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Jan. 11, 2019Iowa |  By: Keegan Cooper

Iowa "ag-gag" law struck down

Iowa's "ag-gag" law that criminalized efforts to expose violations related to animal cruelty and food safety has been struck down as unconstitutional. The controversial law prohibited undercover videos showing animal abuse at factory farms, and also prevented whistleblowers from exposing unsafe working conditions or other workplace violations at animal agriculture facilities. A senior judge for the U.S. southern district of Iowa ruled that the 2012 state law violates free-speech protections under the First Amendment. Those protections, according to Veronica Fowler with the Iowa ACLU, can help inform consumers if their food is safe.

"Journalists play a really important role in uncovering problems in our food supply.  If it's safe.  If the methods are sanitary. If the labor laws are followed."

Journalists, individuals or advocacy groups who violated the ag-gag law to document or report on activities in the agricultural industry faced fines and up to one year in jail. The Iowa attorney general's office said Wednesday that it's reviewing the ruling to determine whether to appeal.

"Part of the concern was that it was only for agricultural facilities.  This was a clear attempt to block the content of free speech."

In his ruling, the judge noted a 2011 undercover investigation at Iowa Select Farms that produced reports of workers hurling small piglets onto a concrete floor, and another investigation that exposed workers at a Hormel Foods plant "beating pigs with metal rods."