Don't Cage the King

I hope by the end of my blog post you will all realize just how clever this blog title is. I'm not a very clever person, but I'll take pride on this one :)

So, I'm sure that all of you have heard about the 2013 Farm Bill, and many of you have heard about the oh-so-controversial King Amendment, proposed by Rep. Steve King (R-IA).

I came across some articles today that discussed the King Amendment, in a negative light, and let me tell you what, a light went on inside my head. It was an angry light, in case you were wondering. Sorry, this blog is going to peep into my political interest and fire!

I'm sure there are many things about the King Amendment out there about how it "supports cages, supports abuse, and supports animal cruelty." Where did this come from? Well I hope my blog explains a few things. Not that it matters to any of us that can't actually vote on it, but hey, it's good to know our facts right?

The King Amendment is called the "Protect Interstate Commerce Act." The whole Amendment is geared solely to protect states rights to set their own laws within their own states, without setting laws in other states.

The idea stemmed (I can only imagine) from California's Proposition 2, banning gestation and veal crates, and adjusting the size of chicken crates allowed. Prop 2 was voted on by Californians to affect the agriculture practices within California. The problem: any eggs/pork/veal sold in California must also abide by these rules as well, whether produced in Nevada, Oregon, or Texas! Thus, California setting laws that Nevadans, Oregonians (I had to google that one), and Texan agriculturalists must abide by.

Whew. That's a lot of political mumbo jumbo! So, moral of the story: King's amendment would prohibit California's Prop 2 from controlling agriculturalists outside of California. Thus, allowing farmers and ranchers that had chosen to keep their animals in certain areas, to remain so.

Now, I hope this is somewhat informative on what the King Amendment stands for, and that we shouldn't "cage the King" if we only know a part of the story. I am BY NO MEANS a political expert, nor am I supporting/against the King Amendment. I just wanted to set a few facts straight for anyone that had strong opinions on the matter. Misinformation is my pet peeve, hopefully this has been informative!

Have a great weekend.