#Federal Meat Inspection Act

[nationallawreview]

22 States Join Challenge to Massachusetts’ Question 3

Similar to California’s Proposition 12, Massachusetts’ Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act (also known as “Question 3”) imposes animal welfare standards for hens, sows, and veal calves raised in Massachusetts and makes it unlawful for businesses to sell eggs, veal, or pork that they know to be in violation of these standards (even if the animals were raised out of state). A July 22nd order from…

[gunlovingpacifist]

Now I have to block you because people on the right celebrate ignorance and Mooch of blue states. Them gunz ain't gonna feed your family......

I have posed this question a few times and never get a response

.... 🤔

Here is why I am a liberal...

Why are you a Republican?

The 40-hour work week, and thus, weekends!

Overtime pay and minimum wage.

Paid Vacations.

Women’s Voting Rights

The Civil Rights Act of 1964

The right of people of all colors to use schools and facilities.

Public schools.

Public libraries

Public transportation

Public universities

Public broadcasting

Public police and fire departments

Worker’s rights

Labor safety and fairness laws

*Nixon gave us the EPA

Child-labor laws.

The right to unionize

Health care benefits

National Parks, Monuments, and Forests, “America’s Best Idea”

Interstate Highway System (Eisenhower (R) and Al Gore Sr. (D)

Safe food and drugs (via the FDA)

Social Security

NASA

The Moon Landing and other space exploration

Satellites

The Office of Congressional Ethics.

The Internet

National Weather Service

Product Labeling/Truth in Advertising Laws

Rural Electrification/Tennessee Valley Authority

Bank Deposit Insurance

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Consumer Product Safety Commission

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Rights of the disabled (via Americans With Disabilities Act)

Family and Medical Leave Act

Clean air and water (Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency).

Civilian Conservation Corps

Panama Canal

Hoover Dam

The Federal Reserve

Medicare/Medicaid

The United States Military

The FBI

The CIA

Peace between Israel and Egypt

Peace between Israel and Jordan

Veterans Medical Care

Federal Housing Administration

Extending Voting Rights to 18 year olds

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of Religion/Separation of Church and State

Right to Due Process

Freedom of The Press

Right to Organize and Protest

Pell Grants and other financial aid to students

Federal Aviation Administration/Airline safety regulations

The end of slavery in the USA (The Emancipation Proclamation, The 13th Amendment)

Unemployment benefits

Smithsonian Institute

Americorps

Mandatory Food Labeling

Peace Corps

United Nations

World Health Organization

The Lincoln Tunnel

Sulfur emissions cap and trade to eliminate acid rain

Earned Income Tax Credit

The banning of lead in consumer products

National Institute of Health

Garbage pickup/clean streets

Banning of CFCs.

LGBT rights

Expanded voting access via polling places

Erie Canal

Bailout — and thus continued existence — of the American Auto Industry

Lily Ledbetter Fair Pay Act

Established the basis for Universal Human Rights by writing the Declaration of Independence

Miranda Rights

Banning of torture

The right to a proper defense in court

An independent judiciary

The right to vote

Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act

Fair, open, and honest elections

The founding of The United States of America

The defeat of the Nazis and victory in World War II

Paramedics

Woman’s Right to Choose

The Civil Rights Movement

National Science Foundation

Vehicle Safety Standards

NATO

The income tax and power to tax in general, which have been used to pay for much of this list.

911 Emergency system

Tsunami, hurricane, tornado, and earthquake warning systems

The Freedom of Information Act

Water Treatment Centers and sewage systems

The Meat Inspection Act

The Pure Food And Drug Act

The Bretton Woods system

International Monetary Fund

SEC, which regulates Wall Street (weaked by conservatives)

National Endowment for the Arts

Campaign finance laws (weaked by conservatives)

Federal Crop Insurance

United States Housing Authority

School Lunch Act

Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act

Vaccination Assistance Act

The creation of counterinsurgency forces such as the Navy Seals and Green Berets.

Voting Rights Act, which ended poll taxes, literacy tests, and other voter qualification tests (weaked by conservatives)

The Brady Bill (5-day wait on handgun purchases for background checks)

Lobbying Disclosure Act

"Motor-Voter" Act

Civil Rights Act of 1968

Job Corps

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965

Teacher Corps

Endangered Species Preservation Act of 1966

National Trails System Act of 1968

U.S. Postal Service

Modern Civilization

BIDEN WINS:

• Inflation Reduction Act

• CHIPS & Science Act

• PACT Act for veterans

• First major gun safety legislation in decades

• Took out the leader of al Qaeda

• Historic job growth (+12.8 million)

• Historically low unemployment

• Expanded the NATO alliance

• American Rescue Plan led to fastest jobs recovery in history

• Confirmation of Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

• Rallied our allies in support of Ukraine

•Once-in-a-generation infrastructure investments

• Student loan forgiveness

• Rural broadband investment

In not a republican. I lean right on one issue. The second amendment. Why's that hard for leftists to comprehend

[aebetako]

The United States Listeria Outbreak from Boar's Head Raises Questions About Food Safety Regulation

In recent developments, newly released documents from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) have brought to light the deplorable conditions within the Boar's Head factory in Jarratt, Virginia—a facility now at the heart of a major Listeria outbreak. The revelations have sparked widespread criticism of the USDA's effectiveness in overseeing food safety, particularly given the factory's numerous violations over the past year. #Listeria Outbreak #Boar's Head #Food Safety Regulation #The United States

The Washington Post reported that the factory, which has since been temporarily closed, exhibited alarming environmental conditions prior to the outbreak. Meat contaminated with insects, dirty machinery, leaking water pipes, mold growth, and pools of blood on the floor were among the issues documented by USDA inspectors. Despite recording 69 instances of non-compliance with federal food safety regulations over the past year, the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) failed to take any enforcement actions against the facility. #Listeria Outbreak #Boar's Head #Food Safety Regulation #The United States

Former U.S. food safety officials and experts have questioned the adequacy of current inspection methods and the timeliness of regulatory responses. Gerald Mandell, a former safety official, pointed out that most inspections rely heavily on visual and olfactory assessments rather than real-time bacterial testing. Barbara Kowalcyk, a public health expert from George Washington University, asked rhetorically, "Why didn't management act sooner? Why didn't regulators act sooner?" #Listeria Outbreak #Boar's Head #Food Safety Regulation #The United States

The outbreak, which began in July 2024, resulted in the recall of approximately 7 million pounds of products distributed across the United States and exported to countries such as the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Panama. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed that the outbreak has led to at least nine deaths and 57 hospitalizations across multiple states, marking it as the largest Listeria outbreak since 2011.

