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Friday, March 01, 2013
Ind. Law - "Businesses, including large factory farms that are operating responsibly, don’t need – nor should they want – this bill to pass."
Updating some earlier ILB entries, some quotes from an editorial today in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette:
Prosecuting Hoosiers for photographing or videotaping embarrassing or illegal activity at industrial operations would be, unfortunately, easier under a bill passed in the state Senate on Tuesday. The bill does little to protect citizens or business owners acting in good faith but instead shields from accountability operations engaged in bad business practices.Senate Bill 373, authored by Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, is comparable to a spate of bills cropping up all over the country linked to the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council [ALEC]. The Indiana legislation applies to all industrial sectors, but it is targeted to thwart undercover investigations of factory farms by environmental advocates and animal abuse activists.
Holdman proposed similar legislation last year, but Senate leaders had the good sense to let that bill die. * * *
This bill makes it less likely the public will ever hear about operations that are engaged in bad business practices that could contaminate food supplies, pollute the environment or equate to animal abuse or unfair labor practices.
[Kim Ferraro, Hoosier Environmental Council counsel] said: “This isn’t about being anti-agriculture. Every industry has to conduct itself within some standards. This is about making sure industry is conducted safely, and some in this industry want not to be held accountable.”
Businesses, including large factory farms that are operating responsibly, don’t need – nor should they want – this bill to pass.
Posted by Marcia Oddi on March 1, 2013 10:45 AM
Posted to Indiana Law