Animal Agriculture Alliance

In 2025, The Intercept reported that the Animal Agriculture Alliance was receiving information from the FBI detailing the activities of animal rights activists in what the left-of-center media outlet alleged was a coordination scheme between the government and the agricultural industry. ³

History and Activities

The Animal Agriculture Alliance is a nonprofit membership organization founded in 1987 that collects farmers; animal food, health, and processing companies; ranchers; and associations focused on food and agriculture to protect the agricultural industry. The Animal Agriculture Alliance helps farmers and ranchers communicate and educate the public on animal agriculture and attempts to protect those who it argues are targeted with “damaging misinformation.” ^{1 2}

This includes responding to animal rights activists and investigating the tactics and strategies of animal rights organizations. Staff members from Animal Agriculture Alliance attend animal rights conferences and create reports for member organizations to help them understand the media campaigns, videos, movies, and agendas of animal rights organizations. The Animal Agriculture Alliance also provides advice for those in the food industry to secure farms and facilities from animal rights activists and to engage in crisis management when targeted by such groups. ²

Additionally, the Animal Agriculture Alliance promotes a positive perspective on animal agriculture by engaging with media influencers, food and restaurant brands, bloggers, and other influencers to educate them on the animal agriculture industry. This includes creating reports and information that debunks alleged myths of animal rights activist groups. ²

The Animal Agriculture Alliance also hosts an annual stakeholder summit that brings together agricultural interests to discuss potential threats to their industry. It also hosts an online scholarship competition for college students engaged in agriculture. ²

The Animal Agriculture Alliance predominantly focuses on four issues: animal welfare, antibiotic use, environmental sustainability, and nutrition. This includes defending the use of antibiotics in farming and promoting the idea that. rather than contributing to climate change, animal agriculture helps achieve environmental sustainability goals. ^{4 5 6}

Controversy

In 2020, the FBI allegedly investigated animal rights activists for threatening the food supply during the COVID-19 pandemic. The FBI allegedly regularly shared information with the Animal Agriculture Alliance, highlighting the threat of animal rights activists. After reports of the relationship between the FBI and agricultural industry groups were made public, animal rights activists claimed that they were being improperly labeled as terrorists. ³

Leadership

The President and CEO of the Animal Agriculture Alliance was Hannah Thompson-Weeman as of 2025.  Thompson Weeman became the president and CEO of the organization in May 2022. Before that she acted as Animal Agriculture Alliance’s vice president of strategic engagement and vice president of communications. Previously, Thompson-Weeman was a marketing specialist at Farm Credit Mid-America and a staff writer at Ohio’s Country Journal and Ohio Ag Net. ^{7 8}

Financials

According to tax filings, in 2023 the Animal Agriculture Alliance reported $1,111,477 in revenue, $1,023,427 in expenses, and $1,100,338 in assets. Of its expenses, $631,142 was spent on developing educational resources and programs focused on farm production and $259,026 was spent on building relationships within the agriculture and food industries. Of its revenue, the organization received $941,601 from gifts, grants, and other contributions. The rest of its income was received from sponsorships and registrations at its summit. ⁹

According to its 2024 annual report, the Animal Agriculture Alliance claimed to receive 27 percent of its funding from multi-species agricultural producers, 25 percent from poultry farmers, 11 percent from crop and feed farmers, 10 percent from dairy farmers, 10 percent from pork farmers, and 7 percent from restaurants and the food service industry. ¹⁰