There is a short window to prevent a US bill that would overturn decades of animal welfare progress. This is arguably the most consequential piece of farm animal legislation in U.S. history.

Summary 

The Farm Bill currently being considered by the U.S. Congress includes the “Save Our Bacon Act”, which would eliminate states' abilities to set standards on how farmed animals are raised and treated¹, and void existing state animal welfare laws. If passed into law, it would undo decades of animal welfare progress, and greatly reduce opportunities for future animal welfare wins. 

The Farm Bill has passed the House with the Save Our Bacon Act (SOB) included, and it will soon be considered by the Senate. This is the biggest legislative threat to farmed animal welfare in U.S. history, and preventing the Save Our Bacon Act from passing Congress is the highest impact opportunity to help animals that there has been in years. If you do anything to help animals this year, it should be helping with this. 

Call templates here 

What to do

• Easiest, highest priority action (5 min): Call and email both your senators, and ask them to publicly oppose any Farm Bill that contains the Save our Bacon Act.
  • You should call them on a weekday between 9am-5pm ET, as soon as possible, starting Monday May 4th
  • You can call the switchboard at (202) 224-3121 to ask for your senators, and say something as simple as “My name is [NAME], I live in [CITY] in [STATE]. I’m calling to ask that the senator opposes any farm bill that contains the catastrophic Save Our Bacon Act. The Save Our Bacon Act wipes out basic humane standards for animals and destroys family farms who are trying to compete against industrial global meat companies.”
    • More detailed script and email templates here
  • Email your Senators too. Getting a lot of emails from constituents leaves a big impression on Senate offices, too. Script and instructions here (NOTE: Google suspiciously has blocked this link and the google account which created it, and we are working to replace it).
  • Ask Senators to oppose any “compromise” version that grandfather existing Prop 12-style laws while banning future state animal welfare standards. Senator Boozman has publicly floated this possibility, but it would still permanently block one of the only viable pathways for future farm animal welfare legislation.
• Engage your community to call and email their Senators
  • Reach out to friends and family. Forward this message to local mailing lists, neighborhood groups, local Facebook groups, religious communities, alumni networks, etc.
  • Any groups or people that oppose SOB have to let the Senators know, or it has no effect.
  • The highest priority state is Arkansas. Second is Minnesota. After that are Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Utah, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Missouri. However, all 50 states are still influential.
    • If you have friends or contacts you can reach out to in any of the high priority states, prioritize reaching out to them and getting people in those states engaged.
  • Tell them why they should oppose the Save our Bacon Act. Top reasons people might oppose SOB include:
    • It prevents states from implementing health, labeling, and disease prevention standards on the food they buy related to how animals are raised.
    • It hurts small American farmers who have invested in and benefit from higher standards according to existing laws.
    • It threatens U.S. national security by benefiting large Chinese- and Brazilian-owned pork companies at the expense of smaller American farms.
    • It overturns results from American state elections and tramples on states’ rights to set their own laws on the products they import.
    • It will lead to terrible living conditions for hundreds of thousands of pigs and cows every year.
    • For vaccine skeptics, it would overturn laws that regulate meat from animals with vaccines.
    • (More detail on each below.)
  • If you are a university leader, organize people in your group and your university to call and email their Senators, voice their opposition to SOB publicly, and to engage their own networks to do the same.
  • You can find potential scripts for calling your senators, texting friends, and emailing listservs here.²
• Caution: American EAs who are interested in working in policy (or other sensitive fields) should probably avoid putting their names on public anti-SOB letters, websites, or media statements.
  • Your future employer may support SOB, and they might not hire you if they see you opposed SOB.³
  • Calling/emailing your Senators and getting others to oppose SOB is still fine since it’s not public and wouldn’t come up in a Google search.

Higher-effort actions

The more constituents and groups/associations in a Senator’s state who tell them to oppose SOB, the more likely the Senator is to do so. For any of these, let [email protected] know and they can help.

