EATS Act Introduced in House, Threatening SCOTUS Prop 12 Ruling

Last week, Representative Ashley Hinson (R-IA) introduced House companion legislation to Senator Roger Marshall’s (R-KS) Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Actpression (EATS) Act. The bill would preempt state regulation of the factory farm and agribusiness industry, including for animal welfare, consumer protection labeling, and food safety.

The bill was introduced in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, which upheld a California law that bans the in-state sale of pork, eggs, and veal from animals “confined in a cruel manner.” The decision was widely celebrated as a victory against the worst factory farm abuses, and a win for state authority to expand protective measures, affirming that states can regulate goods within their borders.

Food & Water Watch Senior Food Policy Analyst Rebecca Wolf issued the following statement:

“The EATS Act encourages an archaic race to the bottom in which consumers, animals and our environment lose out to enormous profit-grubbing corporations — it must be dead on arrival.

“The EATS Act is the latest effort by corporate Republicans to curry favor with their Big Ag donors by shielding factory farms from regulation. Rather than legislate for the future, electeds and their corporate cronies are throwing a tantrum over issues that are done and dusted. State authority to regulate animal welfare, food labeling, and agricultural practices is necessary to facilitate a humane, safe and sustainable food supply — the Supreme Court ruling to uphold Prop 12 only underlined this reality.”