This incident exposes several shortcomings within the American regulatory framework concerning food safety: #Listeria Outbreak #Boar's Head #Food Safety Regulation #The United States

Firstly, there is an evident gap in the regulatory oversight of food production facilities. Despite repeated warnings and recorded violations, the Boar's Head factory continued to operate without significant intervention. This suggests a need for more proactive measures and stricter enforcement policies.

Secondly, the reliance on outdated inspection methodologies raises concerns about the adequacy of current practices. The absence of modern detection technologies means that potential hazards may go unnoticed until they reach crisis levels. #Listeria Outbreak #Boar's Head #Food Safety Regulation #The United States

Lastly, there appears to be a disconnect between the severity of infractions and the corresponding regulatory response. While numerous violations were logged, the absence of timely corrective actions points to a broader issue of regulatory inertia.

The Boar's Head incident serves as a stark reminder of the critical role played by robust regulatory frameworks in safeguarding public health. It underscores the necessity for continuous improvement in inspection techniques and a more stringent approach to enforcing compliance with established food safety standards. As the investigation continues, it is hoped that these lessons will be heeded, leading to systemic reforms aimed at preventing such outbreaks in the future. #Listeria Outbreak #Boar's Head #Food Safety Regulation #The United States

[plethoraworldatlas]

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society Legislative Fund filed a legal petition today asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to improve public transparency and oversight over the inspection and regulation of slaughterhouses and egg-processing operations. The groups are represented in this matter by Vermont Law and Graduate School’s Farmed Animal Advocacy Clinic.

The Food Safety and Inspection Service of the USDA is the agency tasked with inspecting and regulating several aspects of meat, poultry and egg processing operations at approximately 800 federally inspected livestock slaughterhouses across the United States. The agency has long been shielded from the public disclosure and environmental review requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. The petition seeks to remove that exemption and properly require the agency to analyze the environmental impacts of its decisions related to its oversight of these operations.

“The USDA has to quit hiding the environmental harms caused by letting the country’s largest meatpackers expand relentlessly and increasingly use high-speed slaughter systems to kill and process animals,” said Hannah Connor, environmental health deputy director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The agency continues to skirt important public review and disclosure requirements, leaving all of us in the dark about dangers to the environment and local communities. The USDA must come clean and follow the law.”

[scottguy]

We had to pass laws so bad food and drugs weren't sold.

Republicans call the people ensuring those laws are followed ... the "deep state."

Do you really want the people making sure your food & medicine are safe are fired or dishonest people put in their place?

The FDA was created because unscrupulous people HAVE SOLD just about *anything* (no matter or rotten or toxic) for money because they could get away with it.

From site noted below:

1906 – Pure Food and Drug Act and Federal Meal Inspection Act Passed

The first U.S. laws addressing the safety of our food supply were passed – the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act. The Pure Food and Drug Act prevented the manufacture, sale, or transportation of adulterated or misbranded foods, drugs, medicines, and liquors. The Federal Meat Inspection Act prohibited the sale of adulterated or misbranded meat and meat products for food and ensured that meat and meat products were slaughtered and processed under sanitary conditions.

[biblenewsprophecy]

Canada pushes more GMOs after Italy bans GMO fake meat

COGwriter

More and more, food is getting distorted and perverted. And the government of Canada looks to be taking more steps in that direction:

Canada’s proposed new pesticide and GMO law ‘beyond reckless’

November 9, 2023

Farms and forests across Canada could soon be sprayed with pesticides or planted with GMO (genetically modified organism) seeds that haven’t been evaluated for safety by the country’s regulatory agencies.

A new private member’s bill proposes to allow Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) to “provisionally” approve new pesticides, seeds and animal feeds that are legal in two or more other “trusted” jurisdictions. These jurisdictions are yet to be determined and could be countries or “subdivisions” of countries, such as individual U.S. states.

The bill aims to help farmers buy technologies used in other countries in a “more timely manner,” explained the bill’s sponsor, Liberal MP Kody Blois …

If passed, the bill would require government officials to give pesticide and agricultural companies a “provisional” registration within three months if the chemical is approved in other countries like the U.S. This provisional registration will be considered valid indefinitely unless the government fully registers the product or the company decides to pull it from shelves.

“I couldn’t believe it when I read it. I thought I was hallucinating,” said Ecojustice lawyer and pesticide expert Laura Bowman. “It’s beyond reckless.”

The bill risks forcing the federal government to approve products dangerous to the environment or human health without consulting or even obtaining data about their risks, potentially including banned pesticides like DDT, she said. These data are typically provided by companies and reviewed by officials as part of the registration process.

The new rules risk exacerbating problems with Canada’s existing regulatory system, which is already among the most permissive of toxic pesticides on the planet and is plagued with transparency problems. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2023/11/09/news/canada-proposed-new-pesticide-and-gmo-law-beyond-reckless

Well, this should please the government of the USA. The USA keeps pushing GMOs and things like fake meat around the world. The USA has also been bullying Mexico to get it to not put in a ban on GMO corn and certain ag chemicals, despite the Mexican government pleading with the USA to prove the safety of its GMO corn (see Mexico wants to block GMO-corn and glycophosphates, USDA unhappy and ‘US set to escalate trade grievance with Mexico over genetically modified corn ban’).

Like Mexico, various ones in Europe have concerns about GMO crops and other inventions.

Unlike the USA’s government which likes fake meat (e.g., see AGENDA 2030: The USDA Approves Bill Gates Lab-Grown ‘Frankenfood’ Meat and Piggy Sooy), Italy took steps to ban them:

Italy Becomes First Nation To Ban Bill Gates’ Fake Meat Due To “Serious Health Concerns”

In a first for the developed world, the European nation of Italy has decided to ban all fake meat from the country, citing “serious health concerns.”

November 8, 2023

Numerous recent studies show that lab-grown synthetic meat of the kind being promoted by billionaire eugenicist Bill Gates is triggering the formation of turbo cancers in humans …

In contrast to a recent decision by the Biden regime to fast-track the approval of synthetic meat here in America, Italy is taking the opposite approach by banning the stuff outright before it gets the chance to harm the Italian people.

“Italy is the first nation to say no to synthetic food, to so-called ‘synthetic meat,’” announced Health Minister Orazio Schillaci. “It does so with a formal and official act.”