• Encourage people with high influence to let their Senators know they oppose SOB and voice their opposition publicly.
  • Those with especially high influence here are:
    • People who would be directly negatively harmed by this bill (such as farmers that upgraded facilities to abide by state laws that may be preempted, or their industry associations), especially people in priority states.
    • Groups such as civic organizations, industry associations, unions, especially groups made up of small farmers.
    • State or local politicians such as state legislators, mayors, and attorneys generals, since they may oppose SOB on states’ rights grounds.
    • Those with large social media reach, celebrities, influencers, podcasters, etc.
  • Critically: any groups or influential people that oppose SOB have to let the Senators know. Otherwise, it has no effect. The best way for influential groups/people to have an influence is to email their offices, since the offices will look back at their emails.
    • Let [email protected] know if influential people/groups want to help so they can help.
• Get people/groups in your state concerned about food safety, vaccines, or other concerns in “Why might non-EAs oppose SOB?” to oppose SOB, too.
• Groups or individuals (particularly those in priority states) could write a public letter to their Senators to oppose SOB and get any allies (especially those in the first bullet) to sign on.
  • The volume of names all in one place on the public letter would make the opposition to SOB from the state all the more apparent to the Senator, and knowing that other people or groups also publicly oppose SOB would make it easier for some people or groups to hop on the bandwagon as well.
  • The website could be relatively simple and look something like this.
• For mobilizing more influential people or bigger groups, ask [email protected] for help.
• We would love to see further brainstorming and ideas about how to be effective in the comments

Context on the Save Our Bacon (SOB) Act

What is the Save Our Bacon (SOB) Act? 

• The Save Our Bacon (SOB) Act would eliminate any U.S. state’s ability to place any standards or conditions that affect how farm animals outside of that state can be raised.
  • This would undo the biggest animal welfare wins that have happened at the state level (outside of cage-free eggs), and block any such potential future state wins.
• The U.S. Congress is very unlikely to pass meaningful farmed animal welfare standards any time soon, so state laws are one of the only ways to secure animal welfare standards.
• The SOB Act (full text here) was included under the title “Section 12006” in the Farm Bill that passed the House of Representatives on April 30th.
• 32 Senate Democrats signed a letter last year opposing SOB⁴

What would be this law’s effect on animal welfare? 

• SOB would eliminate current state laws that set standards on farmed animal treatment, such as California’s Prop 12 and Massachusetts’ Question 3
  • California’s Proposition 12 and Massachusetts’ Question 3 both prohibit the sale within their states of:
    • Pork from pigs confined or raised in gestation crates (tiny crates where the mother pig cannot turn around for months at a time)
    • Veal from calves confined in veal crates (small stalls where the calves can barely move)
    • And caged eggs (although SOB would not restrict the egg condition).
  • This report estimates that Prop 12 and Question 3 together affect about 488,000 pigs per year and 45,000 calves per year.⁵
  • SOB would effectively eliminate the pig and calf parts of Prop 12 and Question 3, since most of the animals consumed by these states are raised outside their state.
  • Laws around egg-laying hens are specifically exempted and therefore unaffected by SOB. Also, state laws on how livestock inside that state are treated would remain intact.
• SOB prevents any future state level improvements in animal welfare standards, cutting off this potential avenue for any other improvements for the welfare of any farmed animals (besides egg-laying hens), including helping the estimated 4.5 million pigs per year in America still in gestation crates.
• Thankfully, the SOB Act makes an explicit exception for egg laying hens and wouldn’t exempt state animal welfare standards on animals raised in the state, so current state animal welfare standards there could remain. 

What is SOB’s status in Congress? 

• The 2026 Farm Bill passed the House of Representatives with the Save Our Bacon (SOB) Act included.
• Senator Boozman (Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee) is expected to introduce the Senate version of the Farm Bill sometime in May 2026.
  • The Senate Agriculture Committee will then vote on it.
  • Once it passes Committee, the full Senate will then vote on it. However, it does not have to be the exact version passed by the House.
• Senator Boozman stated he’s aiming for late May for the first draft of the Farm Bill.
  • But he could release it at a later point in the year when the Senate is in session.⁶

Strategy

What are the goals? 

1. Top goal: Before the Farm Bill is introduced in the Senate, disincentivize Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Boozman from including SOB in the Farm Bill by encouraging Arkansas constituents and other Senators to voice opposition.
2. If the Farm Bill introduced by Sen. Boozman includes SOB, get a Senator to introduce an amendment to remove SOB and convince enough Senators (>= 60) to vote yes on the amendment.
3. If the Farm Bill includes SOB and comes to a floor vote, convince enough Senators (>= 41) to vote no on the Farm Bill.⁷

More detail in the appendix.

Which Senators would be the highest impact to persuade to oppose SOB?

1. Senator Boozman (R-AR), by far, since he will introduce the Senate Farm Bill.
2. Senator Klobuchar (D-MN), since she’s the top Democrat on the Senate Agriculture Committee.
3. Others:
   1. Top Republicans (those who could be convinced to oppose SOB): Kennedy (LA), Paul (KY), Lee (UT), Moody (FL), Scott (FL), Blackburn (TN), Hawley (MO), and Collins (ME).
   2. Top Democrats (these are Democrats on the Senate Ag Committee and will be the first to vote YES or NO on a Farm Bill draft): Bennett (CO), Durbin (IL), Smith (MN), Slotkin (MI), Lujan (NM), Welch (VT), Fetterman (PA), and Warnock (GA).
   3. Senators Cornyn (TX), Sullivan (AK), Husted (OH), and Ossoff (GA) are up for close elections this year and may likely to speak out if many constituents ask them to.
4. But every Senator counts to reduce the chance the SOB Act passes.

