Our Impact
For nearly 30 years, Center for Food Safety has stood at the forefront of the fight to protect people, wildlife, and the environment from the harms of industrial agriculture.
Our Story
Founded in 1997, Center for Food Safety emerged from a simple but urgent belief: the public deserves a food system that prioritizes health, transparency, environmental stewardship, and democratic accountability over corporate profit.
At a time when genetically engineered crops were rapidly entering the marketplace with little public oversight, Center for Food Safety became one of the nation’s leading watchdog organizations, using the law, science, and grassroots advocacy to ensure that public agencies uphold their responsibilities to people and the planet.
Over the decades, the organization’s work has expanded far beyond biotechnology. Today, Center for Food Safety is a nationally recognized public interest law and policy organization tackling some of the most urgent threats facing our food system, including toxic pesticides, biodiversity collapse, pollinator decline, endangered species extinction, corporate consolidation, food transparency, and environmental contamination.
Throughout every challenge, one principle has remained constant:
The health of people, communities, and ecosystems is inseparable.
Our Impact
Turning Science, Law, & Public Support into Change
Real change happens when people take action.
Every lawsuit filed, scientific analysis published, public comment submitted, and policy victory achieved is made possible by a community of supporters who believe a healthier food system is worth fighting for.
At Center for Food Safety, we transform public support into measurable impact.
The Model for Change
- Donors provide the resources
- Scientists and attorneys investigate threats and develop legal strategies
- Advocates mobilize communities and policymakers
- Courts and agencies are held accountable
- Public protections are strengthened
- People, wildlife, and ecosystems are better protected.
This integrated model allows Center for Food Safety to achieve systemic change that extends far beyond any single campaign or court victory.
Our Theory of Change
Strategic Cases. Lasting Precedents.
The Power of Litigation
Center for Food Safety does not simply react to environmental harms after they occur. We strategically identify opportunities to create legal and policy precedents capable of driving change across entire industries and regulatory systems.
Each case is evaluated according to its potential to:
- Establish new legal protections.
- Strengthen enforcement of existing laws.
- Improve scientific standards.
- Increase government accountability.
- Protect vulnerable communities and species.
- Create ripple effects that influence future decisions nationwide.
A single court victory can impact thousands of products, millions of acres of farmland, entire classes of pesticides, or generations of future regulatory decisions. The goal is not simply to win cases, but to change the rules that govern our food system.
Milestones and Achievements
Three Decades of CFS Leadership
Center for Food Safety is founded to address emerging threats from industrial agriculture and biotechnology.
Landmark Legal Impact
We successfully required federal agencies to conduct more rigorous environmental analysis before approving agricultural technologies and products.
We advanced legal standards requiring agencies to consider impacts on threatened and endangered wildlife before approving pesticides and other actions.
We created stronger accountability for pesticide approvals that threaten bees, butterflies, and other essential pollinators.
We protected the public’s right to know how food is produced and defended state authority to provide consumers with meaningful information.
We repeatedly challenge unlawful pesticide approvals, forcing the agency to better evaluate risks to human health, wildlife, and ecosystems.
We help establish protections for vulnerable species and habitats facing increasing pressure from industrial agriculture and chemical-intensive farming practices.
Impact at Scale
Over three decades, Center for Food Safety has:
- Achieved success in more than 75% of the cases we bring, with dozens of precedent-setting legal victories.
- Protected millions of acres of habitat and farmland from harmful pesticide spray and drift.
- Influenced federal policy governing pesticides, biotechnology, and endangered species.
- Mobilized millions of public comments and advocacy actions.
- Helped secure stronger legal protections for vulnerable pollinators, wildlife, ecosystems, and public health.
- Built one of the nation’s leading legal and advocacy programs focused on food system accountability.
Every achievement reflects the combined efforts of supporters, advocates, scientists, attorneys, farmers, and communities working together to create a healthier future. Because protecting the future of food means protecting the future of life itself.