Vermont’s legendary Patrick Leahy retired from the U.S. Senate at the very beginning of 2023, but his legacy continues to be felt throughout the nation.
That’s especially true when it comes to agriculture and animal welfare. The Biden administration just weeks ago finalized a critical, rulemaking action related to the “organic seal” in the food aisle that Sen. Leahy put in motion with the Organic Standards Act of 1990. While the “organic” label has been in place for two decades, the standards for farm animals were incomplete, but now they’ve been very meaningfully upgraded.
Despite years of interference from agribusiness interests and timid action by leaders at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the federal agency in October finally completed work on the Organic Livestock and Poultry Standards (OLPS) rule, with most provisions set to go into effect in January.
There are now more than 60 million animals raised for food under the label, but the prior rule did not have any specific animal welfare standards, just rules on no hormones or antibiotics administered to the animals, and a vague requirement for the animals to have “outdoor access.” The new OLPS standards now have a broad set of metrics for proper care of farm animals and they are collectively the antithesis of industrialized “factory farming.” No single lawmaker was more instrumental than Sen. Leahy, who, during his storied career, served for years as chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee.
There were no laws to protect animals on farms until 2002 when Florida voters banned gestation crates. Voters in Arizona and California followed closely in establishing anti-confinement standards and now there are more than a dozen states with important farm animal protection laws, most of them barring extreme confinement.
These new standards prohibit the use of gestation crates for pigs and caged housing for laying hens; they prohibit tail-docking of pigs and cattle, and debeaking of birds; and they require meaningful outdoor access for all animals raised under the organic label. The new rule also rejects the efforts by some cage-free producers to allow indoor “porches” to qualify as outdoor access for laying hens. The rule also contains additional standards for pigs relating to their ability to root and live in group housing.
The OLPS standards also provide more space to birds, allowing them to fully stretch their wings when indoors, as well as mandating outdoor access, natural lighting availability, and more protective air-monitoring requirements. Organically reared farm animals, including pigs, must now have year-round outdoor access and be able to move and stretch their limbs at all times.
Public comments on the final rule ran 95-1 in favor of strong standards for animal welfare. Organic farmers, along with the respected Organic Trade Association, Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, demanded the new legal framework, knowing that the absence of any animal-welfare standards undermined public confidence in the organic label.
And with thousands of family farmers — the key stakeholders in the agricultural community backing the measure — it should be able to withstand other political challenges from Midwest farm-state lawmakers who too often take their cues from factory-farming interests.
A 2015 Consumer Reports survey found that more than 70% of Americans believe there should be meaningful, minimum-size, living space requirements for farm animals raised under the organic label and that those animals should have access to the outdoors, yet the prior regulations never guaranteed these basic protections for organically raised animals. Another Consumer Reports survey showed more than 80% of Americans support the standards enshrined in the new rule.
To our dismay, however, the rule gives existing organic poultry operations, or those that become certified organic within the first year following the rule’s enactment, five years from the effective date to meet the specific requirements related to indoor and outdoor stocking density, outdoor space and exit area. This is an inordinately long delay, layered on top of 21 years of prior delays, despite Sen. Leahy’s persistent efforts to enshrine these standards into law.
Nevertheless, Americans who eat meat and eggs, and drink milk, have a new opportunity to show they care about the treatment of animals. When and if they eat meat or eggs, or drink milk, they should opt for the “organic seal.”
If knowledge shapes behavior in the marketplace, it will indeed translate into better living conditions for animals on the farm. And with so many billions of animals at risk in our food-production system, this is an enormously consequential moment for the movement to give them better lives.
Bob Galvin, of Richmond, is the Vermont state director for Animal Wellness Action. Wayne Pacelle is president of the Center for a Humane Economy.
