Sen. Booker Proposes Industrial Agricultural Accountability Act

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) has unveiled new legislation targeting America’s large livestock “corporations and industrial operators,” seeking to hold such entities accountable for disaster mitigation and to ensure those entities are complying with animal welfare regulations.

The Industrial Agricultural Accountability Act would end line-speed increases and “meatpacker self-inspection programs” for animal slaughter, prohibit slaughter of all downed animals and require “more humane treatment of livestock transported for long periods.”

Booker announced his proposal with a news release posted to his website Tuesday.

The proposed legislation would also require large entities to register with USDA, submit a disaster preparedness plan and pay a fee to establish a fund focused on disaster events.

“This new fund, the High-Risk AFO Disaster Mitigation Fund, will be utilized to enforce disaster mitigation plans and ensure that the most humane practices are used if depopulation is absolutely necessary,” the release said.

Booker also proposes to invest resources for higher-welfare slaughter technology in meat and poultry processing facilities and establish a pilot program to train and employ more part-time inspectors for small processing plants.

“We’ve seen multiple recent crises that have shined a light on the threat that corporate meat producers and their web of factory farms represent to workers, animals, the environment, and rural communities,” booker said. “Built by agribusinesses, the industrial livestock and poultry system is designed to maximize production– while externalizing risk and liability– to ensure corporate profits even when the system fails.”

The full text of the bill can be found here. The list of supporting organizations can be found here.