Picture it—a pig who has never felt grass steps out into an open field for the first time. She stretches. She runs about. She roots in the dirt. She flops down in the sun and lets out a long, contented grunt. If you follow a farmed animal sanctuary on social media, you have probably seen this happen.
For many rescued mother pigs, that field is also the first place they have ever been free to turn around.
On most industrial pig farms in the United States, mother pigs spend most of their lives in a cage: a cold, metal stall so narrow they cannot turn around. They are bred, confined, give birth, and are bred again, cycle after cycle, until their bodies give out. This is standard practice on most factory farms in the US.
When voters have been asked whether that’s acceptable, they have supported efforts to ban it. In 2016, Massachusetts voters passed Question 3. In 2018, Californians passed Proposition 12. Both laws set basic space standards for mother pigs, egg-laying hens, and calves raised for veal, and both require that products sold in those states meet those standards.
Despite being a simple reform, the pork industry’s trade association, the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), have fought Proposition 12 all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2023, it lost.
Defeated at the ballot box and in the courts, the NPPC is trying a different route: Congress.
What Is the Save Our Bacon Act?
The Save Our Bacon Act would be devastating to the progress achieved in the name of farmed animal welfare in the US.
If passed, it would block states from applying their own animal welfare standards to products raised in other states. In practice, that would gut Proposition 12 and Question 3, and it would hand
industrial agriculture a powerful new tool to challenge other state protections for animals, farmers, and consumers. This is the same policy animal advocates have defeated for years under its old name, the EATS Act and the King Amendment.
In April, the House of Representatives passed its farm bill with the Save Our Bacon Act included, despite bipartisan opposition to the bill.
Where Things Stand Right Now
The Senate has refused to go along, at least so far. The Senate Agriculture Committee left the Save Our Bacon Act out of its draft farm bill. When the committee first voted in August, the bill failed. When it finally passed out of committee in September, it still did not include the Save Our Bacon Act.
That didn’t happen by accident. It happened because thousands of people called their senators, wrote letters, signed petitions, and refused to stay quiet. Animal advocates like you spoke up. Farmers spoke up. Voters spoke up.
But this fight is not over.
The House and Senate have two very different bills, and those differences must be worked out before anything becomes law. That process happens behind closed doors, and it is exactly where provisions like the Save Our Bacon Act tend to sneak back in. House leaders have already signaled that legislation left out of the Senate bill could resurface during those final negotiations.
The Senate has left Washington until after the November elections. When senators return for the final weeks of the year, the pressure to strike a deal will be enormous. That is when animals will need us most.
Why This Matters Beyond Pigs
The Save Our Bacon Act is about more than one state’s law.
It’s about voters. Millions of people went to the polls and chose to protect animals from the worst forms of confinement. A handful of lawmakers in Washington should not be able to quietly erase those votes inside an 800-page bill.
It’s about a kinder food system. Many farmers have already invested in higher-welfare housing because they believed it was better, and because there was a market for it. The Save Our Bacon Act would entrench the use of cages and pull the rug out from under the farmers who did the right thing.
It’s about the future. If Congress can wipe away state protections for animals once, it can do it again. Every hard-won victory for farmed animals would be on the table.
< strong>What You Can Do Right Now
You don’t need to be a policy expert to make a difference. Senators’ offices count every call and every message, and they pay close attention to what their constituents care about.
- Call your two U.S. senators. You can reach any Senate office through the U.S. Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121. Keep it simple: “My name is ___, and I live in ___. I’m calling to ask the Senator to keep the Save Our Bacon Act, and any language like it, out of the final farm bill. Voters should be able to protect animals in their own states.”
- Email your senators. Compassion in World Farming makes it quick: send your message here.
- Share this post. Send it to a friend, post it on social media, or forward it to someone who has visited a sanctuary and fallen in love with the animals there. Most people have never heard of the Save Our Bacon Act. You can change that.
- Hear more from Matthew. Listen to his earlier conversation with Cheryl on the Better Life for Animals Podcast: Episode 067, “Is Factory Farming Destroying the Planet Faster Than We
Realize?”
One Voice at a Time
The industry is counting on us getting tired. They are counting on the news cycle moving on and on animal lovers assuming the fight was won in September.
Let’s prove them wrong.
The pig stretching out in that sanctuary field deserves a world where no mother pig spends her life in a cruel cage. Voters have already said so. Now we need Congress to listen, one call, one share, and one voice at a time.
