Chris Shays has an excellent bill on the matter I raised earlier today, brought to my attention buy Matthew Scully, whose superbly reasoned book, "Dominion," helped shift my views on the subject decisively. The Farm Animal Stewardship Purchasing Act wouldn’t regulate all of private agriculture, but it would set standards for any farm trying to sell meat to the federal government. Humane treatment would be defined as:
Adequate shelter that allows animals to stand up, lie down and extend their limbs without touching any part of their enclosure.
Daily access to food and water sufficient to maintain the animal’s health.
Adequate veterinary care, including prompt treatment of injuries or euthanasia for a sick or injured animal.
These modest standards mean that federal suppliers cannot engage in the most inhumane current industrial farming practices – intensive confinement in battery cages, gestation or veal crates, forced molting of laying hens through starvation, forced feeding for foie gras, hauling of downed animals to slaughter or leaving sick or injured animals to languish without treatment or humane euthanasia.
It seems like a great first step to me.
The Dish 