“The resolution calls for a commitment to ban the production, marketing, and import of synthetic foods within our territory.” …

Much of the push in favor of synthetic meat comes not only from Gates but also other globalists such as Klaus Schwab, the goon in charge of the World Economic Forum (WEF), who claim it is necessary to stop “global warming” and “climate change.”

Back in 2021 in promotion of his book “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster,” Gates told MIT Technology Review that “all rich countries should move to 100 percent synthetic beef.”

Gates’ dream for the world probably will not come to fruition, at least as he envisioned it, because science continues to show that synthetic meat consumption is linked to cancer via the immortalized cell lines that the body uses to manufacture cancer cells in the presence of a provoking substance, in this case fake meat. …

Joe Biden’s regime has so far indicated its full support for the unleashing of fake meat here in the U.S., where private corporate interests seem to control just about everything.

In an unprecedented move, Biden’s U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) approved the sale of Gates’ lab-grown “chicken meat” back in late June. This approval from regulators will allow fake meat companies everywhere to flood the U.S. food market with their toxic, deadly products. https://www.infowars.com/posts/italy-becomes-first-nation-to-ban-bill-gates-fake-meat-due-to-serious-health-concerns/

As far as why GMO meat and other foods have been pushed, besides financial greed, notice one view:

March 12, 2023

Fake Meat Is All About Controlling the Food Supply

Fake food — including lab-grown meat, animal-free dairy and plant-based meat — is the globalists’ latest attempt to control the food supply. Former U.S. Secretary of State and national security adviser Henry Kissinger once said, “Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control people.”2 Controlling people is their whole agenda.

“Nations, states, and central banks are quietly but rapidly shifting their money to precious metals. With bank runs, recession, CBDCs, and worse on the horizon, it’s easy to see why. NOW is the time to learn more about moving portions of your retirement or wealth to a self-directed gold and silver IRA through an America-First, Christian precious metals company.” – JD Rucker (not a financial advisor, just a guy who’s paying attention)

The globalists have long held a monopoly on the grain industry with their patented genetically modified organisms (GMOs). …

The globalists are trying to replace animal husbandry with lab-grown meat, which will allow private companies to effectively control the entire food supply.

Fake Meat Is Even Worse Than CAFOs

Many people are aware of the pitfalls of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) — unnatural diets of GMO grains, crowded conditions, inhumane treatment, excessive pollution and rampant spread of disease. CAFOs are bad — but the new fake food era is going to be even worse. …

What Is Fake Meat?

Fake meat is marketed as a health food, but it’s nothing more than a highly ultraprocessed mixture of chemicals. Impossible Foods, for instance, uses genetic engineering to insert the DNA from soy plants into yeast, creating GE yeast with the gene for soy leghemoglobin.9

Impossible Foods refers to this compound as “heme,” but technically plants produce non-heme iron, and this is GE yeast-derived soy leghemoglobin.10 Heme iron only occurs in meat and seafood. Impossible Foods’ GE heme is used in their fake meat burgers as a color additive that makes the product appear to “bleed” like real meat.

The health effects of GE heme are unknown, but this didn’t stop the U.S. Food and Drug Administration from approving soy leghemoglobin in 2019. The Center for Food Safety (CFS) filed a lawsuit challenging the approval, which they called “unusually rapid”11 and risky for public health. …

Impossible Foods’ Fake Meat Is Loaded With Glyphosate, LA

Considering that many ingredients in fake meat products are made from GE soy,16 it’s not surprising that they’re also contaminated with the herbicide glyphosate. Consumer advocacy group Moms Across America (MAA) commissioned Health Research Institute Labs (HRI Labs), an independent laboratory that tests both micronutrients and toxins found in food, to determine how much glyphosate is in the Impossible Burger and its competitor, the Beyond Burger.

The total result of glyphosate and AMPA, the main metabolite of glyphosate, in the burgers was 11.3 parts per billion (ppb) in the Impossible Burger and 1 ppb in the Beyond Burger.17 …

The glyphosate in fake meat is one issue. The excess amounts of omega-6 fat in the form of linoleic acid (LA) are another. In my opinion, this metabolic poison is the primary contributor to rising rates of chronic disease.

When you shop for food, know your farmer and look for regenerative, biodynamic and/or grass fed farming methods, which are what we need to support a healthy, autonomous population. https://discernreport.com/fake-meat-dangers-with-dr-joseph-mercola/

GMOs are a risk to human health as well as the food supply. They are also dangerous for the environment (see also GMOs and Bible Prophecy).

There are many bad things that are being done related to meat. Here is a video we put out related to chicken:

15:06

Lab grown chicken?

In November 2022, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gave its initial approval (with two almost-automatic approvals to come) for the sale and consumption of what is called ‘lab-grown chicken.’ The FDA said that this material was safe and part of what it termed a “food revolution.” Is what was approved actually a chicken? Is this consistent with those who are “inventors of evil things” (Romans 1:30)? Have lab-grown meat and genetically-modified organisms (GMOs) been proven to be safe in all ways and for sufficient lengths of time? Should human-animal chimeras be encouraged? Are there scriptures in the Bible that warn about love of money and that point to not eating something just because it may appear good to eat? Does the Bible mention that living organisms were to reproduce after their own kind? Does the Bible say to eat that which is good in Isaiah? Steve Dupuie and Dr. Thiel go over these matters.

Here is a link to our video: Lab grown chicken?

Humanity’s tinkering with viruses and the food supply look to be setting the world up for the ride of the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse:

7 When He opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature saying, “Come and see.” 8 So I looked, and behold, a pale horse. And the name of him who sat on it was Death, and Hades followed with him. And power was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, with hunger, with death, and by the beasts of the earth. (Revelation 6:7-8)

That said, there are also various unknown health risks with the ‘Frankenfoods’ that are being introduced into the food supply.

The Bible teaches:

2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good (Isaiah 55:2).

Eat what is good.

The Continuing Church of God put out the following sermon on its ContinuingCOG channel related to food:

1:07:48

Evil is Affecting the Food Supply

God gave humans food and said what He made was good. What about unclean animals? What about genetically-modified organisms (GMOs)? What about ‘bioengineered foods’? What about lab meat? What about human-cloned salami? What about ‘Piggy Sooy’? Are Christians supposed to eat what is good according to Isaiah 55:2? What should we eat? What should Christians avoid eating? Dr. Thiel addresses these matters and more.

