As long as we’re talking about food….
Government by referendum is not a great way to run a railroad, IMHO. Certainly, California voters have wandered down some deeply damaging alleys with the referendum process in that state. (The referendum-induced 2/3rds majority required to raise taxes has been a stunning success, for example, if by success you mean rendering the world’s 8th largest economy largely ungovernable.
But there is no doubt that if you are into federalism and the return of power to the most local level possible, then it ought to be hard to find fault with the notion that citizens of state ought to be able to decide that they want there food supply raised under certain regulatory conditions, and they want to ensure local standards of food safety. So, who should object to this:
A California voter-approved law…requires that caged veal calves and breeding sows as well as laying hens should be able to stand up, lie down, turn around and freely extend their limbs.
The initiative was approved by 64 percent of California voters after animal rights activists released undercover videos of strangled, deformed and mummified hens in cages.
This isn’t even that controversial among at least some of the affected producers, according to reporting at SFGate.com:
The egg industry, in a landmark agreement with the Humane Society of the United States, has embraced the hen law and enlisted Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., to enact it nationally so that all egg producers operate under the same rules.
Other states have similar laws, but all that may change (cue the usual suspects music) if the House GOP, fronted by poster child dangerous idiot Steve King (R-salmonella) have their way:
The latest salvo came in a midnight vote in the House Agriculture Committee on an amendment to deny states the ability to regulate any farm product, potentially overturning not just California’s farm laws but animal welfare, food safety and environmental laws related to any farm product in all 50 states. [King introduced the amendment]
Read that again: “potentially overturning not just California’s farm laws but animal welfare, food safety and environmental laws related to any farm product in all 50 states.” [Emphasis added, obviously]
For just a taste of the implications, here’s a California egg farmer who supports the law:
Riebli, the Petaluma egg farmer, said that if King’s amendment survives, “California also has pesticide laws for fruits and vegetables. They’re gone. California has its own standards for fluid milk (requiring fortification with vitamin D). They’re gone.”
Who needs a race to the bottom when Congress can just teleport us to the floor of the Marianas Trench?
There’s a lot more to this issue — we’ve got a pigs vs. chickens battle going on; an argument over what states can regulate that has genuine complexity and so on. But look at what the GOP is trying to do (to be fair, along with Democrats from some ag/agribusiness heavy states): deny the ability of any state to regulate the health and safety of the food it’s citizens consume.
John’s running tagline is basically right: anyone voting Republican now and for the foreseeable future is voting to turn the United States into Somalia.
Discuss.
Image: Gustav Klimt, Garden With Roosters, 1917
Josie
This has nothing to do with states’ rights vs. federalism. It has to do with large agribusiness vs. small farmers/producers. As usual with Republicans, it is big money making the rules for small money. States’ rights goes under the bus when big money is involved.
Spaghetti Lee
They don’t care about state’s rights. Not even a little bit. They care about making the country as easy as possible for big business/right-wing nutters to control. Normally, the state’s rights thing works: it’s easier to get, say, the Texas or Utah state legislature to pass crazy shit that wouldn’t fly in a national congress. But those dirty blue hippie states, well, they can’t have any autonomy. They need the watchful eye of big government looking over their shoulder, to make sure they don’t make things too difficult for big business.
Peregrinus
I wonder how the CA restaurant industry feels about it. I know they’re incredibly pissed over the incipient foie gras ban.
Also, I’m in Hartsfield-Jackson watching Romney lying his fucking ass off on CNN, without (of course) any pushback whatsoever. He mentioned that “one reviewer” gave the Bain Capital story “multiple Pinocchios.”
Maybe it’s because so far I’ve had massively delayed flights, or maybe because I’ve got a splitting headache, or maybe it’s because Mitt Romney is a raging dickhead who needs to have Bastille Day reenacted on his fucking scrotum, but I’m *this* close to throwing something at the airport TV.
pseudonymous in nc
In March, Iowa’s state legislature made it illegal to take clandestine recordings of animal abuse, like this somewhat unpleasant footage of Iowa egg factories.
Perhaps Steve ‘White Supremacist and Animal Cruelty Fetishist’ King might consider that an encroachment into federal territory?
Mr Stagger Lee
Oh but to overturn states right to deny people who want to marry someone of the same sex, oh but Obamacare become the health care of the people. Fuck it lets split this nation up between the red and the blue.
