No Factory Farm in our community!
Just when you were afraid to go back into the murky waters of HLN, the channel formerly known as Headline News comes through with an important story about the abusive practices of industrial farming and the bogus censorship laws corporations have secured from compliant state legislatures.

Take a look at the report: Farm abuse kept under cover?

That’s right, the home of Nancy Grace and “the true crime pulp novel as a two and a half minute segment” has tackled the corporate cover-up machine called the “Ag-Gag” law.

These anti-whistleblower laws have already been passed in Wyoming, Iowa and Utah, and Big Ag isn’t likely to stop there. Designed to keep animal welfare activists from surreptitiously filming the severe and intolerable abuses rife in the grinding, antibiotic-dependent practice called “factory farming,” these Ag-Gag laws have, in some cases, actually lumped activists into the category of “domestic terrorism.”

Seriously.

If you haven’t heard of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA), you may be in for a bit of a shock. Passed in 2006, it broadly designates animal welfare activists as “terrorists” and is part of a much-ignored effort to protect Big Ag from big scrutiny by citizen activists.

These activists have been crucial in uncovering not only the painful abuse of beleaguered animals, but also the dangerously unhealthy conditions fostered by industrial farming and the long-term danger it poses to Americans who rely on it for food.

They’ve been responsible for a number of scandals, and even forced McDonald’s to change its purchasing practices.

But make no mistake, this is not just an animal welfare issue, this is a food safety issue. And with the FDA woefully understaffed, underfunded and under the thumb of corporate lobbyists, these intrepid whistleblowers are a last line of defense against the huge corporate farming combine that seeks only to harvest profits, no matter how bitter it tastes to the public at large.

So, let’s commend Jane Velez-Mitchell for covering an important story that has been thus far ignored by the mainstream media.

Pigs have flown, and we didn’t even have to wait for Monsanto to genetically engineer ‘em!

(cross-posted by the Newsvandal)

Image from friendsoffamilyfarmers licensed under Creative Commons