Here is a link to the following: Evil is Affecting the Food Supply.

Related Items:

Christian Health Matters Should Christians be concerned about their health? Does the Bible give any food and health guidelines? Here are links to three related sermons: Let’s Talk About Food, Evil is Affecting the Food Supply, and Let’s Talk About Health.

Canada in Prophecy: What Does Bible Prophecy,Roman Catholic Prophecy, and other Predictions Suggest About the Future of Canada? There are prophecies that suggest involvement with Canada. And many are not positive about its future. A sermon of related interest is also available: Canada in Prophecy.

The New Testament Church, History, and Unclean Meats Are foods considered to have been unclean in the Old Testament considered to be food in the New Testament? This article discusses this from the perspective of the New Testament. It also has a list of clean and unclean animals. It also answers the question, is pork healthy or is pork dangerous? There is also a sermon-length video on this: Christians and Unclean Meats; two short videos are also available: Did Jesus declare all animal flesh food? and COVID, Pandemics, and Unclean Meat.

GMOs and Bible Prophecy What are GMOs? Since they were not in the food supply until 1994, how could they possibly relate to Bible prophecy? Do GMOs put the USA and others at risk? Here are some related videos: GMO Risks and the Bible and GMOs, Lab meat, Hydrogenation: Safe or Dangerous?

Chimeras: Has Science Crossed the Line? What are chimeras?  Has science crossed the line? Does the Bible give any clues? A video of related interest is Half human, half pig: What’s the difference?  and Human-Monkey Embryos and Death.

Cannibalism is Wrong, But it is Coming! Is it logical to eat human flesh? Or is it a curse that will return? Here is a link to a related video: Cannibalism is prophesied!

Biden-Harris: Prophecies and Destruction Can the USA survive two full presidential terms? In what ways are Joe Biden and Kamala Harris apocalyptic? This book has hundreds of prophecies and scriptures to provide details.  A Kindle version is also available and you do not need an actual Kindle device to read it. Why? Amazon will allow you to download it to almost any device: Please click HERE to download one of Amazon s Free Reader Apps. After you go to your free Kindle reader app (or if you already have one or a Kindle),  you can go to: Biden-Harris: Prophecies and Destruction (Kindle) to get the book in seconds.

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LATEST BIBLE PROPHECY INTERVIEWS

[mystlnewsonline]

Michael A. Quattrucci Admits to Beef Fraud

Rhode Island Beef Slaughterhouse, Owner Michael A. Quattrucci Admits to Violating the Federal Meat Inspection Act PROVIDENCE, RI (STL.News) A Johnston, RI, beef slaughterhouse and an owner, Michael A. Quattrucci of the company had admitted to a federal judge that they committed fraud when they claimed that the product they processed and supplied to customers had been federally inspected and passed as required under the Federal Meat Inspection Act (FMIA) when, in fact, it had not, announced United States Attorney Zachary A. Cunha. Rhode Island Beef and Veal and one of its owners, Michael A. Quattrucci, pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding customers by claiming that beef had been inspected under the FMIA, as well as by preparing beef without complying with inspection requirements of the FMIA.  Rhode Island Beef and Veal also pleaded guilty to a charge of defrauding customers by use of an official inspection mark of the Secretary of Agriculture without authorization. According to information presented to the court, on August 20, 2019, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Safety Inspection Service served R.I. Beef and Veal with a notice of suspension and withdrew its inspector. Eight days after the suspension was imposed and the inspector was withdrawn, a USDA supervisor visited the plant and found employees packing various cuts of meat and applying USDA marks of inspections to the meat.  Additionally, packaged meat with USDA stickers attached was found stored in five bins.  No inspector was present, as is required by law for these marks to be applied. A day later, a USDA investigator visited the slaughterhouse and took photos of the illegally marked packages of beef that had been retained from the day before; he also noted 224 pounds of unmarked ground beef and a 594-pound half carcass of beef that had been freshly cut into primal parts for delivery to a customer in Connecticut who supplies meat products to restaurants. Michael Quattrucci is scheduled to be sentenced on July 26, 2023; Rhode Island Beef and Veal is scheduled to be sentenced on September 7, 2023.  The defendants’ sentences will be determined by a federal judge after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Zechariah Chafee. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Justice Read the full article

[horsesarecreatures]

Examples of agricultural exceptionalism in the US that prove the agriculture industry is grossly underregulated compared to others:

Animal Cruelty

The most significant federal law protecting animals is the Animal Welfare Act. It protects animals used in research and dogs/cats commercially bred for pets or labs, but does not apply to animals raised for food or its production.

The Humane Methods of Slaughter Act dictates that slaughter be carried out using humane methods. However, poultry is excluded from this law, and poultry accounts for the majority of slaughtered land animals. The HMSA is also only applicable to slaughterhouses under federal meat inspection. It doesn't apply to state inspected slaughterhouses.

The Twenty-Eight Hour Law mandates that after 28 hours of travel, livestock should be unloaded for rest. However, there are exceptions. It isn't applicable to vehicles in which the animals have food, water, space, and an opportunity to rest. The person who has custody of the animals can also request that they be trailered for up to 36 hours without rest.

All states have anti-animal cruelty statues, but again many of these only apply to pets, not farm animals.

Some states like Nevada also exclude in their anti-cruelty statutes "...established methods of animal husbandry, including... transportation of livestock or farm animals." Oregon's anti-cruelty law also doesn't apply to "treatment of livestock being transported by an owner or common carrier." States that do include transportation in their anti-cruelty laws have on average have a fine of only $500.

Exemptions from Labor Laws

Agricultural employees are exempted from parts of both the Fair Labor Standards Act and the National Labor Relations Act.

Agricultural employees are exempted from FSLA overtime pay in that they don't have to be paid time-and-a-half for working over 40 hours a week.

Any employer in agriculture who didn't utilize more than 500 man days of agricultural labor in any quarter of the preceding calendar year is exempt from minimum wage and overtime provisions of the FLSA for the present year.

The NLRA doesn't cover agricultural employees because the definition of employee used by congress has led to their exclusion. Farmworkers therefore can't organize and are commonly abused and marginalized.

Ag Gag Laws

Several states have enacted laws that limit access to agricultural facilities and prohibit the distribution of photos and images attained there. Today 6 states have ag gag laws. Many have been challenged as violating Freedom of Speech.