Peregrinus
Romney, paraphrase: “You know, what the president’s campaign has done is run advertisement after advertisement that makes false claims about my record, blah blah blah […] There’s no question that the President’s campaign is putting out information that is false, and misleading, and deceptive, and they know it, and they ought to stop.”
And he just said he doesn’t want this to be a campaign about “attacks which were suggested in previous campaigns.”
Shorter Romney: “Stop telling the truth about me? I haven’t called you a Kenyan yet – what more do you want?”
Dee Loralei
I love Klimt. Did you see the google doodle yesterday for his birthday?
And yea, what everyone else said about State’s rights v bigbidness, Republicans will always side with bigbidness.
burnspbesq
C’mon, Tom. I wouldn’t have taken you for someone who thinks the Articles of Confederation were superior to the Constitution.
It’s fine to object to specific actions by Congress in the exercise of its Constitutional power to regulate interstate commerce, but knowing the difference between baby and bathwater is a useful thing.
lless
Lest you say this is just a federalism dispute, remember that products liability is state law. So you get kidney failure from Salmonella or E-coli, boo friggin hoo!
Mr Stagger Lee
@Peregrinus:
You mean like this via Jackie Chan? I would pay good money if journalist did that next time a politico lies.
Phylllis
I saw the capital S and my brain immediately auto-finished to South Carolina.
Linda Featheringill
If other egg companies in other locations want to sell their eggs in California, they should give the potential customers what they want. States’ rights schmates’ rights. That is plain capitalism.
jl
I’m thinking more 1930s Italy, except less trains less on time.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I guess the Republicans should push for a law that says in essence, “states may pass any law that makes them or the country as a whole a shittier place to live, but are hereby forbidden to pass any law that might make anything even slightly better”. If they passed a law like that, Steve King and all the other assholes would have a lot less work to do. Hell, they could all retire, put their feet up and take it easy from here on out.
Tom Levenson
@burnspbesq: Not sure I see anything that suggests a burning passion for the Articles of Confederation above, but YMMV.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
@Linda Featheringill:
Yeah, well, I can see Steve King pushing a law that tells consumers they have no right not to buy tainted food. Hey, if somebody’s selling it, you have no right not to buy it. Those tainted-egg sellers can’t make any money of you don’t buy their food. Even if you hate eggs, you’ll have to buy them anyway, bastards! It’ll now be the law of the land that even asking for feces-free food in your store will land you in jail.
Peregrinus
@Mr Stagger Lee:
I would not only pay good money to see that, I would nominate the guy for a Nobel Peace Prize.
Sorry for taking over the thread, Prof. Had to let the bile out somehow.
DonkeyKong
I’ve been discribing the modern republican party as populated by people that would light themselves on fire so they could chase and tackle a liberal to light them on fire. This proves it.
Jebediah
@pseudonymous in nc:
Jesus must be so proud of them.
Jebediah
@Mr Stagger Lee:
Might not be necessary. Between Mitt’s superskill as a candidate and the superclownishness of so many downticket Goopers, this might be the election season that turns the GOP into this century’s Whigs – in a little while, only historians will remember fuck-all about them.
ETA: Yes, I realize this might be overly optimistic.
Peregrinus
@Jebediah:
It’s mean to get my hopes up like that.
Mark S.
Geez, I’m not a states right guy but isn’t that insane and maybe unconstitutional? Could Congress pass a law prohibiting states from regulating restaurants or businesses that sell alcohol?
BD of MN
Remember the big egg recall from 2010, 228 million eggs were recalled for salmonella? That guy was an Iowan, but not from King’s district, although I’m sure some of the eggs came from his district…
Jess
Just to be petty, coz it’s hot and I’m grading student work: it’s Gustav Klimt (no e and no p).
Other than that, great post!
MikeJ
@pseudonymous in nc:
I don’t know the details of this law, but the idea of making it illegal to videotape on private property without the owner’s consent sounds fairly reasonable to me.
Spaghetti Lee
@Jebediah:
People were saying that in 2008 too. In my opinion, it takes more than a stinker of a candidate and big downticket losses in one election to sink a party, it takes them being irrelevant to a changed society.
Now, I think the Republicans’ bass-ackwards ideas and dreams are irrelevant to modern society, but there’s a lot of money devoted to keeping them propped up.
ploeg
@BD of MN: The company in question was Wright County Egg of Galt, Iowa, but I’m not so sure that Iowa claims Jack DeCoster, the proprietor of said company. I believe that Jack hails originally from Maine.
jefft452
@Phylllis: “I saw the capital S and my brain immediately auto-finished to South Carolina.”
what’s the difference?
