State Policy Trends Report and Database Showcase State-Level Legislation on Animal Agriculture
Jun 25, 2026
A report led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) features animal agriculture-related legislation that emerged during the 2024 to 2025 legislative sessions across all 50 U.S. states. In collaboration with the Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Center for Agriculture and Food Systems (CAFS) and the State Innovation Exchange (SiX), the researchers summarized key legislative trends and state appropriations to highlight advancements and opportunities corresponding to relevant legislation. The findings from this review of animal agriculture-related legislation were used to develop a searchable database for practitioners and advocates as they further explore legislation of interest.
The report, “State Legislation on Animal Agriculture: 2024-2025 Policy Trends Report” was completed in November 2025. It provides an overview of the methodology used by the researchers to review and analyze relevant legislation on animal agriculture to create the searchable database, along with a summary of key trends from their review.
To develop the database, the researchers first defined specific topics and search terms to identify relevant legislation from the POLITICO Pro Legislative Compass tool. These 15 categories of legislation were specified in their review: animal welfare, antitrust and competitive practices, biogas and digesters, bird flu, community resources, general animal agriculture, general confined animal feeding operations (CAFO), labor, meat processing, moratoriums, non-CAFO practices, permitting and local control, procurement, resource use and quality, and right-to-farm. The initial review from POLITICO Pro using these inclusion categories generated 1,217 relevant bills, and further review and data cleaning resulted in a final count of 495 bills across the 15 categories. The report provides further details on the related bills per legislation category and describes themes, regional patterns, and the bills introduced and enacted.
In addition to identifying relevant legislation, the researchers analyzed appropriations bills to explore which states have allocated funding for program, initiatives, and legislation on animal agriculture. Findings from this additional analysis are also featured in the report.
“State legislatures are actively shaping the future of animal agriculture, revealing not just where policy is moving, but where opportunities exist to align food systems with public health and planetary health,” says Aisha Kante, lead author and research program coordinator at the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. “We designed this report and database as practical, accessible tools for tracking legislation and identifying policy gaps and opportunities. By pairing high-level trend analysis with a searchable, customizable database, these resources can enable advocates and policymakers to ground their strategies in a clearer understanding of what’s happening across states and issue areas.”
“State Legislation on Animal Agriculture: 2024-2025 Policy Trends Report” was co-authored by the following Center for a Livable Future staff: Aisha Kante, Allie Wainer, Fumi Agboola, and Patti Truant Anderson. The Center for a Livable Future co-authors included colleagues from Vermont Law and Graduate School and the State Innovation Exchange, as well.