In the battle over farm animal welfare standards playing out in Congress, a number of producers associated with the National Pork Producers Council have made misleading claims about the effects Proposition 12 and other state-level public health and animal welfare laws have on family farmers. So has the Secretary of Agriculture. But when farmers speak for themselves, they tell a different story, and it’s one of strong support for these humane laws and standards.
When Congress returns in mid-November for the "lame duck" session following the Nov. 5 election, we will continue our work to uphold these critical state laws and point out the fallacies in opponents’ claims.
We’re grateful to all of those who have stood with us in the campaign to pass and sustain humane-minded laws in more than a dozen states. These laws are under attack from a complacent and lazy segment of the pork industry, led by the NPCC, which just doesn’t want to let go of cruel confinement systems such as the gestation crate that deny mother pigs their most basic freedoms. What this foot-dragging faction does in opposing humane and public health standards, with its army of paid lobbyists, litigators and public relations consultants, it does in the interest of pork profits.
Farmers and producers who have rejected agribusiness cruelty and embraced higher welfare standards play a vital role in this important battle. Some of these change-makers are large players. For example, Perdue Premium Meat Company’s Niman Ranch filed a legal brief in the case NPPC lost in the U.S. Supreme Court, and filed another one just this week in Massachusetts, making clear that higher welfare standards for pigs simply make good sense.
We’re pleased with such interventions, just as we’re truly heartened by the fact that so many of the most vocal defenders of laws like Proposition 12 are small-scale farmers. They stand apart, and are quite different from, the self-serving and deceitful corporate pig factory operations that have concentrated their full force toward the destruction of these laws.
To their credit, these forward-thinking farmers recognize that more humane treatment of animals is not just a moral imperative but a clear public demand. Throughout the current session of Congress, a determined minority has been attempting to add agribusiness-backed language into the federal Farm Bill (which sets the government’s food and agricultural policy) to nullify Prop 12 (a landmark law approved by California in 2018, that protects pregnant pigs, egg-laying hens and calves raised for veal and restricts the sale of cruel products).
In community after community, farmers have amplified their voices and their impact, publishing dozens of opinion pieces and letters-to-the-editor and granting interviews to educate their neighbors and the wider public about the NPCC’s disingenuous campaign to destroy state laws regulating animal welfare and public health that millions of Americans have supported in red, blue and purple states.