Tom Levenson
@ploeg: Fixt. Thanks.
This is what you get for blogging while jet lagged (5 hours sleep in the last 45). I’m seeing many things that aren’t there right about now, including, apparently, consonants.
Redshift
Republicans believe state and local control are best unless they do the *wrong* thing, in which case the Federal government should override them. How this differs from believing the opposite is a mystery.
Jebediah
@Spaghetti Lee:
I don’t doubt that you’re right, but my personal good news (employed again, starting Monday) probably has some uncharacteristic optimism leaking into other areas.
Patricia Kayden
So is there anything that animal rights folks can do about this? Any petitions? At the very least, the Dems on that committee should be contacted and told not to support King’s crazy amendment. Desperately calling PETA!
Anne Laurie
@BD of MN:
That would be this recall, I believe. Not that ol’ Steve wouldn’t voluntarily dunny-dive for the lowest bidniz-friendly non-standards all on his own, but deCoster knows that the laborer is worthy of his hire:
Heck, DeCoster may be the man responsible for introducing salmonella into America’s egg supply, so Rep. King probably considers DeCoster’s agri-corp a historical monument for scrupulous preservation.
General Stuck
OT
Speaking of federalism, seems John Roberts is no uniter, instead sparking a war of the Governors.
Can the wingnuts just secede again already, and let’s get on with the Appomattox part duex.
From our side
Absolutely goddam right.
different-church-lady
Gotta look up the “STATES RIGHTS!” section of the Calvinball rulebook on this one…
jp7505a
The justification for the law, accorrding to the good Congresscritter, is the power granted to Congress by the (drum roll please) Commerace Clause. For those just returning from a trip to the far side of the moon, that is the same clause that is destroying liberty and the American way of life for the true teaparty patriots amoung us. (sigh)
Mnemosyne
@MikeJ:
That’s a potentially interesting question, though — can private property that’s subject to routine government inspections claim that someone who clandestinely videotapes illegal goings-on and provides them to the government was trespassing? If so, then you’ve potentially invalidated a whole lot of whistle-blower laws since the company whose wrongdoing was exposed could claim that the whistleblower was trespassing and the evidence shouldn’t be permitted.
different-church-lady
@DonkeyKong:
A repair has been made for you.
NotMax
Win.
Best oxymoron of the day. :)
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Josie:
I’m waiting for the revolution in industrial meat engineering where our meat products are grown in huge vats. Then all they have to do is hook and drag out what is needed for sale with the waste products occasionally drained off to be canned for soups.
OT:
Is anyone else laughing at the bipartisan absurdity of our pols yammering on about how horrible it is that the uniforms for our Olympic team being made in China? Shit, they’ve outsourced damned near everything in this country and they’re whining about this stupid shit? Why in the fuck is that? If outsourced products are good enough for the rest of the country then they’re good enough for the damned Olympic team. My wife had a winger she works with froth about this at her job yesterday. My wife pointed out that if our government thinks that clothing made in China (and elsewhere) are good enough for the rest of us then they are good enough for the Olympic team. It shut the winger up but good when she pointed this out to her.
I’m sure that the rest of the world is laughing at this stupidity. Talk about window dressing…
JPL
States rights is big in the South until it isn’t. True story about a friend who happens to be black, conservative and graduated from Northwestern who preached that the Civil War was about states rights. (thank you bozo boortz) I mentioned that she might want to read GA’ secession papers and turn off the radio. States rights is about giving corporations what they want. Nothing more or nothing less.
MikeJ
@Mnemosyne: If somebody broke into your house and found a printing press in the basement stamping out twenties, the fact that you were doing something illegal wouldn’t make the trespass legal. It would make it incredibly difficult to get a conviction, but not legal.
I’m not sure I’d want to make a law making trespass legal as long as you find evidence the property owner was doing something illegal. Break in, steal a laptop, claim that the bootleg Bieber downloads let you off the hook?
JPL
@Anne Laurie: I’m sure the news media will follow up on that.
NotMax
@Odie Hugh Manatee
Plus it gives the frothing booboisie (hat tip to Mencken) an excuse to use when U.S.A. contenders don’t take a gold medal in everything.
“It was those dang Chinese clothes that impaired their otherwise exceptional performance.”
General Stuck
And btw, that painting messed with my mind. Trying to figure out what it was of, and coming up blank from glimpsing it while refreshing page. Until suddenly it made sense. optical delusion.
