How ‘Ag-Gag’ Laws Undermine Our Food System

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Transparency is often lacking for large-scale livestock operations housed in enclosed barns. Ag-gag laws are only restricting it further.
Transparency is often lacking for large-scale livestock operations housed in enclosed barns. Ag-gag laws are only restricting it further.
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Even aerial photographs of animal facilities are illegal in some states that have enacted ag-gag laws.
Even aerial photographs of animal facilities are illegal in some states that have enacted ag-gag laws.

As public awareness of our unsustainable and inhumane industrial meat production system grows, Big Ag has convinced eight state legislatures to enact a variety of measures known as “ag-gag” laws.

The first of these laws, passed in Kansas in 1990, made it illegal to take photos at an animal facility or animal research lab. More recently, Arkansas made it a crime to get an animal agriculture job under false pretenses. Six other states now have ag-gag laws: Iowa, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, South Carolina and Utah.

Gabe Rottman, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), says that even more insidious are ag-gag laws that require anyone who records farm animal cruelty or other impropriety to turn the recording over to police within 24 hours. Rottman calls ag-gag laws a curtailment of First Amendment rights, largely because of the effect they have on investigative journalism, but also because they could turn people who become whistle-blowers into criminals.

Investigative journalism can make a real difference within the food system. In 2008, for instance, after an undercover investigation by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) into a dairy cow slaughter plant in California, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) completely shut down the plant. Workers who were abusing animals were charged with criminal cruelty, and the largest food recall in U.S. history based on food safety concerns unfolded. Had ag-gag laws been in place, this outcome likely wouldn’t have been possible.

In April 2013, Utah became the first state to prosecute a violation of its ag-gag law when Amy Meyer was arrested after recording (with a cell phone) a live cow being carried by a bulldozer at the Dale Smith Meatpacking Co. in Draper City. The charges against Meyer were dropped (she was filming from a public easement), but in July 2013, a coalition of journalists and activists filed a civil suit against Utah’s ag-gag law, alleging that it violates First Amendment rights.

  • Published on Nov 5, 2013
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