Glenn Greenwald EXPOSES HORRIFYING Big Ag Plot To ABUSE Animals

0:00 I want to turn to um these stories.

0:02 A two different stories, but let's start with the bill that passed

0:05 the house um that's made it into the farm bill

0:08 which enforces requires ma federal governmentmandated cruelty against pigs

0:15 in particular and could put F2 up on the screen.

0:17 And and Glenn, you can explain this certainly better than I can,

0:20 but California among other states had passed some legislation saying,

0:23 "Listen, what we do to these animals is horrific enough.

0:26 At least we can require that they're

0:28 in a cage large enough where they can turn around.

0:30 This bill being p that's already passed through

0:32 the House now heads to the Senate says no,

0:35 we're not going to allow states to carve out

0:37 even this level of humanity towards these highly intelligent animals.

0:42 So, can you give us a little bit of the background

0:43 here and what this uh bill would actually mandate?

0:47 Yeah, I read an article in 2017 for for the Intercept where there was

0:52 this case where animal activists went

0:53 into Smithfield uh farms where they have tens

0:57 of thousands of pigs held in the most

0:59 nauseating conditions you can possibly imagine

1:01 and they rescued two little piglets who are basically on the verge of death.

1:05 Obviously not stealing from Smithfield in a monetary way.

1:08 These the these pigs had no monetary value.

1:10 They were going to die.

1:11 but symbolically to kind of personalize the the pigs

1:14 and to show what the conditions were.

1:16 And the FBI went on a nationwide hunt in order to find these two piglets.

1:22 They went into uh refuge refugees and shelters and they

1:25 like clipped parts of the pig's ears to do a DNA test to try and find these two

1:30 piglets and then prosecute the activists because they're working

1:33 at the behest of this gigantic factory farm industry that's

1:36 led by Smithfield Farms which is owned in in large

1:39 part by by the Chinese but even before

1:41 that it it's it's a complete bastardization of farming values.

1:45 They as you were you were showed a picture of what's called a gestation crate

1:49 where the female pigs are put

1:50 into this tiny crate where they cannot turn around.

1:53 There's no space for them to turn around

1:55 and they live like that their whole life.

1:56 They're impregnated.

1:57 They have babies.

1:58 The babies are taken away from them after the minimal amount of time.

2:01 They often step on them.

2:02 They don't see them.

2:03 They go insane.

2:04 They actually start biting through the metal

2:06 cages and and losing all their teeth.

2:08 because I I have a a small farm with a bunch of farm animals.

2:12 And pigs are as intelligent as dogs,

2:15 as sentient and probably more emotionally complex.

2:18 And what they are above all else is extremely social animals.

2:21 It's just like if you put a human being in prolonged isolation,

2:24 of solitary confinement, they're going to go crazy because you've deprived

2:27 them of what they need as human beings, which is interaction with others.

2:30 Same with these pigs.

2:31 But it's done on a massive scale.

2:34 And so a lot of states and and it's

2:36 happened in Europe and elsewhere around the world have said,

2:37 "No, we're not saying you we're going to be vegan.

2:40 We're not going to stop eating meat." But there's a level

2:44 of sadism and cruelty and torture that we won't tolerate.

2:47 And these states democratically elected,

2:48 it was a referendum in California, others as well.

2:51 The Biden administration challenged it,

2:53 tried to get the Supreme Court to overturn these animal

2:55 rights uh these these animal abuse laws in California and elsewhere.

2:58 The Supreme Court upheld it.

3:00 And so now the industry is using their control over the Congress

3:04 and the Senate with their money to basically ban what voters

3:07 enacted saying we don't want in our state to consume products

3:11 that are a byproduct of the most sickening torture you could possibly imagine.

3:15 And is really all of this uh Glenn just at the behest of corporate profit.

3:19 Is that the entire drive behind the because it

3:22 doesn't see it doesn't even seem fathomable, you know,

3:24 that you could be against something like this unless I guess it's

3:28 what x more cents in order to moderately care for these animals.

3:33 Uh is that really the drive behind this entire thing?