RSA
I’m also reminded of Congressional reluctance to improve labeling requirements. Not only do Republicans (and some Democrats) want to do away with regulations on what the food and farming industries sell us, they want to prevent the average buyer from knowing very much about what we’re buying.
JPL
Tom, If you are around I want you to read this article and come up with a painting. You can’t use Scream.. link
All I will say is G.W. Bush and the 4% solution… also,too the debt is a problem.
edit..have a drink or two first
Calouste
@Anne Laurie:
Funny how three stikes and you’re out doesn’t apply to companies.
Xecky Gilchrist
Never been a better time to go vegan. Until they start pooing in the spinach again.
jo6pac
Thank you about this is, 0 govt doing this doing this to all of this us on Main Street in Amerika, Yes the other side is bat-shit crazy but time to move to the other side Vote Green it has to start some time
kdaug
Upton Sinclair, anyone?
Who writes the next “The Jungle”?
How do you gain that stature/exposure in today’s world? By now, everyone’s seen the videos of the cages and pens… but we want our McBigMacs.
My hands are not clean. I gnaw my grizzle as good as any man.
But I foresee an underground local rancher/farmer market where they only sell if they know you, and you know the animal you’re eating.
“This is Betsy. Slaughter is next Thursday – you’ll be getting her left hindquarter.
Here, give her some grass. She’s a good girl.”
Small, local, private, eyes wide open.
Enough with the bullshit. Enough with the corporate gloss-over.
It’ll be the best food you’ve ever eaten.
JPL
@kdaug: GW Bush is involved with a group on how to fix the economy.. See my link at 48..Upton or GW…hmmm gives new meaning to foxes and hen houses though.
TenguPhule
Corrected.
They can’t be reasoned with. Only exterminated.
Yutsano
@jo6pac: You do that. Let us know how it works out for you.
Mnemosyne
@MikeJ:
Except that my house is not an agricultural company facility that is legally required to submit to inspection by the USDA in order to continue doing business.
That’s my question — if you’re running a business that is subject to surprise government inspections by statute, is there a lower legal expectation of privacy than in a private home?
Mnemosyne
@jo6pac:
So I take it that you missed the part where Republicans are pushing this bill, not Democrats?
Yep, voting Green this year will totally upset the Republicans. They were so convinced that Green voters were going to vote Romney this year.
chrome agnomen
@TenguPhule:
i am fully on board with this.
Tim I
Can we get these same rights extended to domestic airline passengers?
Roy G.
It would be poetic justice if Steve King expired by falling into one of those big hogshit lagoons that are all over Iowa – especially if it was in Galt, Iowa.
e.a.f.
I thought the U.S.A. was already like Somalia. The U.S.A. has armed gangs running around shooting people at will. The elite run everything. People have little rights left after the laws brought in after 9-11. The F.D.A. spies on its opponents. The poverty in the U.S.A. is getting close to that of Somalia, the homelessness, the constant war.
O.K. the U.S.A.’s highways are marginally better than Somolia’s & they have more cars.
e.a.f.
@Jebediah: Don’t American’s have a constitution which gives them the freedom of speech? Or is it already Somolia or maybe Russia. I think its illegal to critize the president of Russia & he is a bit of an egg head.
The president of Syria has an egg shaped head & he just bombs people who don’t like him. Maybe King will decide that will work best next time.
NotMax
When discussing Somalia and its by now endemic problems, one has to always exclude the breakaway area of Somaliland, which has long sought international recognition as an independent state (again, as it briefly was such 50 years ago).
It can boast generally long-term stability of governance and, while still economically on the lower end of the scale, does survive on a steady influx of monies from tourism, a growing agricultural sector and lots of cash sent home from natives working outside the country.
Mart
My dad used to buy food products that passed the Pa State inspection because he knew they were tough. Producers were proud to be Pa accepted. With R’s being states rights and all, there should be no problem with continuing this tradition.
Mino
@lless: Shhhh. Or there will be federal tort reform. In fact, I don’t see how they’ve overlooked it so far.
And Tom, thanks for intorducing that Klimt to me. I’d never seen it before–it’s awesome.
Mino
@Jebediah: In Texas, it was illegal to say bad things about our farm products. Just ask Oprah. Don’t know if that’s still the case, but probably.
Raven on the Hill
Well…would be interesting to see how the conservative Supreme Court justices vote on this one!
Jebediah
@Mino:
Oh yeah! I had forgotten about that. I seem to remember at some point thinking there was no way a law like that could survive.