(Via Paul Shapiro) This past week, the Agriculture Committee of California’s state assembly torpedoed SB 200, which would have required the state’s slaughterhouses to install video cameras. No surprise the bill got shot down, since Agriculture Committees exist specifically to engage in scummy behavior like this. Luckily, the press is paying attention, which is bad news for slaughterhouses that want to keep their cruelties hidden. The Riverside Press-Enterprise writes:
Camera surveillance could help curb abuses and bolster public confidence in food safety — and legislators have no excuse for not seeing that fact clearly.
But legislators do see that fact clearly; it’s just that they’re in the pocket of agribusiness interests. Slaughterhouses can use their elected minions to create some delays, but video cameras in slaughterhouses are inevitable. Link.
