0:01
>> Congress is trying to pass a bill that
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would wipe out small to independent
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>> California overwhelmingly passed
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Proposition 12. It most importantly
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banned gestation crates. You know those
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crates that pigs are kept in where they
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can't even turn around?
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>> Master Sarton, you disappoint me.
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The erudite liberals hold you in such
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high esteem. Those are not gestation
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crates. Those are farrowing crates and
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that is a very important distinction. A
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gestation crate is a small pen, usually
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30 to 40 square feet, where pigs are put
0:33
as soon as they get pregnant. Pigs tend
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to get aggressive about guarding feed
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when they get pregnant, so they isolate
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the sows from one another to reduce
0:41
competition and fighting and to make
0:43
sure they're all adequately fed. Smaller
0:46
sows in groups of other sows could be
0:48
bullied to the point of nearly starving.
0:50
It's important to note that 30 to 40
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square feet is plenty of room for a pig
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to walk, turn around, and exercise a
0:56
little bit while pregnant and is far
0:59
higher than the 24 square foot minimum
1:01
mandated by Proposition 12. In the last
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few days of their pregnancy, the sow
1:06
will give birth in a process called
1:08
farrowing. In the process of giving
1:10
birth and during the nursing phase that
1:12
happens immediately after birth, your
1:14
piglet mama will be inclined to turn
1:17
In the wild, she tends to turn over like
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What happens when a pig is this way and
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she's got a bunch of babies along this
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side of her body and she flips over this
1:30
way. It results in a bunch of crushed
1:32
piglets. Farrowing crates exist so that
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the pig has to turn this way on the
1:38
center of its body so it doesn't crush
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its own young. Pigs are only kept in
1:42
these highly restrictive contraptions
1:44
for a few days, just long enough for
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them to gain their strength back and
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start walking around and not crushing
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their piglets to death.
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They're not in there for the entirety of
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their 4-month pregnancy, which is what
1:55
you'd believe from looking at the
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internet because the internet uses the
1:59
term gestation crate and farrowing crate
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>> Farmers were actually happy to ban this.
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>> Not really. Without a farrowing crate,
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the only way to keep a sow from crushing
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her young is to physically intervene and
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let's just say that that's a really good
2:13
way for a farmer to wind up with a
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nickname like Frankie Four Fingers.
2:17
Banning farrowing crates kills piglets
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and injures farm workers for the sake of
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>> The Save Our Bacon Act will override any
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state law with regards to animal
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>> That override only happens in the case
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of interstate commerce, which is why it
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largely won't affect small and
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independent farmers who mostly operate
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>> Small farmers have converged on DC to
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stop the Save Our Bacon Act from
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>> No, they haven't. Small farmers and
2:43
large farmers alike have descended on
2:45
the capital because the 800-page farm
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bill that underwrites the entire
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agricultural welfare state in the United
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States has passed the House and is now
2:53
being debated in the Senate. We can
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probably stop here, but comment if you
2:56
want me to respond to the second half of
