UpRoot Center

Background and Agenda

The UpRoot Center says it was founded to reclaim a narrative about our food system, which it claims is “rigged” by larger companies. But to date, the organization’s primary objective seems to be opposing consumer choice at the grocery store. 

UpRoot has called for people to oppose a proposal in Congress that would override state laws that prohibit the sale of regular meat products at grocery stores. One such law in California, called Proposition 12, has driven up pork prices by 20%. 

UpRoot writes that people should oppose this proposal “If you care about being able to choose better options at the grocery store.” This has it completely backward. Laws like Prop 12 limit choices for consumers, banning affordable options and restricting choices to higher-priced, “Whole Foods”-style products. 

Personnel

UpRoot’s founders are animal rights activist Lauren Tavar and Missouri farmer activist Jake Davis. 

Tavar is formerly a federal staff lobbyist for the ASPCA. Before that, she worked for U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ), a vegan. The ASPCA supported legislation filed by Booker that would impose a national moratorium on large-scale farms. In 2016, Tavar received a scholarship from the radical Animal Legal Defense Fund, which stated that Tavar was trying to bring “Meatless Monday” to her law school. 

Davis is a small-scale farmer in Missouri. Davis was previously with Family Farm Action, a leftwing advocacy group. According to his website, he advocated for climate change legislation. 

According to state corporate records, Davis is involved with an operation called Nature Fresh Poultry LLC, which reportedly received $34,000 from the USDA in 2022. 

Funding

UpRoot states that it is fiscally sponsored by Earthshare, a Washington, D.C. environmental group. Fiscal sponsorship is when an existing nonprofit “lends” its nonprofit status to a startup. Earthshare states that it sponsors nine projects including UpRoot.

Earthshare also runs a donor-advised fund. Donor-advised funds operate as a form of dark money by serving as a middleman between a donor and a grantee. Grantees of Earthshare include radical environmental groups Natural Resources Defense Council and Sierra Club Foundation. It also reports giving $1 million to the Vermont School of Law, which has an animal law program. 

Funders of Earthshare include a number of donor-advised funds and the Grace Communications Foundation, which supports Meatless Monday.