Is This WA Anti-Farm Activist Group’s Discriminatory Event Against The Law?

Despite its status as a federally-registered nonprofit, a Yakima-based anti-farm activist group brazenly discriminated against would-be attendees to one of its public events – based solely on their occupation.

To attend the Nov. 7 screening event, filmgoers were required to disclose their occupation, with free tickets given to all attendees except dairy farmers, who were charged an astonishing $535.38 per ticket to the event. The shocking and blatant profiling poses troubling legal questions for “Empowering Latina Leadership and Action” (ELLA), which is designated as a 501(c)(3) organization by the IRS, and is legally barred from discrimination.

The Nov. 7 event at Grand Cinemas Yakima Valley in Sunnyside, WA, is a screening of ELLA’s anti-farm propaganda film “The Price of Plenty,” a project that has already generated controversy and concern about possible illegal activity. Earlier this year, videos promoting the longer film displayed the Washington State Department of Health logo, raising serious concerns that the department may have inappropriately sponsored the political hit piece with state taxpayer dollars.

Last year, ELLA received nearly $500,000 from the state’s “Healthy Environment for All” (HEAL) grant program, administered by the WA Department of Health and intended to “advance environmental justice.” After the department’s logo appeared on ELLA’s politically-charged videos attacking the farming community, Save Family Farming filed an official complaint with the WA Attorney General’s Office over the appearance of state taxpayer funds being used for political purposes. So far, it appears the Attorney General’s office has taken no action to address Save Family Farming’s complaint.

Now the group’s apparent attempt to stop dairy farmers from viewing the propaganda film–that targets and attacks them with false accusations–doubles down on ELLA’s clear disregard for the public’s growing concerns about impropriety in their use of state money. If a dairy farmer chooses to pay the ludicrous price to attend the film’s screening, what this registered nonprofit does with those proceeds poses even further questions.

In ELLA’s online description of its advocacy approach, the organization claims it “…acts with integrity, sincerity and faith.” Yet its recent actions appear to fly in the face of those values. The silence so far from the state Department of Health and Attorney General’s Office on the public concern surrounding the nonprofit’s troubling behavior raises fears that the state may be complicit.

As an organization accepting large sums of state taxpayer dollars, ELLA must be held accountable for how it uses that money, as well as the ugly, dishonest political attacks it’s been launching against the Lower Yakima Valley’s–and by extension, the state’s–farming community.

Maybe even more importantly, the WA Attorney General’s Office must answer the public’s legitimate concerns around this irresponsible nonprofit’s actions and use of state funds, or risk further erosion of Washington voters’ trust in state government and particularly Gov. Bob Ferguson’s administration.