More detail in the appendix.

How to talk about this with different audiences

There are several reasons that those who don’t care about animal welfare may oppose SOB. These could be good reasons to mention when trying to persuade non-EAs to oppose SOB, but they can also be used to identify potential unexpected allies. 

1. Health and food safety concerns
   1. SOB blocks a state from imposing any standards on how animals are raised for animal products they buy from other states.
   2. This includes standards around food safety, labeling, and disease prevention, and a Harvard Law School analysis of state laws that might be preempted (voided) by SOB includes many of these laws.
2. National security concerns that SOB benefits large Chinese and Brazilian pork producers
   1. The biggest pork producer in the U.S. is Smithfield, which produces ~25% of U.S. pork, and is owned by the Chinese company WH Group. JBS, the second biggest producer (14% of U.S. pork), is Brazilian based and pleaded guilty in 2020 to violating the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for bribing Brazilian officials.
   2. Smithfield and JBS are members and large funders of the National Pork Producers Council, which has led the charge on SOB.
   3. Many Americans and policymakers are quite concerned about foreign ownership of U.S. farmland, foreign entities’ interference in U.S. policy, and Chinese companies in particular having influence in the U.S.
   4. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL)’s public statements were focused on this, so this may be particularly effective.
3. Small farmers
   1. SOB hurts small farmers who benefit from higher welfare standards, since gestation creates and factory farming are associated with scale.
   2. American Meat Producers Association, Niman Ranch, Organization for Competitive Markets, Wyoming Independent Cattlemen's Association, and Farm Action are all farmer coalitions/groups that oppose SOB.
4. States’ rights concerns
   1. SOB overturns results from American state elections and tramples on states’ rights to set their own laws on the products they import.
   2. This could be used to get state legislators or state attorney generals to oppose SOB.
5. Animal welfare concerns
   1. While listed at #5, this is still quite popular across the political spectrum. From a 2022 poll, 84% of Democrats, 79% of Independents, and 76% of Republicans would support a Prop-12 like law in their state. I think it’s usually best to mention animal welfare alongside the other reasons.
   2. The Humane Veterinary Medical Alliance also opposes SOB.
6. SOB is bad for vaccine skeptics.
   1. SOB would overturn and ban Tennessee Public Chapter 742 (HB 1894/SB 1903) and Utah HB 84 which require food containing a vaccine or vaccine material (which often includes livestock) to be labeled as a drug, which would be regulated under drug-specific state laws.
   2. Tennessee Senators Blackburn (who opposed preempting state AI laws and may be especially sympathetic to opposing SOB) and Hagerty and Utah Senators Lee and Curtis may be sympathetic to opposing SOB on these grounds.

This article describes how the coalition that defeated the moratorium/preemption of state AI laws included many unlikely allies, including AI safety organizations, liberal tech policy groups like Center for Democracy and Technology, socially conservative organizations like the Heritage Foundation, kids safety organizations, and Steve Bannon’s team. To beat the SOB Act, we should engage a similarly ‘unholy alliance’.

Footnotes

¹ Not including those raised in the state, or egg-laying chickens.

² You could also give this post to Claude and ask it to write a script. 

³ If you’re out of college and already publicly affiliated with EA, there is likely little marginal downside, and it’s probably fine. And if you’re confident you wouldn’t work for someone who supports SOB, then it’s also fine. However, EAs who want to work in policy and who are only publicly affiliated with EA on their college EA/AI Safety website can remove their names from the website later on, so they should also err on the side of not publicly opposing SOB. 

⁴ This letter was led by Senators Schiff (CA), Padilla (CA), Booker (NJ), and Markey (MA). Sen. Collins (R-ME) and Sen. King (I-ME) led a letter in 2023 opposing the EATS Act, the previous version of SOB. If anyone can find the text of the letter and the 30 other Senators who signed, please let us know. The link is broken on Collins’ website.

⁵ Rethink Priorities estimated that California’s Prop 12 affects 420k breeding sows (pigs) per year (page 75) and Massachusetts’ Question 3 affects 68k breeding sows per year. They estimated that Prop 12 affected 180,000 calves over 4 years from 2020-2023 (page 70). 

⁶ Senator Boozman said “I look forward to releasing legislative text in the coming weeks” on April 30.

