July 13, 2026
Washington, D.C. — The Defeats EATS Coalition, composed of farmer, consumer, faith, environmental and animal welfare groups with greatly varying missions, sent a letter today to Senate Agriculture Chairman John Boozman and Ranking Member Amy Klobuchar thanking them for for excluding the controversial Save Our Bacon Act (SOBA) from the Senate Farm Bill and urging them to oppose any attempts to add the provision to the final bill.
The letter highlights the diverse opposition to SOBA and myriad of reasons why its inclusion in the Senate Farm Bill would be harmful, stating: “Members of the Defeat EATS Coalition oppose SOBA for a variety of reasons— it is significant federal overreach that threatens hundreds of public-health and disease-prevention laws, threatens the livelihoods of independent family farmers, and condemns animals to cruel, unnecessary suffering.”
SOBA would invalidate farm animal welfare laws, stripping state and local governments of their right to make policies regulating the most inhumane farming practices. It would also undo more than 600 existing state and local agriculture, animal welfare, public health, and safety laws, eliminating the ability of local governments to protect their communities’ health and wellbeing. The New World screwworm threat shows why it is so urgent to retain state sovereignty over food and farm policy.
Farm Action Fund President Joe Maxwell, a Missouri farmer, said, “The Save Our Bacon Act is just a giveaway to Chinese multinational companies like Smithfield that, if passed, would cause many independent hog farmers to go bankrupt. Laws like California’s Prop 12 have created critical market opportunities for farmers to make a living while supplying the food consumers have demanded. We thank Senator Boozman for not including this legislation in his farm bill text. We urge the Senate to support America’s independent hog farmers and reject any attempts to include The Save Our Bacon Act in the farm bill.”
Lauren Borsheim, Food Policy Analyst at Food & Water Watch, said, “The Save Our Bacon Act poses a clear threat to public health, prioritizing corporate expediency over food safety — and it’s deeply unpopular. Federal food policy must ensure access to safe food, not undermine it. We thank Senator Boozman for not including this disastrous provision in the Senate Farm Bill text. Now, the Senate must hold strong and keep this politically toxic language out of the Farm Bill.”
Maggie Garrett, Vice President of Federal Affairs for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said, “Americans across the political spectrum overwhelmingly support banning cruel farming practices that cause the unnecessary suffering of animals, yet The Save Our Bacon Act would wipe out state animal protection laws and condemn billions of animals to a lifetime of suffering in cages so small that they can’t even turn around. The Save Our Bacon Act would turn back the clock on popular advancements made toward building a more humane food system and harm farmers who have already made significant investments in more humane housing systems. We urge the Senate to listen to higher-welfare farmers and concerned consumers across the country and keep this provision out of the Farm Bill.”
For more information about the Defeat EATS campaign, visit the coalition website here.
Media Contacts:
Nikki Cannon, ASPCA®, [email protected]
Joe Maxwell, Farm Action Fund, [email protected]
Phoebe Trotter, Food and Water Watch, [email protected]