For decades, independent scientists have been working to expose how the federal government fails to protect citizens from unsafe meat and eggs. Well over 1 million Americans fall ill annually due to salmonella, E. coli and other pathogens in animal products. Now, in a distressing turn of events, the Biden administration has sided with Big Pork in an effort to prevent states from enacting common-sense standards to protect their residents. We urge the administration to change course before more Americans are sickened by unsafe ham, bacon, chops and other forms of pork.
The issue stems from a 2018 California ballot measure, Proposition 12, aimed at preventing the sale within the state of meat and eggs produced in cruel and unsafe ways. Much of the pork and eggs sold in the U.S. comes from industrial factory farms that confine animals in cages so small they can barely move. Proposition 12 requires that for those items to be produced or sold in California, they must come from facilities that give animals a bit more space. The initiative was backed by animal protection groups, the Center for Food Safety, and hundreds of other nonprofits, experts and faith leaders, and it passed with overwhelming support from voters. While many producers changed their practices to comply with the new law, some multinational pork corporations have sued repeatedly to overturn it so they can continue to keep mother pigs in cages so small they can’t turn around. Now the producers’ challenge to Proposition 12 is in front of the Supreme Court.
Corporations that confine animals in highly restrictive cages in crowded production facilities create the ideal breeding ground for dangerous bacteria and viruses. These pathogens spread and mutate, ultimately threatening people in two ways: through direct transmission to workers in factory farms or slaughterhouses and through food poisoning. This isn’t just theoretical; the 2009 swine flu killed hundreds of thousands of people worldwide. And each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans become ill from consuming pork alone.
Lawyers for the pork industry are arguing to the Supreme Court that confining pigs in tiny crates doesn’t represent a health threat. Unfortunately for those lawyers and their clients, independent experts state exactly the opposite. In a brief submitted to the court, the American Public Health Association, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Center for Food Safety and others wrote that confining mother pigs in crates causes them tremendous stress, which in turn makes them more susceptible to disease that then can be passed on to their piglets. They note that “pathogen-infected piglets often do not exhibit any symptoms, meaning that infectious diseases will persist in the piglets through slaughter without detection, resulting in pork products contaminated with pathogens.”
In a disappointing move, U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar submitted a brief siding with the pork producers on behalf of the Biden administration. This decision may have been influenced by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, onetime governor of Iowa, the top pork-producing state, who has deep ties to industrial agribusiness. Prelogar’s brief essentially argues that there could be merit to the pork producers’ allegations, including that Proposition 12 has no real health and safety purpose. Courts, however, have consistently determined that states have the right under the Constitution to enact measures such as Proposition 12 to protect the health of their residents.
We suspect that the solicitor general was misled by pork industry lawyers who have downplayed the very real threat that extreme confinement of pigs causes to American families. We in the public health community hope that Prelogar will change course before the court hears the case.
There is still time to protect the well-being of people in California and elsewhere.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Dr. Joann Lindenmayer is an adjunct associate professor of public health at the Tufts University School of Medicine and is an alumnus of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Epidemic Intelligence Service. She was an epidemiologist for three state health departments. Dr. Gail Hansen is a private consultant on public health policy. She was an epidemiologist for Kansas for more than 10 years.