After Iowa enacted a law prohibiting obtaining access to farms under false pretenses, Utah then created a new crime called "agricultural operation interference" which prohibits any recording without the owner's consent.

In 2012, Missouri made it illegal for a farm animal professional to fail to turn in recordings of animal abuse to authorities within 24 hours. On its face it sounds like a good thing, but what it actually does is prevent thorough long-term investigations because the owner of the farm will then know they're being reported, stop whatever they're doing, and claim any abuse caught on camera was just a one time act. Note that no US jurisdictions have criminalized the failure to report any other crime, even murder.

Idaho Code section 18-7042(1)(c), which has since been struck down in federal court for violating the First & Fourteenth Amendments of the US Constitution, criminalized obtaining employment with the intent to cause economic harm or injury to a facility, and also applied employees who obtained employment in good faith but then witnessed and wished to report wrongdoing.

Anti-Terrorism Laws:

The Animal Enterprise Protection Act was passed in 1992 and criminalized any "physical disruption" to an animal enterprise. The term has been interpreted broadly enough to potentially apply to whistleblowers. It has already been used to prosecute animal rights activists from the group Shac-7 who opposed animal testing. They were said to have violated the AEPA because their website "was a conspiracy to harm a business involved in an animal enterprise."

In 2006, the AEPA was amended through the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, and made it illegal for anyone with "the purpose of damaging or interfering with" an animal enterprise from causing the loss of "any real or personal property" of the enterprise. The law applies to those who cause any property loss, including loss of profits, to an animal-related business. Therefore, an activist distributing undercover footage could be charged as a terrorist.

Furthermore, many states such as Idaho have laws that allow practices as long as they are "customary," "normal," "common," or "accepted." Of course, what practices are customary are decided by the farmers. The more widely used a cruel practice is (think throwing chicks into grinders, castration with anesthesia, culling through suffocation, etc), the more likely it is to be exempt.

Lack of Environmental Regulation

The Clean Water Act does not regulate many concentrated animal feeding operations and most other farms, which are major sources of point and non-point source water pollution.

Under the Clean Air Act, the EPA can regulate greenhouse gas emissions from CAFOS, but the emissions thresholds are so high that that only the largest emitters must obtain permits. Most livestock producers don't qualify.

There are no mandatory regulations that target greenhouse gases specifically from livestock. The USDA does have programs to pay farmers to implement conservation efforts to mitigate environmental harms like erosion, but only 5% of agricultural lands currently use them.

Congress has also prevented the EPA from using its funds to implement a "cow tax" requiring livestock produces to acquire a permit for GHG pollution. It has also banned the EPA from enacting mandatory GHG reporting for farms.

Subsidies

Between 1997 & 2005, government subsidies to chicken, pork, beef, & corn producers were $26.5 billion, benefiting mostly large farms while costing the taxpayers billions and leaving smaller farms unable to compete.

The US Farm Bill of 2002 subsidized farms even more by giving investors up to $450,000 in federal money for working on animal waste treatment practices.

Distortion of Trespass Laws

Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation (SLAPP) are when baseless lawsuits are used to intimidate and silence opponents. Ex: In Wyoming ranchers filed a trespass suit against the Western Watershed Project after the nonprofit exposed the levels of E. Coli present in waterways next to several ranches. The WWP denied trespassing, but nevertheless, the Wyoming Legislature then passed WYO. STAT. ANN. section 6-3-414(g) which dictates that, "Resource data collected on private land in violation of this section in the possession of any governmental entity as defined by W.S. 1-39-103(a)(i) shall be expunged by the entity from all files and data bases, and it shall not be considered in determining any agency action."

Source:

Most of this is quoted or paraphrased from Big-AG Exceptionalism: Ending the Special Protection of the Agricultural Industry by Sonia Weil. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://drexel.edu/~/media/Files/law/law%20review/v10-1/183%20-%20Weil%20FINAL%202-27.ashx

*Note that this article is from 2017. I have not had the time to shepardize all the laws and cases in it, so there's a possibility that some laws mentioned may have changed or been repealed.

People love to call veganism ‘privileged,’ while conveniently ignoring the fact that the only reason animal products are even close to being accessible for the average consumer is because they’re factory farmed, slaughtered and packed by grossly underpaid labourers working in dangerous conditions, and then massively subsidised by all of our taxes.

[augustbrown]

Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program (MPPEP): WhatYou Should Know

About the MPPEP Opportunity-

In recent years, there has been a significant consolidation in the U.S. meat processing sector. This consolidation has resulted in various consequences for the industry, such as decreased competition, higher prices for consumers, and decreased ability to withstand disruptions in the supply chain. The MPPEP aims to tackle these issues by promoting the growth of smaller processors.

Under this program, eligible processors can receive grants of up to $25 million to support their expansion endeavors. To qualify, processors must be located in rural areas and adhere to the regulations outlined in either the Federal Meat Inspection Act or the Poultry Product Inspection Act.

The MPPEP is a competitive initiative, and applications will undergo evaluation based on multiple criteria, including the projected impact of the expansion on competition, feasibility, prices, and supply chain resilience. Projects that are expected to have the greatest influence in these areas will be given preference.

To continue reading click here - https://augustbrown.com/news-item/meat-and-poultry-processing-expansion-program-mppep/

[bazarnatural]

Posted @withregram • @ladyfreethinker Slaughterhouses that process animals for commercial sale — such as through grocery stores — are required to have continuous inspections by the @usdagov, and federal law requires a government official to be present on-site when the animals are slaughtered to ensure that facilities are meeting the minimum standards of the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (although the act itself is a misnomer, as LFT and other welfare nonprofits assert there is no such thing as “humane” slaughter).⁠ ⁠ But federal law grants an exemption to slaughterhouses that cater to people who want animals made into products but not for commercial use — such as hunters who want their kills processed or other people who want animals turned into meat for themselves (also known as "custom-exempt" slaughterhouses).⁠ ⁠ Custom-exempt slaughterhouses are keeping animals in deplorable conditions, beating them, and depriving them of food and water for extended periods in violation of federal law, according to an analysis of federal documents by nonprofit @awionline.⁠ ⁠ Tap our link in bio to learn more. https://www.instagram.com/p/Co1Ua9lMsSO/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"DO CANADA'S COLD STORAGE PLANTS HELP TO KEEP UP THE COST OF LIVING?" Ottawa Citizen. October 24, 1912. Page 1. --- Federal commission may be appointed to inquire into conditions in the cold storage plants of the Dominion. In place of being an assistance to the public it is claimed that in many centres, notably in Montreal, they operate to increase the already high cost of living. While great quantities of meat and dairy produce are bought when prices are low, they are held in many places till the winter months, when, with the prevailing scarcity, exorbitant prices are commended. An inspection system under the Pure Food Act is strongly advocated, it being alleged that many supplies are held in storage so long that the condition deteriorates and becomes a menace to health.