3:37 Yeah.

3:37 Yes.

3:38 I mean, you know, farming for so long

3:40 has been based on organic and natural values.

3:43 You have freerange chickens and farm and cows and uh and and and pigs.

3:49 This is total industrialization of the process that disregards what the Bible

3:54 and religions teach is the inherent value of God created animal life.

3:58 The most majestic, one of the most majestic things we have on the planet.

4:01 It's designed to take it and completely

4:03 objectify it solely for corporate profits.

4:06 That's the only reason why they don't give pigs

4:08 a little bit more space before they're slaughtered so that they

4:11 can at least turn around and have like a minimally

4:13 decent life on their way to the slaughter house.

4:16 It is all about corporate profit.

4:18 And then they have these lobbyists and unfortunately there's

4:20 no counterveailing lobby that is for say animal welfare.

4:25 The interesting thing is that this has become genuinely bipartisan.

4:29 I think like dogs are kind of the gateway

4:31 into understanding the cruelty toward animals and there

4:34 have been now bipartisan efforts um and genuine

4:37 bipartisan movements to curb the worst of animal cruelty.

4:41 It might run into problems in the Senate, but you know,

4:43 I've watched Congress long enough to know

4:45 that you never place your bets against industry lobbyists.

4:48 They always seem to get their way.

4:49 Yeah.

4:49 And they frame it as they call it the Save Our Bacon Act.

4:53 And so they go after, you know, Americans love a bacon.

4:56 Oh, bacon's going to be too expensive if we don't,

4:58 you know, torture these pigs a little bit more.

5:00 And so I know that's the way I remember

5:02 when California was um looking to pass this legislation.

5:05 That was the way that they framed it.

5:07 the sort of fear-mongering tactics that they used um using,

5:11 you know, I mean, frankly, using the like exploitation,

5:13 desperation of the American people and their sensitivity

5:16 to prices uh against them in, you know, on behalf of of this large industry.

5:20 I also wanted to to get your reaction to we could put F4

5:23 up on the screen to the rescue of this um 1500 roughly beagles.

5:29 Um, I mean these images are just like how can

5:32 you not be moved by these adorable little dogs being,

5:35 you know, getting to go outside and run around after

5:38 being subjected to horrific conditions um and being used for tests.

5:43 Um, Glenn, give us a little bit of the backstory here

5:46 if you could about the way activists were able to um,

5:50 at great cost to themselves were able to secure this significant victory.

5:55 Yeah, you know, it's such a feel-ood story,

5:57 but it also has so many lessons for how activism can actually succeed.

6:00 I think sometimes we get jaded.

6:01 I even just said like, "Hey, I wouldn't put my money against, you know,

6:04 industry groups in Congress." But this is actually a success story,

6:07 but it's so long in the making.

6:08 The first time I wrote about Ridgand Farm was 2017 or 18.

6:12 And the only reason I knew was

6:13 because there were these activists kind of working,

6:15 you know, on the fringes about an issue that hadn't gotten much attention.

6:20 And if you looked at what happened with Ridgeland Farms,

6:22 they they breed dogs into the world purpose purposely beagles

6:26 because it's a very docil loving trusting breed of dogs.

6:29 That's purposely the the what they want in their labs.

6:32 And they sell them for these absolutely sadistic,

6:36 gratuitous experiments to research facilities or corporations

6:40 where that are funded by the US government.

6:42 And while they're bred, they're kept in these metal cages.

6:46 These just completely overcrowded metal cages.

6:49 They never see the light of day.

6:50 These dogs that just got released, it's the first time they went outside.

6:54 It's the first time they they were actually on ground.

6:56 They had spent their whole lives in metal cages.

6:59 And these activists, you know, there's Wayne Wayne Sun who's with the uh DXA,

7:03 the direct action uh everywhere uh group that does civil disobedience.

7:07 They're the ones who rescued those pigs that I mentioned uh before.

7:10 They have been working to get Gridland Farms closed.

