Delcianna Winders, an associate professor of law and director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law School calls the bill a step in the right direction. For now, she says, “Massive subsidies to industrial animal agriculture disincentives protecting animals during severe weather events,” Winders says, which leaves “millions to suffer and die every year.” This bill, she says, would at least require farmers to make some demonstration of preparedness, which could help to remove some of that incentive.

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More transparency around disaster preparedness would help, says Winders. If the agency made plans for factory farms public, there would be “some accountability and assurance that the plans are meaningful, and not just window dressing.”

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However, says Winders, “It’s not unusual for a statute to be light on details about requirements, and to instead defer to an agency to develop them like this bill does.”

Unfortunately, the bill’s chances for passing are slim, at least according to Winders. 

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The bottom line, for Winders: “We should of course rethink bankrolling an industry that majorly contributes to climate change,” she says. But if governments are going to continue to subsidize factory farms, the least we can do is remove the incentive to leave animals behind, and “require some effort to protect them.”

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