Become a member Login
Gift a membership My account
  • Food + Policy
  • Farming
  • Health
  • Environment
  • Civil Eats TV
Donate
  • My account
    • Profile
    • Email newsletters
    • Gift membership
    • Help
Join Log in
X
Civil Eats logo

News and commentary about the American food system.

  • My account
  • Join
  • Log in
  • Donate
  • Food + Policy
    • Business
    • Farm Bill
    • Food and Farm Labor
    • Food Justice
    • Indigenous Foodways
    • Labeling
    • Local Food
    • School Food
    • Technology
  • Farming
    • Agroecology
    • Animal Ag
    • Farmer Profiles
    • Regenerative Agriculture
    • Rural America
    • Urban Agriculture
    • Young Farmers
  • Health
    • Antibiotics
    • Coronavirus
    • Food Access
    • Food Safety
    • Nutrition
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Food Waste
    • GMOs
    • Pesticides
    • Seafood
    • Water
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Awards
    • Board of Directors
    • Advisory Board
    • Supporters
    • Donate
    • Civil Eats Membership
    • Contributors FAQ
    • Contact
  • Civil Eats TV
Civil Eats logo
X
Civil Eats logo

Lights, Camera, Cover Up

By Wayne Pacelle

March 23, 2011

Read more about

  • Animal Ag
  • Farm Bill
  • Food Safety

Related

What do Florida and Iowa have in common when it comes to animal agriculture? They’ve both been hot spots, past and present, for the movement to combat some of the worst abuses in industrial agribusiness. And now the factory farming industry is fighting back in both states—and their latest methods represent their biggest overreach yet.

In Florida, The HSUS and other groups pushed for the adoption of the first statewide law in the country to restrict the extreme confinement of animals on factory farms. In 2002, voters there passed Amendment 10, to phase out the caging of breeding sows in gestation crates. In Iowa, HSUS and other animal welfare groups have conducted a series of undercover investigations (see the video below) to expose cruelty in the nation’s biggest factory farming state.

Now, these two states have something else in common. They are trying to make it a crime to photograph or videotape farm animals. They don’t want to criminalize animal cruelty, but they do want to make criminals of people trying to document abuse and to put an end to the cruelty. Lawmakers have introduced bills in both states to establish criminal penalties for going undercover at agricultural facilities and simply taking pictures.

Mind you, if this legislation is enacted, it won’t just be a setback for animal welfare. Shabby, squalid, overcrowded conditions for animals on factory farms are also a food-safety threat for Americans, with millions of Americans sickened every year by contaminated food. It was, of course, an Iowa egg factory farm that was forced to recall half a billion eggs last year because of a Salmonella outbreak, creating one of the biggest food product recalls in American history.

With a potentially dramatic pare-back of funding for federal inspections of animal-agriculture operations looming, at production and slaughter facilities, these new proposed policies to bar the exposure of unhealthy and unsafe practices could not come at a more inopportune time. The industry has long argued for self-regulation, and with government inspection programs stretched so thin, they now want no meddling animal advocacy groups looking either.

Our exposés aren’t just important for raising public awareness about the mistreatment of animals. HSUS investigations have led to the largest meat recall in U.S. history, misdemeanor and felony cruelty convictions, closure of rogue slaughter plants, and disciplinary actions for government inspectors not doing their jobs. None of these important services we fulfill would be possible if such far-reaching and stifling laws are enacted.

Thank you for being a loyal reader.

We rely on you. Become a member today to read unlimited stories.

Become a member

It’s precisely because of what past factory farm investigations have uncovered—cruelty at egg farms, pig farms, and other settings—that such exposés are critical to the movement for animal welfare and food safety. With some members of the agriculture industry, including Dr. Temple Grandin, calling for more transparency at animal-raising facilities, these bills run in the opposite direction, seeking to criminalize efforts even to take a picture or to produce a video. They want to criminalize whistle-blowers who bring abuses to the attention of regulatory agencies, or even snap a photo on a cell phone.

I can understand why factory farmers don’t want the public seeing images of their business practices. The images of almost featherless hens, so crowded the animals are living on top of each other, or pigs being struck with metal bars by workers coarsened to their duties are deeply disconcerting. The response should not be, as in some country ruled by a dictator or a junta, to have the strongmen grab the cameras and smash them to the ground or melt them in a fire, as the authorities do in order to hide the beating and shooting of pro-democracy advocates. It’s the same principle at work for the strongmen in these state legislatures. Their scheme is a neater way to smash those cameras to the ground and hide what’s going on. Ironically, they want to prevent their very own customers, America’s consuming public, from learning about the production practices that bring food to their tables and plates.

They’d be best advised to follow the original lead of Florida and other states that have adopted modest animal welfare reforms. Ban the extreme confinement of laying hens and pigs in small cages and commit to sound and safe animal husbandry practices. Transparency is a bulwark in a democratic society, and it’s also critical in an era of systemic animal mistreatment and food safety threats.

