Michigan: Owning Certain Kinds of Pigs Could Land You in Jail for 4 Years
April 4th, 2012Via: Alternet:
Owning certain kinds of pigs — namely the ones not raised on industrial hog farms — could land you in jail for 4 years.
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The traditional white swine favored by Big Ag doesn’t run any risk of falling under the ‘feral’ classification. They’re raised indoors by the thousands, so no need for thick fur. No tails either, since they tend to chew them off when they’re all crammed together. The Michigan Pork Producers Association stands behind the act, claiming that the measure is necessary to prevent the damage caused by escaped and feral hogs.
Big Ag Sees a Threat
Small farmers see another motivation: burgeoning consumer awareness of the horrors of industrial farming. The more folks know how disgusting these giant pig farms are, how pigs never see the light of day, how they’re fed antibiotics and subsidized corn, the more they’re interested in hearing about pork from a different source. About happy furry pigs like the mangalitsa on Baker’s Green Acres.
For opponents of the measure, this law and the support of the Michigan Pork Producer’s Association is nothing more than a concerted effort to muscle small sustainable farmers out of the marketplace entirely. It’s a bold move on the part of Big Ag — and farmers across the country are waiting to see how it pans out.
The only truly dangerous species of pigs in America are the ones that have shiny badges on their chests, eat lots of doughnuts and drive around in taxpayer-funded toy cars with flashy lights on top.