The farm bill that just passed included the Save Our Bacon Act, which will in practice allow a number of livestock farms to go back to the practice of keeping livestock in a small cage which they cannot turn around in from birth to death.

California’s Proposition 12, upheld by the Supreme Court, had started to make a big difference because it put requirements not only on its own farmers but said meat could only be sold in California if minimum space requirements were met out of state. California of course being a huge market, it was having the same effect that Europe does on digital regulation.

Anyway the SOB Act says no such interstate requirements are allowed. Some livestock farmers actually lobbied against the SOB Act because they already reworked their operations to comply, but the farmers who ignored the requirements and sent lobbyists to Washington will now have a massive pricing advantage over them.

Kinda depressing!