Do you love to eat meat? Yes? Do you love to watch big ag videos that exhibit the living conditions of big ag farm animals? No! But they are real.
People from all walks of life who eat meat, care not only about the health and safety of the meat they eat raised in that industry, they also care about how those animals are allowed to live out their lives.
People do not want to hear that pregnant sows are placed in such tightly barred enclosures that they can’t turn or interact with their piglets.
They don’t want to hear that egg-laying chickens are stuffed into crates where they also can’t experience any of their natural tendencies to roost and peck. Not to speak of veal calves who are intensively confined in boxes where they can’t even turn around.
So what does this have to do with Californians? Many states, for example California, have instituted and are in the process of promulgating laws to give these animals a cage free life.
States determine locally the level of safety their citizens require by enacting health and safety laws in numerous areas. However, Iowa Rep. Steve King is attempting to use the federal Commerce Clause to force states to accept any agricultural products from interstate or even from foreign commerce.
Michael Maharrey, national communications director for the Tenth Amendment Center, stated the Commerce Clause was never intended to regulate activities including agriculture which includes the slaughter and manufacture of meats under the USDA. Californians’ need to protect their food sources from regulation by Iowa representatives in the pocket of big agriculture. Tell Congressman Steve Knight that California protects its state’s rights at https://knight.house.gov/contact.
See https://preventcrueltyca.com/ to learn how to get a cage free initiative on the 2018 ballot.
Nancy Oliver Flores
Valencia
