In 1984, FACT launched the NEST EGGS® Project. The project was designed to demonstrate that farmers would make money selling eggs from uncaged hens. The Nest Eggs Project produced eggs from approximately 675,000 hens without cages on its farms. More importantly, the project helped create a new market niche which allowed numerous producers across the country to produce eggs more humanely from millions of hens.

In 1986, FACT launched the Rambling Rose Brand Veal Project. FACT developed a husbandry system for raising veal calves on pasture instead of in crates. The project successfully demonstrated that the resulting pink veal could be sold to leading American chefs. The project was terminated in 1991 because costs increased in such a way that it became preferable to raise the calves to full size for beef.

In 1988, FACT launched its Public Health Program to advocate for farming practices that would protect human health, improve the safety of meat, milk, and eggs and promote the humane husbandry of food animals.

In 1991, FACT started a major, on-farm research project titled, Control of Salmonella in Egg Production. The project was carried out on the pullet-raising and egg-producing farms that participated in the Eggs Project in Pennsylvania. This was the first and, at the time, the most comprehensive Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) control program for eggs in the U.S.

In 1998, FACT initiated its Humane Farming Program to promote welfare-friendly, sustainable husbandry systems that broaden opportunities for family farmers, and to conduct research to better understand the impact of husbandry practices on animal welfare and food safety.

In 2005, FACT's Executive Director, Richard Wood, became the chairperson of the Keep Antibiotics Working (KAW) coalition, the campaign to end the routine use of antibiotics with healthy animals.

In 2006, FACT launched its multi-year Humane and Sustainable Dairy Project, a research program to address the many problems in dairy farming, specifically the heat stress encountered by animals in the Southwest.  The project was completed in 2009 and tested several simple changes, such using shade coverings and sprinkler systems, that dairies could make to improve the welfare of their cows and calves.  

In 2009, FACT launched the Filthy Feed Campaign, an initiative designed to end the dirty and dangerous practice of feeding poultry litter to cows.  FACT petitioned the FDA to ban this practice out of concern for human and animal health.