Aging Capriciously

“Give me my eggs over easy with a slice of bacon on the side.”  “I don’t give a damn how the pigs are raised as long as the bacon is well done.”

A recent lawsuit by the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation seeks to overturn a lower court ruling that specifies more humane conditions for the cages in which pigs are kept.  “If you’re looking for an example of an unconstitutional law, this is it,” said Michael Formica, chief legal strategist for the pork producers.

I scratch my head in disbelief at Formica’s statement, not to mention his callous opportunistic disregard for how these poor animals destined to be slaughtered for his slice of bacon are kept.  Just another fat white middle-aged lawyer ready to take up his legal cudgel to defend our right to bacon, sausage, and pork chops.  But more importantly to defend the rights of industry to make profits regardless of who or what is hurt in the effort.

Formica claims that the US Constitution defends this right.  Another legal escapism from what I am sure the founders of this country had no intention to protect.  Jefferson, Hamilton, Adams, and Franklin would have been appalled at the notion of CAFOS (Concentrated Animal Feed Operations).  Industry designed operations built for the sole purpose of keeping prices low and making huge profits.

In Polk County Wisconsin, we have been waging a four-year battle to try to regulate these CAFOS and keep them from destroying the environment.  It has been an uphill battle as the never-ending lawsuits from pork producers are like unlimited cannon balls coming at well intentioned but unprotected and outgunned citizen groups.  The law that Formica wants to challenge was passed in California on a 2018 ballot initiative written by voters to bar sales in California of pork, veal, and eggs from animals whose confinement failed to meet minimum space requirements.

If you are a vegan or vegetarian, which I am not, you are no doubt more concerned about the welfare of these poor caged animals then you are about the price of bacon or even the environmental impacts of these animal concentration camps.

I asked Porky the Pig what he thought of these operations.  Porky is representing the Voters of California against Formica’s and the Pig Industries challenge to the California Law which (Also unbelievably) has worked its way up to the US Supreme Court.  “Pork industry takes fight over California law to U.S. Supreme Court” – By Leah Douglas, October 10,2022

The Supreme Court stands ever ready to defend big business against even the most bizarre and frivolous lawsuits ever conceived.  An institution that was once a bulwark against infringements to civil liberties has become a pimp for any business with enough money to hire a scumbag lawyer.  A legal whiz who with no humanity or morality will develop esoteric arguments to protect his/her clients rights to make a profit regardless of what economists call “externalities.”  The definition of an externality is “A side effect or consequence of an industrial or commercial activity that affects other parties without this being reflected in the cost of the goods or services involved.”  Global Warming and Climate Change are an egregious example of externalities that are now costing the world billions of lives and dollars.  An externality to pigs and cows is simply abuse and murder.

Porky the Pig told me that he has lost many family members, friends, and other relatives to these CAFO operations.  The basis for his defense against Formica’s lawsuit rests not on econometric issues such as supply and demand but on the sheer inhumanity of the way pigs are kept prior to being slaughtered.  Porky was somewhat indifferent to the eventual slaughter of pigs for food.  “John,” he said to me, “We all have to go sometime.  However, like humans it is not when we go but how that really bothers us.  To spend our entire life in a cage that is so confining, we cannot even turn around, that is no way to live.  Your famous Patrick Henry echoed a sentiment that is our rallying cry.  ‘Give us liberty or give us death.’”

I left Porky feeling very guilty.  I don’t know if I want to give up bacon and eggs.  I do know that I would be willing to pay more for my bacon and sausage to know that Porky and his family had been treated humanly before being slaughtered.  Once upon a time, we knew that a nation could not have both guns and butter.  You had to make a choice.  Like not being able to have your cake and eat it.  We seem to have forgotten that lesson.  Or we are unwilling to make a choice?  We want cheap food, but we also want to spend trillions of dollars on our defense industry.  We want low priced bacon and eggs but high-priced missiles and bombs.  When will the people in this country wake up?  As Patrick Henry also said,

“What is it that you wish?  What would you have?  Is bacon so dear, or sausage so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of brutality and cruelty?  Forbid it, Almighty God!

PS:

Received the following message from a friend of mine in Wisconsin on November 4, 2022. It concerns a new development in the ongoing war against a CAFO in Northwestern Wisconsin. She has been very active in the effort to block allowing CAFO’S without more government regulation. This letter illustrates the ongoing battles I referred to in my blog with big business allied against us average folks.

Dear John,

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) served the Town of Laketown with a lawsuit this week. Their billionaire members want the Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) Ordinance several local towns have passed, rescinded.

WMC’s complaint mirrors their April 19, 2022 Notice of Claim. However, they ditched the nudist colony as a proxy plaintiff. They are still using the Byl and Spoestra farms as proxies. The lead plaintiff is Mike Byl, convicted for illegal dumping in 2018. WMC argues that local governments may only use Wisconsin Statute 93.90, the ridiculously weak law they wrote, to regulate giant livestock factories.

For more information, please see the attached documents:

1.      Case Summary – 10.12.22

2.      Summons and Complaint – 10.12.22

3.      Notice of Claim – 4.19.22

4.      Mike Byl Conviction – 7.23.18

The law firms of Bassford Remele and Fredrikson Byron, are representing Laketown.

A copy of the ordinance is available on Laketown’s website: Town of Laketown | Polk County, WI

Of course, this is just the latest of many attacks that the WMC is making around the state to intimidate local officials. In Kewaunee County, WMC helped fuel a decade of litigation for the giant Kinnard 8,000-cow dairy. In that case, these behemoths say they don’t need to do any well monitoring even though they are spreading raw feces and urine over 16,000 acres. That is 25 sections of land or almost 3/4 of a township! 

Wisconsin’s Big Ag is now using a convicted polluter from Laketown to argue that local governments can’t protect their citizens’ health or property values. We are proud that Laketown’s leaders and citizens are willing and able to derail them.

Sincerely –