How Corporate Farmers are waging war on the First Amendment

http://www.alternet.org/food/how-corporate-farmers-are-waging-war-our-1st-amendment?akid=13383.294211.ZiZh58&rd=1&src=newsletter1040883&t=20

FOOD

How Corporate Farmers Are Waging War on Our 1st Amendment

Animal abuse isn’t only a problem when people find out about it.

By Jill Richardson / OtherWords

August 12, 2015

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The First Amendment may be inconvenient to some people at times, but it’s still the law of the land. Case in point: so-called “ag-gag laws.”

These are laws in Idaho, Montana, Utah, North Dakota, Missouri, Kansas, and Iowa that prohibit people from taking photos or videos of farms without permission. They’re designed to prevent the exposure of cruelty to animals on factory farms.

According to the proponents of such regulations, mistreating animals is only a problem when people talk about it. Well, if the freedom of expression that the First Amendment protects is now optional, here’s what I’d like to get rid of: flimsy rhetoric intended to fool the public.

Efforts to hoodwink us all into tolerating animal abuse extends beyond abused livestock.