Boards of trade and municipal bodies have urged an investigation and the appointment of a commission to conduct it is quite probable.

[contemplatingoutlander]

Agreed @ms-cellanies . Far right, regressive Republicans are trying to bring us back to the America of the Gilded Age BEFORE the Progressive Era (1890-1929) made significant reforms, and way BEFORE the reforms of the New Deal.

People should read up on what life was like for ordinary Americans during the Gilded Age. It wasn't pretty. Even most MAGA people would not want to live there.

Whether or not MAGA folks want to admit it, it was the reforms made by progressives and liberals during the Progressive Era and the New Deal that created much of the America that they value and which makes their lives easier.

PROGRESSIVE ERA REFORMS: During the Progressive Era, reforms included (but were not limited to): "Factory safety regulations," child labor laws, workers' compensation, and "limits on working hours (mainly for women)"; standards for housing and sanitation; the women's suffrage movement, resulting in the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1919; destruction of the corrupt "political machine"; the 17th Amendment, which gave us the popular election of senators; the right of citizens to create initiatives and referendum, and to recall elected officials; the "Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food & Drug Act"; anti-trust laws and regulatory agencies, including "the Interstate Commerce Commission (and the Hepburn Act), the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the Federal Trade Commission"; the Settlement House Movement to help immigrants (run by early professional social workers); and "beautification campaigns" to create "parks, civic centers, and better transportation systems" in urban settings.

NEW DEAL REFORMS: During the New Deal there were many major reforms, including (but not limited to): The Social Security Act, which provides the elderly and the disabled with a basic income to prevent poverty; the National Labor Relations Act, which established the right of workers to form unions and the prohibition of "unfair labor practices" by employers; the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established "the right to a minimum wage, the 8-hour work day and 40-hour work week, and overtime pay at a rate of 1.5 times an employee’s regular rate," and which "outlawed many forms of child labor"; the National Housing Act, which was created "to make housing more affordable, curb increasing bank foreclosures, and stimulate the private housing industry," furthermore, "this act established the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation"; the Securities Exchange Act, which established the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to regulate the stock market; and finally banking reforms, such as the Glass-Steagall Banking Act, which "stabilized the banks, reducing bank failures," and which created the the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) "to protect depositors."

In short, the very policies that make our nation a first world nation, and which make our lives much better in big and little ways, come from progressive and liberal legislation that the Republicans have been trying to undo for decades.

What MAGA folks don't seem to understand is that in the long run, little good (especially little economic good for the working and middle classes) comes from conservative Republican policies. This is why 9 of the 10 poorest states in the country are run by Republicans.

To paraphrase a line from The Usual Suspects (1995):

The greatest trick the Republicans ever pulled was convincing working class people that they had their best economic interests at heart.

[edited]

[mudwerks]

very interesting article about the origins of food safety, including the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act and the Federal Meat Inspection Act.

[whattolearntoday]

A bit of June 30th history...

1520 - Spanish conquistadors are expelled from Tenochtitlan following an Aztec revolt against their rule under Cortes during “La Noche Triste” (the night of sadness); many soldiers drowned in the escape and Aztec emperor Montezuma II died in the struggle

1860 - Famous debate on Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution at Oxford University

1906 - US Congress passes the Meat Inspection Act and the Pure Food and Drug Act; these laws owe much to the journalism of the period - Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle” in particular

1908 - Tunguska Event: a giant fireball, most likely caused by the air burst of a large meteoroid or comet, flattens 80 million trees near Stony Tunguska River in Russia; largest event in recorded history (pictured)

1937 - World’s 1st emergency call telephone service is launched in London

1938 - Superman 1st appears in DC Comics’ Action Comic Series

1982 - Federal Equal Rights Amendment falls 3 states short of ratification

[xhxhxhx]

Rick Perlstein, Reaganland (Simon & Schuster, 2020):

AT THE SAME TIME, HOWEVER, a separate anti-liberal backlash was taking root. It was spurred by summer after summer of race riots, and its political base was not business but middle-class homeowners, who blamed civil rights and the War on Poverty for a civilization-threatening breakdown in law and order. Business was largely on the liberal side of this issue—like the author of a 1966 article in the Harvard Business Review predicting “riots and arson and spreading slums” if “the businessman does not accept his rightful role as leader in the push for the goals of the ‘Great Society’ (or whatever tag he wants to give it).”

No, business’s backlash, its emergence as a [class for itself], came a little bit later, in response to a new, and different, sort of liberalism—one whose buzzwords were “environmentalism” and “consumerism,” and which, unlike Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty, placed corporate power squarely in its sights.

Date its origin to the summer of 1967. Around the same time Congress was responding to middle-class constituent anger over black riots by voting down a modest bill funding rodent control in the slums, a remarkable hearing was held by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, chaired by Senator Warren Magnuson of Washington State. Magnuson had been approached by a Seattle physician who described a “chronic, unrelenting procession of burned and scarred children” in his work at Seattle Children’s Hospital, caused by the sort of flammable fabrics that had supposedly been outlawed by the Flammable Fabrics Act of 1953. That law, however, had been written by industry lobbyists. Back then, Commerce Committee members were classed by what industry they served: “textile senators,” “trucking senators,” “railroad senators,” “tobacco senators” (the leading tobacco senator was the former president of the Tobacco Institute). They sponsored protectionist laws written by their benefactors—like the Wool Products Labeling Act, which banned manufacturers from selling a product as wool if it contained a single strand of recycled or synthetic fiber; or bills fixing prices for legacy companies. The process was so corrupt that when Chairman Magnuson hired a young lawyer in 1964 named Michael Pertschuk to run the committee’s portfolio of consumer products legislation, the fellow he replaced congratulated him on all the price-fixed products, from audio equipment to toasters, that he soon would be getting for free.

This all would soon be a thing of the past.

