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Playful piglets romp around their pen at OC Fair and Event Center Centennial Farm on Saturday, January 8, 2022 in Costa Mesa, California.
(Photo: Mindy Schauer/MediaNewsGroup/Orange County Register via Getty Images)
Supreme Court Animal Welfare Ruling a Win for Democracy
In a surprising decision, the corporate-coddling court ruled that the people, not the meatpacking industry, should shape agricultural policy.
Jun 04, 2023
It’s an odd marketing strategy for an industry to assail its own consumers.
Yet, that’s what the monopolistic meatpacking industry—led by such huge conglomerates as Tyson, Smithfield, JBS, and Hormel, which control nearly 70% of America’s pork market—is doing.
“Just shut up and eat your bacon,” the industry shrieks.
Adding plutocratic stupidity to their greed, the pork barons then sued the people of California. Yes, the pork profiteers actually asserted that democracy must not interfere with “sound business practices.”
The target of their corporate tantrum is the growing grassroots movement of consumers, animal rights advocates, farmers, chefs, retailers, and others who are dismayed and disgusted by Big Pork’s profiteering on animal cruelty.
“None of your business!” shout the executives, lobbyists, lawyers, and for-rent politicians who run the tortuous system.
But gutsy groups like the Humane Society made their way inside the industry’s animal factories, videoing such mass horrors as thousands of pregnant sows locked for 16 weeks at a time in gestation crates so small the animals can’t even turn around. In 2018, such exposés prompted 60% of California voters to approve a ballot initiative outlawing the use of the inhumane crates.
Adding plutocratic stupidity to their greed, the pork barons then sued the people of California. Yes, the pork profiteers actually asserted that democracy must not interfere with “sound business practices.”
Never mind that few of us uncorporatized commoners consider animal suffering to be a sound practice. Even the corporate-coddling Supreme Court gagged at the industry’s claim that it has the sovereign power to dictate what type of pork chops are available to the public.
This May, in an odd-fellow 5-4 decision rendered by two progressive judges and three corporatists, the Court ruled that “policy choices like these usually belong to the people.” Well, yes—and to the animals!
This is an example of how grassroots activism matters in important ways. To stay involved in this issue, go to humanesociety.org.
We are at a crossroads
This country and this world are at a monumental crossroads. US voters have an opportunity to beat back the forces of fascism and confront the billionaires who are rigging the economy, our media system, and our democracy, making it increasingly impossible for ordinary people to get by. We’re not just talking about the election. We’re talking about what must be done once these fascist elements are vanquished from power. We need a bolder set of solutions than what either major party has so far been willing to offer and a working-class movement ready to fight like hell for it. Trump didn't emerge from nowhere. The conditions that fueled MAGA authoritarianism were created by decades of radical neoliberal economic policies and a corrupt political system dominated by corporate interests. They slashed taxes on the super-rich, promising that the benefits would trickle down. They said giveaways to the corporate titans would make life more affordable for the rest of us. It was all bullshit. And when a bitter, betrayed populace searches for someone to blame, right-wing demagogues have little trouble finding scapegoats. People know when they're being lied to, but you won't hear any of this from the corporate media. Only independent journalism—powered and funded by people who believe in building a better world—can deliver truly trustworthy daily news. If you share our vision, please contribute whatever you can to sustain our work. |
This column was distributed by OtherWords.
Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the books "Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow" (2008) and "There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos: A Work of Political Subversion" (1998). Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
It’s an odd marketing strategy for an industry to assail its own consumers.
Yet, that’s what the monopolistic meatpacking industry—led by such huge conglomerates as Tyson, Smithfield, JBS, and Hormel, which control nearly 70% of America’s pork market—is doing.
“Just shut up and eat your bacon,” the industry shrieks.
Adding plutocratic stupidity to their greed, the pork barons then sued the people of California. Yes, the pork profiteers actually asserted that democracy must not interfere with “sound business practices.”
The target of their corporate tantrum is the growing grassroots movement of consumers, animal rights advocates, farmers, chefs, retailers, and others who are dismayed and disgusted by Big Pork’s profiteering on animal cruelty.
“None of your business!” shout the executives, lobbyists, lawyers, and for-rent politicians who run the tortuous system.
But gutsy groups like the Humane Society made their way inside the industry’s animal factories, videoing such mass horrors as thousands of pregnant sows locked for 16 weeks at a time in gestation crates so small the animals can’t even turn around. In 2018, such exposés prompted 60% of California voters to approve a ballot initiative outlawing the use of the inhumane crates.
Adding plutocratic stupidity to their greed, the pork barons then sued the people of California. Yes, the pork profiteers actually asserted that democracy must not interfere with “sound business practices.”
Never mind that few of us uncorporatized commoners consider animal suffering to be a sound practice. Even the corporate-coddling Supreme Court gagged at the industry’s claim that it has the sovereign power to dictate what type of pork chops are available to the public.
This May, in an odd-fellow 5-4 decision rendered by two progressive judges and three corporatists, the Court ruled that “policy choices like these usually belong to the people.” Well, yes—and to the animals!
This is an example of how grassroots activism matters in important ways. To stay involved in this issue, go to humanesociety.org.
Jim Hightower
Jim Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author of the books "Swim Against The Current: Even A Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow" (2008) and "There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos: A Work of Political Subversion" (1998). Hightower has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks.
It’s an odd marketing strategy for an industry to assail its own consumers.
Yet, that’s what the monopolistic meatpacking industry—led by such huge conglomerates as Tyson, Smithfield, JBS, and Hormel, which control nearly 70% of America’s pork market—is doing.
“Just shut up and eat your bacon,” the industry shrieks.
Adding plutocratic stupidity to their greed, the pork barons then sued the people of California. Yes, the pork profiteers actually asserted that democracy must not interfere with “sound business practices.”
The target of their corporate tantrum is the growing grassroots movement of consumers, animal rights advocates, farmers, chefs, retailers, and others who are dismayed and disgusted by Big Pork’s profiteering on animal cruelty.
“None of your business!” shout the executives, lobbyists, lawyers, and for-rent politicians who run the tortuous system.
But gutsy groups like the Humane Society made their way inside the industry’s animal factories, videoing such mass horrors as thousands of pregnant sows locked for 16 weeks at a time in gestation crates so small the animals can’t even turn around. In 2018, such exposés prompted 60% of California voters to approve a ballot initiative outlawing the use of the inhumane crates.
Adding plutocratic stupidity to their greed, the pork barons then sued the people of California. Yes, the pork profiteers actually asserted that democracy must not interfere with “sound business practices.”
Never mind that few of us uncorporatized commoners consider animal suffering to be a sound practice. Even the corporate-coddling Supreme Court gagged at the industry’s claim that it has the sovereign power to dictate what type of pork chops are available to the public.
This May, in an odd-fellow 5-4 decision rendered by two progressive judges and three corporatists, the Court ruled that “policy choices like these usually belong to the people.” Well, yes—and to the animals!
This is an example of how grassroots activism matters in important ways. To stay involved in this issue, go to humanesociety.org.
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