The Organization
for Competitive Markets, Inc.
Porterville, MS
Multi-Program Grant - $75,000
Program Contributions:
$25,000—Interprogram Initiatives for Social & Economic
Justice
$25,000—Environment
$25,000—Health
Food Industry Structure Project
The Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water
Standards and Applied Sciences has determined that large animal
feeding operations (those with more than 1,000 animals) create
significant environmental and health risks. These large feeding
operations create high levels of water and air pollution by
leaching large amounts of effluent into the water, and gases
into the air. Large farms also rely heavily on antibiotics to
reduce their large pathogen loads. Conversely, smaller farms
use fewer antibiotics, produce less effluent and gases, and
do not significantly contribute to air and water pollution.
Through its Food Industry Structure Project, the Organization
for Competitive Markets seeks to reduce the environmental and
health risks in the agriculture business by reducing the market
power of large agricultural and food corporations and increasing
the viability of smaller (and therefore less harmful) farms.
The Food Industry Structure Project advocates economic justice
for independent farms in the agricultural marketplace by articulating
the case for fair and competitive market operation, as opposed
to one dominated by major agribusinesses. Its goal is to create
the context for policy change away from a view of unrestricted
free markets and towards a view that markets and market power
must be regulated in a way that serves the public interest.
A more diverse food production structure will decrease reliance
on industrial farms that utilize environmentally damaging production
practices. The project’s strategies include research;
educating key constituencies; building strategic, issue-specific
coalitions; policy development; and media outreach.
William J. Brennan
Jr. Center for Justice Inc.
New York, NY
Multi-Program Grant - $100,000
Program Contributions:
$60,000—Interprogram Initiatives for Social & Economic
Justice
$15,000—Arts & Culture
$25,000—Health
Access to Justice
In 1996, Congress passed a law restricting civil legal assistance
to low-income people by forbidding federal Legal Services
Corporation (LSC) funding to be used for certain basic legal
representation on behalf of the poor, such as class actions
and suits claiming attorney’s fee awards. The 1996
law also controls how the programs spend private grants and
donations; private funds become encumbered unless legal services
programs create duplicative and physically separate organizations
through which to conduct restricted advocacy work. As a consequence
of these restrictions, legal aid offices that receive any
LSC funds have been unable to use private contributions, or
state and local government money, to pay for the full range
of legal work required by their clients; the cost of creating
physically separate offices is too costly. The Brennan Center
has brought Dobbins v. Legal Service Corporation to
the Supreme Court to challenge these funding restrictions.
Plaintiffs to the suit—including the New York Foundation,
and David F. Dobbins, a private attorney seeking to donate
his legal services—claim that this federal obstacle to
their philanthropy violates their First Amendment rights.
The Dobbins suit offers important protection for legal services
clients, and for private foundations that wish to support
legal services advocacy but that are concerned that their
grants either cannot be used as intended or must be used to
create inefficient and duplicative organizational structures.
Funding will support the Brennen Center’s litigation
for this case, as well as their efforts to educate the public
and build a broad-based coalition to support the case.