Magnuson had been a fisheries senator and an aviation senator. After almost losing his seat in 1962, however, he reinvented himself aggressively as a new kind of liberal legislative entrepreneur: a consumerist senator. He put Pertschuk to work toughening up the limp Flammable Fabrics Act. A textile industry lobbyist replied “blood would run in the halls of Congress” before his industry let it pass. But the hearings Pertschuk staged in July of 1967 were a masterpiece of legislative melodrama. The Seattle doctor testified: “In all honesty, I must say I do not consider it a triumph when the life of a severely burned child is saved.… Death may be more merciful.” A beloved CBS News commentator told the story of his eleven-year-old daughter, burned nearly to death when a cotton blouse that met federal safety standards combusted when a match was dropped on it. A representative of the Cotton Textile Council boasted of the “admirable” results produced by its standards committee. The square-jawed and stentorian Magnuson replied:

“How often does your standards committee meet?”

“Regularly, Senator.”

How often, Magnuson followed up, before they’d received his recent letter warning them of impending congressional action?

“Ten years,” the lobbyist admitted.

The amendments passed the committee unanimously, then both houses, virtually unchanged. President Johnson signed the bill with Magnuson by his side. The following day he signed the first update to meat inspection law since the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act, with Upton Sinclair, the novelist whose 1905 exposé The Jungle had inspired it, standing next to him. A landmark “truth in lending” bill went to conference six weeks later. The former senator Paul Douglas, a New Deal economist who had lost his seat in 1966 largely because white Chicago factory workers turned their back on him because of his advocacy for a failed bill outlawing housing discrimination, had been pressing for it since the 1950s, but was defeated in the Finance Committee session after session. Now, however, it passed the committee unanimously.

The floodgates opened: to laws fighting deceptive practices by door-to-door salesmen and moving companies, outlawing hazardous radiation from electronics equipment, closing gaps in poultry and fish inspection, demanding accuracy in product warranties, regulating cigarettes. “Consumer Interests: Legislative Derby Has Begun,” one Midwestern newspaper reported early in 1968. That headline appeared just as Congress voted to outlaw housing discrimination in a desperate response to the riots following the April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The version that passed, however, weaker than one killed in 1966, added near-police-state provisions limiting militant blacks’ freedom to travel. Riots had burned down Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty. “Consumerism” sprung forth phoenix-like from the ashes.

Politicians discovered that scourging industry greed was the smart political play. It certainly was for Magnuson, who glided to reelection in 1970 with ads that bragged, “There’s a law that forced Detroit to make cars safer—Senator Magnuson’s law. There’s a law that keeps the gas pipelines under your house from blowing up—Senator Magnuson’s law. There’s a law that makes food labels tell the truth—Senator Magnuson’s law. Keep the big boys honest; let’s keep Maggie in the Senate.”

It heralded a remarkable shift in public opinion. In 1966, 55 percent of Americans had a “great deal of confidence in the leaders of major companies.” Five years later, the percentage was 27 percent. Between 1968 and 1970, the portion believing “business tries to strike a fair balance between profits and the interest of the public” fell from 70 percent to 33 percent. Wrote pollster Lou Harris, “People have come to be skeptical about American ‘know-how,’ worried that it might pollute, contaminate, poison, or even kill them.”

[...]

IDEALISTIC YOUNG LAWYERS FLOCKED TO the organizations [Ralph] Nader began forming [in the late 1960s]. The first product of these “Nader’s Raiders” was a 185-page report on the Federal Trade Commission, a notoriously toothless regulatory body that took, on average, four years to investigate every complaint, punishing the guilty with unenforceable orders to cease and desist. The monograph was couriered to 150 key journalists out of the back of a Raider’s Volkswagen. It called the FTC a “self-parody of bureaucracy, fat with cronyism, torpid through inbreeding unusual even for Washington, manipulated by the agents of commercial predators, impervious to government or citizen monitoring,” ridden with “alcoholism, spectacular lassitude, and office absenteeism.”

By then the president was Richard Nixon, who had to accede to the new anti-corporate mood just to maintain political credibility. He ordered up his own FTC investigation. It arrived at similar conclusions. So Nixon replaced the FTC director with the shrewdest bureaucrat in his administration, Caspar “Cap the Knife” Weinberger, who roared out of the starting gate with actions against dubious advertising claims of such blue-chip products as Hi-C, Listerine, Wonder Bread, and McDonald’s.

Nixon then signed a landmark mine safety law and the National Environmental Policy Act, establishing the first new independent federal regulatory agency since 1938, then added another with a law authorizing the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That project was inherited from the Johnson administration, and at first, Nixon’s version was so mild that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce endorsed it. But the “creature that ultimately stomped out of Congress,” a historian recounted, was a “Frankenstein of Chamber members’ nightmares.” Federal agents had never had the authority to inspect individual businesses for health and safety violations. OSHA gave them the power to do it without warrants, then levy hefty fines with no avenue for appeal. Richard Nixon didn’t dare veto it.

Nor did he veto tough amendments to the Clean Air Act of 1963 that included something nearly unprecedented in previous environmental legislation: specific deadlines for compliance. It also enjoined the new EPA from considering costs in establishing ambient air standards—inspiring Robert Griffin, a Republican automotive senator from Michigan, to snarl that the 1975 deadline for limiting auto exhaust pollutants “holds a gun to the head of the American automobile industry in a very dangerous game of roulette.” The technology to implement the standards, he complained, did not exist. Democrat Edmund Muskie of Maine, the leader of senate environmentalists, responded, “This deadline is based not, I repeat, not, on economic and technological feasibility, but on considerations of public health.… Detroit has told the nation that Americans cannot live without the automobile. This legislation would tell Detroit that if this is the case, then they must make an automobile with which the American people can live.” The version that passed the Senate 73–2 was stronger than what had been debated in any hearing. A cowed GM lobbyist told the National Journal that “the atmosphere was such that offering amendments seemed pointless,” and that “I wouldn’t think of asking anybody to vote against the bill.”

The Senate Commerce Committee, that former redoubt of trucking senators, railroad senators, textile senators, and tobacco senators, became a regulator’s paradise. At confirmation hearings for a new FTC head, Frank Moss congratulated the agency for having “stretched its powers to provide a credible countervailing public force to the enormous economic and political power of huge corporate conglomerates which today dominate American enterprise. That is as it should be.” Then one of Moss’s conservative colleagues, Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, asked the nominee to “become a real zealot in terms of consumer affairs,” tough enough that “these big businesspeople will complain.”