7:13 And what finally enabled them to do it was that there's

7:15 been these bipartisan groups like White Coats Waist that have said,

7:18 "Hey, conservatives, you don't want your government money funding hideous animal

7:23 experimentation that have said to the left, you love animals.

7:26 You want to protect animals." And it kind of became this bipartisan movement

7:29 because they weren't picky or ideologically

7:32 pure about who their allies would be.

7:34 They just wanted to this to shut this facility.

7:36 And finally, it's getting shut.

7:38 It's saving thousands of these beagles who would

7:40 have been destined for the most horrific animal experimentation

7:44 and then they breed them into the world

7:46 just for experimentation and then they kill them after.

7:48 So that's their whole lives.

7:49 Ridgand is finally being shut down but it's still

7:51 a massive industry of dog experimentation that this kind

7:55 of symbolizes how to do successful activism both

7:58 in this area and I think more broadly.

8:00 Yeah.

8:00 And you know this just to make it bigger than

8:03 uh animal welfare because that's a key component of this.

8:06 This fits with generally if I think if you were to ask RFK Jr.

8:10 of 2 years ago, maybe 3 years ago,

8:12 he would have been vehemently opposed to things like this.

8:14 It fits also with some of the betrayals from the Trump administration

8:17 on the Maha movement of glyphosate

8:19 and of the prioritization of corporate profit,

8:22 let's say here in terms of pigs and animal welfare.

8:25 But generally, one of the more inspiring parts, you know,

8:28 you would think originally of MA was like,

8:30 okay, let's actually take our environment seriously.

8:33 what we put into our body, it's not just good for us,

8:35 but also in terms of regenerative agriculture.

8:38 Like many of these things have just not come to pass.

8:41 Not only not come to pass,

8:42 but have been outright rejected by this administration, Glenn.

8:45 And I know I'm just curious, you know, what you what you make of that.

8:48 Uh but at the same time,

8:50 I do think there's more heightened awareness because of the work

8:52 that you've done activists and and others on these things.

8:55 I'm just, you know, curious how you're thinking about it.

8:58 I mean, if you enter these facilities, which I have done,

9:00 you'll obviously be shocked by the animal cruelty,

9:02 but it's also physically repulsive, like the smell,

9:06 the conditions of these animals that then are fed into people's bodies.

9:10 They use massive amounts of antibiotics just to kind of mass treat

9:14 these these animals to prevent them from dying before they can sell them.

9:17 And these this mass use of antibiotics has a very high risk

9:21 of creating antibioticresistant infections that can be

9:24 a gigantic threat to the human species.

9:26 They dump this waste, this disgusting, repulsive.

9:29 These conditions go into poor neighborhoods where they just dump enormous

9:34 amounts of waste without any real studies of what the impact is.

9:37 There's all kinds of psychological effects on the workers

9:40 who are required to just slaughter and devalue human life.

9:44 They come out with all kinds of trauma, all kinds of psychological issues.

9:47 It's a multilevel sickness that this industry is producing.

9:51 But of course the problem again is you know our Congress

9:54 operates based solely on money and they are a very well-funded group.

10:00 If I could just quickly tell you like just one

10:02 short antidote which is in places like Montana and Idaho which

10:05 typically have a kind of libertarian free market ideology like

10:10 you can do what you want the government shouldn't tell you.

10:12 They just passed bills that ban lab grown meat,

10:16 which was the alternative for people who still want

10:17 to eat meat but don't want to consume animal products.

10:20 And the the re, in other words,

10:23 people who want to buy alternatives to factory farm meat are

10:26 now banned from doing so because these industries are p so powerful

10:30 that they got the legislators and the governors to ban their competitors

10:34 even though these are free market states of consumer choice and the like.

10:37 That's the level of power that we're talking about.

10:40 Incredible stuff.

10:41 Um, Glenn, thank you so much.

10:42 Thanks for breaking down all of these issues for us.

10:44 We really appreciate it.

10:44 It's great to see you.

10:45 Happy with you guys.

10:46 Thanks.

10:46 Talk to you soon.

10:48 Thank you guys so much for watching.

10:49 We appreciate it.

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