While millions of people voted for animal welfare laws that protect female pigs from being kept in tiny enclosures called gestation crates, not everyone has embraced their freedom. Several meat trade groups, along with Triumph Foods — one of America’s largest pork companies — have sued California and Massachusetts numerous times to try to overturn their gestation crate laws. The industry’s legal argument centers around the claim that the animal welfare laws violate a legal doctrine called the dormant commerce clause, which puts some limits on states enacting laws that affect other states. But all of the lawsuits have failed, including one from the National Pork Producers Council that made it to the US Supreme Court, which in 2023 ruled to uphold California’s law as constitutional. Companies and industry groups have also worked with members of Congress for over a decade to introduce federal legislation to nullify laws like those in California and Massachusetts. The latest iteration is called the Save Our Bacon Act, originally proposed last year. This effort, which for years went nowhere as standalone legislation in Congress, now has a decent chance at becoming law as part of the new Farm Bill, a package of legislation that is supposed to be reauthorized every five years and is the main vehicle for federal agriculture and nutrition policy. Read more at the link in our bio. 📸: American Meat Producers Association and Humane World for Animals #FarmBill #Pigs #Agriculture #Congress #AnimalRights