In 1971, Webster’s added the word consumerism to its Third New International Dictionary. A book called America, Inc.: Who Owns and Operates the United States? coauthored by the Washington Post’s consumer reporter and original Nader champion Morton Mintz rode the bestseller list for months. Children begged at bedtime to hear Dr. Seuss’s new book The Lorax, in which a pitiless capitalist “biggers” his business by harvesting every last Truffula tree, crying triumphantly, “Business is business and business must grow!” and leaving behind a barren hellscape. Gore Vidal published a cover article in Esquire touting Nader for president, and 78 percent of columnist Mike Royko’s readers who sent back a questionnaire he published said they wanted him as the Democrats’ presidential nominee. Another new independent regulatory agency, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, was born. Congress passed bills requiring childproof packaging for poisonous substances, killing federal subsidies for a supersonic transport plane, restricting lead in house paint, and establishing safety standards for recreational boats. Nixon signed them—not because he was a closet liberal, but because, as his aide Bryce Harlow, a former lobbyist for Procter & Gamble, delicately explained to the American Advertising Federation, though “President Nixon profoundly respects the critical contribution made by industry to the vitality and strength of the American economy, if this respect were to over-influence his actions, I am certain that the fall of 1972 would bring a new and hostile team to the White House.”

Nader had by then established a permanent presence in the capital, based in a decrepit mansion which had been slated for demolition in the down-market Dupont Circle neighborhood, where, amid a shambles of borrowed third-hand furniture and wooden fruit crates stuffed with books and files, staggeringly devoted young Ivy League–trained Nader’s Raiders institutionalized their hero’s agenda. The neighborhood was pocked with similar offices. Common Cause, Friends of the Earth, the Natural Resources Defense Council, Nader’s own Public Citizen, Environmental Action, the Center for Law and Social Policy, and the Consumer Federation of America were all established in 1969 or 1970. Nader started six new organizations in 1971 alone, including Public Citizen, a membership group that raised more than $1 million from sixty-two thousand donors in its first year.

That was another new pattern. Throughout the seventies, pundits cast their eye on declining election turnout and agonized over voter apathy. But apathy at the polls did not extend to joining consumer and environmental organizations, whose memberships exploded, thanks in part to the same computer-based direct mail technology that Richard Viguerie employed. Nearly one hundred thousand households contributed at least $70 to not one, not two, but three progressive membership groups. Major foundations pitched in, too. Thanks to the shower of cash—and because most new consumer and environmental laws awarded attorneys’ fees to plaintiffs who sued to enforce them—lawsuits against corporations increased exponentially.

George McGovern considered Nader as his running mate. (He replied, “I’m an advocate for justice and that doesn’t mix with the needs of politics.”) Nixon vetoed the 1972 Clean Water Act, for its “staggering, budget-wrecking” $24 billion cost—but his veto was overridden with considerable Republican votes. In October, he signed a law establishing the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the third new regulatory agency in three years.

Then, however, following his landslide reelection, he proposed a radical right-wing budget that Newsweek described as “one of the most significant American political documents since the dawning of the New Deal,” intended to “pull the government back from the proliferating social concerns of the years from Franklin Roosevelt to Lyndon Johnson.” Thanks to Watergate, he never got the chance. Senator Sam Ervin’s televised hearings had reverberated with accounts of briefcases full of corporate cash laundered through the Mexican subsidiaries of blue-chip firms like American Airlines, Goodyear, and 3M. In the midst of it came the first energy crisis, which a majority of Americans—and some senators—believed the big energy companies had cooked up to line their pockets. Pollster Daniel Yankelovich found that 70 percent of Americans believed big business controlled government through illegal bribes. And that was before spectacular revelations, following Nixon’s resignation, that the same slush funds companies maintained to bribe Nixon were also used to pay off foreign officials. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s chief of enforcement was gobsmacked. “Until two or three years ago,” he said, “I genuinely thought the conduct of business… was generally rising. But what can you say about the revelations of the last couple or three years?”

Under President Ford, government checks on corporate power expanded yet further. One of the first laws he signed was the Employment Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA, which strictly enforced the pension promises companies made to their employees, placing thousands of company’s books under federal scrutiny for the first time. In 1975 he signed the Energy Policy and Conservation Act, a landmark law demanding that every American car manufacturer achieve a “Corporate Average Fuel Economy,” or CAFE, of eighteen miles per gallon by the 1978 model year. That meant every manufacturer had to redesign every car on the drawing boards. An automotive think tank estimated that it would cost manufacturers $60 billion to $80 billion, virtually their entire store of capital assets, and made the companies fear for their very survival. A group of automotive lobbyists approached the chief of staff of Edmund Muskie’s environmental subcommittee, Leon Billings, with a memo suggesting some ideas on the bill. Billings fashioned a paper airplane out of the document and sailed it straight over their heads.

This passage made me change my mind about Richard Nixon.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Independent Media Institute/EcoWatch:

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) was sued three times this past summer for shirking its responsibility to protect birds from egregious welfare violations and safeguard workers at slaughterhouses from injuries and the spread of the coronavirus.

Over the years, it has become abundantly clear that federal regulators not only let animal abusers off the hook but also placate the factory farm industry by subverting worker and consumer interests. On July 27, a growing number of animal advocacy organizations joined a lawsuit that challenged the USDA over its recent bird flu response plan, which indemnifies factory farms and fails to address how intensive confinement contributes to disease outbreaks. One day later, unions representing workers across six states sued the USDA over its approval of faster slaughter line speeds that they say will endanger workers.

In August, my organization, the Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), and Farm Sanctuary sued the USDA over its persistent failure to require humane handling of poultry at slaughter, resulting in damaged or contaminated products that violate the federal Poultry Products Inspection Act and compromise food safety and meat quality.

Our lawsuit comes after we initially petitioned the department in 2013 to uphold its congressional mandate and codify poultry humane handling standards into enforceable regulations. After six years, during which time federal inspectors documented more than 2,000 incidents of poultry mistreatment, the USDA denied our petition in 2019. At the same time, the department denied a second petition asking it to address the problem of birds being abandoned in the holding areas of slaughter plants — often in extreme heat or cold for extended periods.

Ongoing reviews of USDA enforcement records by AWI reveal that every year, government inspectors document the suffering of tens of thousands of birds from suffocation, blunt force trauma, and heat or cold stress before even reaching the slaughter line. This widespread suffering is entirely preventable, as it is caused by neglect, inadequate worker training, faulty equipment, and intentional acts of cruelty at slaughterhouses.