is pushing for companies to source pork and beef from farms that restrict the use of antibiotics. 

Veterinarians support the use of antibiotics to prevent disease and keep animals healthy. Banning preventive use, as TAB advocates, would result in more animals getting sick. (For more information, read Issue Brief: Antibiotics.)

Chicken

The Accountability Board in April 2023 began pressuring McDonald’s over its poultry sourcing. (More information, read Issue Brief: Poultry.)