⁷  This is more tractable than usual. Many Democrats may already be inclined to vote no and oppose the Farm Bill if it does not reinstate the SNAP (i.e., food stamp) benefits that Republicans cut in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act#. Klobuchar, the top Democrat on Senate Agriculture Committee, wants to reinstate SNAP benefits, but Boozman opposes. The top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee also opposes. So maybe Democrats and Republicans simply won’t agree, and the Farm bill won’t pass.  Only 14/212 Democrats in the House voted for the House Farm Bill. 32 Senate Democrats signed a letter last year opposing SOB.

⁸ Klobuchar, the top Democrat on Senate Agriculture Committee, wants to reinstate SNAP benefits, but Boozman opposes. The top Republican on the House Agriculture Committee also opposes. So maybe Democrats and Republicans simply won’t agree, and the Farm bill won’t pass. 

Appendix

More details on the goals

• The primary goal is to disincentivize Senator Boozman from including the SOB Act in the Senate Farm Bill in the first place, by convincing him that his Arkansas constituents disapprove of the SOB Act or that a Farm Bill with the SOB Act included would not get the 60 votes necessary to pass a Senate vote.
  • It would be particularly impactful for Getting Arkansas residents to follow the steps in the “What to do” and “higher-effort actions” sections would be the highest possible impact actions. le
• If the SOB Act were to be included in the Farm Bill introduced in the Senate, the goal would then be to get the Senate to vote to remove SOB from the Farm Bill or have the Senate vote no on the entire Farm Bill.
• If SOB is not removed from the Farm Bill and it’s up for a Senate floor vote, the goal is to convince >= 41 Senators (including Democrats) to vote no on the Farm Bill, since it needs 60 votes to pass the Senate.
  • This is tractable since many Democrats may already be inclined to vote no and oppose the Farm Bill if it does not reinstate the SNAP benefits that Republicans cut in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.⁸
  • Only 14/212 Democrats in the House voted for the House Farm Bill.
  • 32 Senate Democrats signed a letter last year opposing SOB.

Which Senators would be the highest impact to persuade to oppose SOB?

• Senator Boozman is the most impactful one by far, since he will introduce the Senate version of the Farm Bill.
• The Farm Bill would ultimately need 60 votes to pass the Senate, so it would require the support of at least 7 Democrats. The second most impactful is Senator Klobuchar (Minnesota), is Senate Agriculture Committee’s Ranking Member (the Committee’s top Democrat).
  • If she opposes SOB, Sen. Boozman is particularly less likely to include it in the Senate Farm Bill, since her disapproval would make it harder for the Farm Bill to pass.
  • Getting Minnesota residents to follow the instructions in “What to do” would also be particularly high impactful.
• After Boozman, the highest priority Republican Senators are those who could potentially be convinced to oppose SOB and vote against the Farm Bill if it includes SOB. This includes (in no order):
  • Senator John Kennedy (LA), since he’s an animal lover.
  • Senators Paul (KY), Lee (UT),  Moody (FL), Rick Scott (FL), Blackburn (TN), and Hawley (MO) who are known to care about preserving states’ rights.
  • Senator Collins (ME) who opposed a similar provision in 2023 and in 2018. She’s up for a close reelection this year and may be especially likely to publicly oppose SOB if she knows her constituents care.
• After Klobuchar, the highest priority Democratic Senators are those on the Senate Agriculture Committee who’ll be the first to vote on a draft of the Farm Bill.
  • This includes Senators Bennett (CO), Durbin (IL), Smith (MN), Slotkin (MI), Lujan (NM), Welch (VT), Fetterman (PA), and Warnock (GA).
    • Lujan, Fetterman, and Welch are on the Committee and signed Senator Schiff and Booker’s anti-SOB letter with 32 Senate Democrats, but they did not lead on it. Getting them to be more invested in opposing SOB could be helpful.
      • If your Senator was one of the 32 Democrats who signed Schiff and Booker’s letter, you should thank them for doing so and urge them to publicly commit to opposing the Farm Bill if it includes SOB.
    • Booker and Schiff are on the Committee but don’t need convincing.
• Senators Cornyn (TX), Sullivan (AK), Husted (OH), and Ossoff (GA) are up for close elections this year and may be more likely to speak out if enough constituents ask them to.
• However, every Senator that we can get to publicly oppose SOB counts.
  • The more Senators that publicly oppose SOB before the Senate Farm Bill is introduced…
    • The less likely the Senate Farm Bill is to include SOB.
    • Or if the Senate Farm Bill does include SOB, the more likely an amendment to remove SOB is to pass or the Farm Bill it is to fail.
  • And the less likely SOB is to eventually become law.