The Biden Justice Department has requested the Supreme Court to dismiss California Proposal 12. This will ban the sale of pork from 7×2 foot cage pens in California. Such sows cannot lie down, stand, straighten their limbs completely, or roll. California voters passed Proposal 12 with a 2: 1 majority in 2018, with 63% of voters in favor. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case of October 11. The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) filed a complaint with the Supreme Court in September 2021 alleging that Proposal 12 violated the commercial provisions of the US Constitution. The NPPC argues that the rules impose “troublesome and unnecessary records management requirements” in particular. The California Food Association also opposed Proposal 12, stating that “the pork industry is not ready for the stringent requirements of Proposal 12.”
In a letter from Amicus, far from public opinion, U.S. Justice Secretary Elizabeth Prelogger said California “has no legitimate interest in protecting the welfare of animals outside the state,” and voters are pork producers. Said he was interested in. “Treatment of animals raised in these states-not by California members who consume them.” Meanwhile, Debbie Stavenou (D-Mich.), Chairman of the Senate Agricultural Commission, USDA. Secretary Tom Billsack called for support for Proposal 12 in the California Supreme Court.
Lovvorn is also concerned about precedent. “If it’s overturned in the way the industry demands, they say they don’t want it to be sold California says it’s unconstitutional.” Basically, they (Hog Operations) have jurisdiction. You have the right to start a business outside and sell to that jurisdiction anything that violates the laws and ethics of those jurisdictions. If they can get such a verdict, it can actually affect a variety of issues, especially climate change, but everything the state does that affects products sold outside the state. That is also a problem.
In the days of Amazon AMZN -5.1%, the idea that the manufacturer’s location somehow represents a privileged status and the jurisdiction needs to accept these products or is unconstitutional is the state government and enterprises. With a major remodeling of authority between, we are already working on the tremendous power and integration of agribusiness. So, to my surprise, the industry wants a system where food is not actually regulated. “
More than one-third of pigs are raised in Iowa, and pig farming is concentrated in black, Hispanic, and indigenous poverty-rich communities in North Carolina. In 2018, the North Carolina Medical Journal recorded that residents living near CAFO in pigs had a high mortality rate from all the diseases investigated, an infant mortality rate, anemia, kidney disease, and tuberculosis. And in Iowa’s counties, where pigs are most abundant, more depopulation, unemployment, and business closures, including retailers and grocery stores, followed, followed by food deserts cant afford the pork ban. “Iowa is mostly Caucasian and has CAFOs throughout the state. This is different in North Carolina because CAFOs are concentrated in certain parts of the state. There is very clear evidence that these areas were chosen for operation, as the local community cannot appeal to lawmakers like the white community, “Professor Seki explained in a recent article at the counter.
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Crowds of pig manure lagoons and the resulting spills when used as fertilizers are also directly related to the New Jersey-sized Gulf of Mexico dead zone. Such a pig farm, along with a meat processing plant, has become a pandemic mega-incubator. Predicting the pandemic of Covid-19, evolutionary biologist Rob Wallace, author of Big Farms Make Big Flu, calls factory livestock the “explosive evolutionary promoter” of pandemic pathogens. .. And at least 59,000 meat packaging workers were infected with Covid-19 and at least 269 died, according to a report by the US House of Representatives Selection Subcommittee in October 2021. Researchers estimate that an additional 5,000 deaths and 330,000 cases are due to the rapid spread of butchers.
“When we talk about factory livestock and containment systems, they are an integrated threat. They cause problems for animals. They cause problems for workers and the environment. They are for consumers and food security. So what California really says in Proposal 12 is that we don’t want to worry about whether these harmful products are included in our food supply. We need a California food system that reflects California’s values, “explains Jonathan Lovvorn. And, despite the recent submission of Amikas by the Justice Department, California voters are not alone in thinking about this.
Over the last decade, retail sales and plant-based food market share have grown significantly, with millions of consumers eating less meat and trying alternatives. Also, almost 60% of US consumers are interested in animal welfare. According to SPINS, annual sales of animal welfare meat increased 8.8% to $ 765 million, a 12.4% increase over the last 12 weeks. Dan Buckstaff, CMO of SPINS, said: “Consumers are looking to meat and chicken products grown in a more humane way. Products with animal welfare claims are almost twice as fast as meat products without such claims. And many food cooperatives have made various efforts to procure humanely bred meat and increase the availability of healthy plant-based alternatives.
Meanwhile, worker-led food justice alliances such as the HEAL Food Alliance and the Food Chain Workers Alliance have organized against CAFOs and meat processors to promote a fair transition of the workforce, despite record interests. Smithfield used Proposal 12 to justify the dismissal of 1,800 workers in California. Professor Christopher Carter, author of The Spirit of Soul Food and a theological scholar at the University of San Diego, , Concludes: Selling pork to California. “If the Supreme Court overturns the will of 63% of California voters who passed this pork ban bill, it is not only a major setback in livestock advocacy, but also citizens’ opposition to a democratic system that can effectively use it. It also undermines belief. Giving rights to a group left behind gives them those rights when imposing an “unreasonable burden” on the enterprise. As an African-American, I feel that these original interpretations of the Constitution are eerily familiar with the way the law was interpreted hundreds of years before the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “
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Source: Forbes