Originally published on Wayne’s blog at HSUS

Get the latest. Delivered every week.

We rely on you. Become a member today to read unlimited stories.

Sign up

Photo: Pigs in confinement. The HSUS Taking a photo like this one without permission would be illegal under proposed bills in Iowa and Florida.

Avatar

Wayne Pacelle is president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, the nation’s largest animal protection organization—backed by 10.5 million Americans, or one of every 30. For more than a half-century, The HSUS has been fighting for the protection of all animals through advocacy, education, and hands-on programs. Celebrating animals and confronting cruelty—on the web at humanesociety.org. Read more >

Like the story?
Join the conversation.

Leave a Comment cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  1. Rodney North
    March 23, 2011
    Over two centuries ago we exempted blacks from personhood so as to maintain a supply of cheap, docile farm labor.

    After abolition we denied true citizenship and the vote from newly freed blacks so as, in part, to perpetuate that supply of cheap labor.

    70 years later we exempted farm workers (still mostly black at the time) from newly enacted labor laws so as, again, keep their labor cheap and "trouble-free".

    Later we exempted farm animals from cruelty laws.

    And now this - exempting factory farms from the 1st Amendment.

    I think I see a pattern.

    This is great reportage. Please keep it up.
    Reply
  2. Marissa Barnes
    March 24, 2011
    This is a great article.

    I am from Iowa and fully understand the consequences of the actions of these corporate farms.

    I hate to see that the government has decided to overlook the well-being of its citizens and instead concentrate on how it can make money.

    It's possible that one of the reasons Iowa wants to protect the operations of these farms is because the corporate farms are the roots of Iowa's economy. Unfortunately, without these farms, Iowa wouldn't have a suitable economy to support it's citizens.

    I am not agreeing AT ALL with how farming is done in Iowa, because I believe it is absolutely horrifying. But unfortunately, it's the truth.
    Reply
  3. Pamela Epstein
    March 27, 2011
    I am a native of Florida. 38 years ago I visited an egg farm. It was horrendous! I've never eaten chicken, eggs, or any other living animal since.

    There should be a way to fight this disgusting legislation in Florida! People should be forced to see what they eat!
    Reply

Read more about

  • Animal Ag
  • Farm Bill
  • Food Safety

Related

More from

Animal Ag

a tyson poultry truck delivers birds on the highway. Photo CC-licensed by Ed Kohler

Major Meat Corporations Pay Millions to Settle Price-Fixing Suits

By Claire Kelloway

February 15, 2021

shopper inspecting certified meats for their humanewashing labels

Are Some Animal Welfare Labels ‘Humanewashing’?

By Lisa Held

January 19, 2021

A regeneratively grazed beef cow eating grass

A New Study on Regenerative Grazing Complicates Climate Optimism

By Virginia Gewin

January 6, 2021

The greenhouses at Downstream Casino Resort. (Photo credit: Quapaw Nation)

The Quapaw Nation’s Casino Farms Its Own Food

By Hannah Wallace

December 10, 2020

Popular

Op-ed: What the Farmers’ Revolution in India Says About Big Ag in the US and Worldwide

By Indra Shekhar Singh

March 1, 2021

Farmers participate in a candlelight vigil on New Year's Eve on a highway leading to Delhi on the Gaziabad border on December 31, 2020 in Delhi, India. (Photo by Anindito Mukherjee/Getty Images)

Op-ed: We Need to Get Food Industry Dollars Out of Politics to Save Our Democracy

By Lucy Martinez Sullivan

February 26, 2021

A photo of a bunch of soda cans from above, representing big food and junk food

Grocery Stores Continue to Push Back Against Hazard Pay for Workers

By Brendan Seibel

February 25, 2021

A grocery worker behind plexiglas and with masks during covid

How a Food Business Incubator Is Building Black Economic Strength in Minnesota

By Cinnamon Janzer

February 24, 2021

the little africa market parade put on by the aeds
Civil Eats logo
Donate
  • Food + Policy
    • Business
    • Farm Bill
    • Food and Farm Labor
    • Food Justice
    • Indigenous Foodways
    • Labeling
    • Local Food
    • School Food
    • Technology
  • Farming
    • Agroecology
    • Animal Ag
    • Farmer Profiles
    • Regenerative Agriculture
    • Rural America
    • Urban Agriculture
    • Young Farmers
  • Health
    • Antibiotics
    • Coronavirus
    • Food Access
    • Food Safety
    • Nutrition
  • Environment
    • Climate
    • Food Waste
    • GMOs
    • Pesticides
    • Seafood
    • Water
  • About
    • Who We Are
    • Awards
    • Board of Directors
    • Advisory Board
    • Supporters
    • Donate
    • Civil Eats Membership
    • Contributors FAQ
    • Contact
  • Civil Eats TV
  • Subscribe
  • Become a member

© Civil Eats 2020. All rights reserved.

  • Subscribe
  • Become a member