That's what Senator Grassley (IA-R) called California's progressive animal welfare statute, Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act. Proposition 12 passed with 63% public support. It would prevent Iowa massive pork industry from selling their products to Californians who make up a significant 15% of the US food market. The pork industry launched a legal campaign to prevent the law's implementation, so it is headed to a final hearing in the California Supreme Court. What is this war about? Basically it is about giving mother sows and their piglets enough room to stand up and stretch their limbs without touching their enclosure or each other..That space has been fixed at 24 square feet. Sounds innocuous enough, right? Not for the industrialized pig industry, which inhumanely confines these intelligent animals to pens not much larger than the sow herself. These cages are called gestation crates, which are metal cages designed to confine a sow while she is forcibly artificially inseminated through multiple pregnancies. It is a scene out of a Nazi-inspired nighmare. An official at the American Humane Society remarked, “Can you imagine the pain, suffering and fear when you can’t turn around for four years? Pigs are social, smart creatures. If you did this to a dog, you’d be arrested in every state.” [photo credit: PETA]
According to Grassley's written opinion in the Des Moines Register, relieving animals of this sordid suffering constitutes a "war on breakfast"--total, unadulterated hypocrisy.
To continue selling their product in California, Iowa pig farmers will have to alter their business practices by confining fewer pigs and altering exisitng animal housing, which undeniably will impact their bottom lines. So what this so-called war is really about is profit, as so many things are in 'Merica. Proposition 12 will impact large, corporate operations the most. They keep the most pigs and in large numbers. According to one report the largest 10 hog businesses keep half of the country's sows. During the pandemic, these companies made record profits, probably because a lot more people had time to eat breakfast. The California law is not about putting family farmers out of business. It is about ensuring corporate operations provide a minimum of humane conditions for the animals that produce their profits margins. Consolidation in agriculture has forced small farmer out, not enlightened animal welfare legislation.