KPG to Congress: Reject the EATS Act

Here’s a message for Congress: reject the EATS Act.

Introduced in June 2023, at the behest of the foreign-and corporate-controlled pork industry, the “Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act,” would create new federal law usurping the will of millions of voters, thwart building market forces in the nation’s agriculture industry, fly in the face of states’ rights ideology, and condone the controversial and tortuous practice of extreme confinement in animal agriculture.

The EATS Act would prevent states and local jurisdictions from “interfering with the production and distribution of agricultural products in interstate commerce.” The proposed legislation is a coordinated response by the National Pork Producers Council to laws passed in California and Massachusetts – recently affirmed by the United States Supreme Court – banning the sale of pork, veal, and egg products within state borders produced using extreme confinement cage systems. Fifteen states have passed laws banning or phasing out extreme confinement, including the most recent, New Jersey. The EATS Act panders to the pork lobby’s special interests; Congress defeated similar amendments on two previous Farm Bills. If passed, the EATS Act could make the United States one of the worst offending countries for farmers, animals, and the environment, with incalculable consequences.

“The EATS Act doesn’t just affect the pork industry,” says Brendan Hoover, Kirkpatrick Policy Group coordinator. “It would affect all ‘agricultural products’ as defined by U.S. Code, including agricultural, horticultural, viticultural, dairy products, livestock, poultry, and beekeeping. So much for limited government. Kirkpatrick Policy Group joins other farm advocacy groups and firmly opposes this wild government overreach.”

Already, the pork industry is transitioning away from extreme confinement. According to Oklahoma veterinarian Dr. Tom Pool, DVM, 40 percent of the nation’s six million breeding sows live in group housing, with enough space to stand up, lie down, and turn around. Major pork producers Tyson Foods, Smithfield Foods, and Hormel have all said they can and will comply with the recent law upheld by the Supreme Court. More than sixty national retailers (including Sonic Drive-in, in 2002) have committed to purchasing only cage-free pork products. Hundreds if not thousands of American pork operations have tapped into this improved marketplace. The EATS Act would threaten jobs, not create them.

Moreover, the EATS Act would give foreign companies like JBS and Smithfield Foods more say than American voters on how agricultural products should be made and sold. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, 3.1 percent of all U.S. agricultural land in 2021 was foreign-owned. Oklahoma leads the nation in the rise of foreign-owned farmland and, in 2019, farm bankruptcies.

Furthermore, the EATS Act appears to violate the Tenth Amendment, which reserves states’ rights not specifically granted to the federal government. At the very least, its sponsors look hypocritical, asking Congress to wade into what has been an issue of state prudence.

Politics, governance, and economics aside, it is morally wrong to confine a pregnant pig, veal calf or egg-laying hen inside a cage scarcely larger than its own body, usually without ever having seen sunshine. This legislative reaction to the United States Supreme Court ruling in May is misguided and ill-informed. Sweeping federal legislation that impairs states to govern a specific industry is not sound and will cost thousands of jobs and millions in lawsuits.

So, we say again to Congress: reject the EATS Act.