Dear Senator/Representative (this will change depending on who the letter is sent to, but we’ll certainly send to leadership):
We, the undersigned student organizations at law schools across the country, express our strong opposition to the “Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act” (H.R. 4417/S. 2019) and urge you to oppose the inclusion of this bill, or any language similar to it, in the Farm Bill.
The EATS Act is a sweeping federal overreach that would strip away states’ rights and decimate states’ ability to govern for the benefit of their own residents within their own borders. It would eliminate protections for consumers, communities, animals, and the environment while putting public health, worker safety, and sustainable farming at risk. A bipartisan group of more than 170 members of the U.S. House of Representatives and a bipartisan group of X U.S. Senators (“X” to be filled in when letter closes) have signed letters opposing the EATS Act, and hundreds of farming, food safety, consumer protection, law enforcement, environmental, and animal protection organizations have opposed virtually identical legislation in the past.
The EATS Act prohibits state or local governments from imposing standards on the preharvest production of any agricultural product sold in interstate commerce if the production occurs in another state, meaning that if any state permits a potentially dangerous or concerning agricultural practice, other states would be forced to allow that practice as well. The overbroad and ambiguous language of the EATS Act would hinder states’ ability to regulate agricultural products sold within their borders and would risk invalidating more than a thousand state and local laws1 intended to protect consumers, promote food safety, safeguard public health and protect against zoonotic disease transmission. Some of those laws include:2
- Animal importation, identification, and inspection requirements designed to protect against the spread of zoonotic disease transmission, such as highly pathogenic avian influenza, tuberculosis, and chronic wasting disease;
- Prohibition on the importation of horses for slaughter for human consumption;
- Invasive plant importation restrictions;
- Requirements for safe and unadulterated food products;
- Labeling and sourcing requirements for food safety and consumer protection;
- Government contracting policies for veteran producers and local businesses.al precedent intended to safeguard state and local governments. Please oppose H.R. 4417 /S. 2019 and do everything in your power to ensure the bill, or similar language, is not included in the Farm Bill.
By potentially nullifying state and local laws designed for specific agricultural regions, it could also give large, industrial, polluting corporations a free pass to rapidly expand without having to consider laws that have been put in place to protect smaller, sustainable farming.
The Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution has provided states longstanding authority to legislate for the health, safety, and morals of their own citizens with regard to the sale of goods and services within their own borders. The EATS Act undermines this authority and undermines the principles of federalism that have traditionally allowed states to regulate for the best interests of their residents.
The EATS Act is a misguided attempt to take away states’ authority to regulate their own agricultural industries and it imposes additional roadblocks for them in passing laws to protect their own citizens. It contradicts long-established constitutional precedent intended to safeguard state and local governments. Please oppose H.R. 4417 /S. 2019 and do everything in your power to ensure the bill, or similar language, is not included in the Farm Bill.
1 Harvard Law School, Brooks McCormick Jr. Animal Law & Policy Program, Legislative Analysis of S. 2019/H.R. 4417: The “Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression Act,” https://animal.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/Harvard-ALPP-EATS-Act-Report.pdf.
2 Id.