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The provisions in the House-passed farm bill that prevent states from regulating how farmed animals are raised could greatly increase the risk of future livestock pandemics like bird flu, threatening our food supply, price increases, and even new human-to-human pandemics arising from animal viruses, according to food-system reform advocates Farm Forward.
“The legislation could effectively force every state to accept the weakest possible standards for farmed animals,” said Executive Director Andrew deCoriolis. “That creates a dangerous regulatory vacuum. If federal regulators continue their failed approach, states could lose the ability to protect people from unsafe products, infected animals, and agricultural practices that increase the risk of future pandemics.”
“It’s deeply troubling that the same states targeted by the Save Our Bacon Act are the ones that have actually taken concrete steps to improve their agricultural systems and fight the spread of pandemics in livestock,” deCoriolis said. “California was one of the only states to declare an emergency around bird flu and take it seriously with wide scale testing of dairy cattle. That’s exactly the kind of thing this bill would stop them from doing in the future.”
The Save Our Bacon Act (H.R. 4673) is led by Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (R-IA) and has 25 original and current Republican cosponsors in the House of Representatives. The Senate companion bill is S. 1326, the Food Security and Farm Protection Act, introduced April 2025 by Senators Ernst, Grassley, and Marshall. Supporters say the Save Our Bacon Act would alleviate this overregulation by prohibiting state and local governments from interfering with the production of livestock in other states.
Sources: Farm Forward, Rep. Hinson’s Office
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