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. 2019 Feb;28(4):664-682.
doi: 10.1177/1048291118808788. Epub 2018 Nov 19.

"Ag-Gag" Laws: Evolution, Resurgence, and Public Health Implications

Caitlin A Ceryes  1 , Christopher D Heaney  1   2
Affiliations

"Ag-Gag" Laws: Evolution, Resurgence, and Public Health Implications

Caitlin A Ceryes et al. New Solut. 2019 Feb.

Abstract

The term "ag-gag" refers to state laws that intentionally limit public access to information about agricultural production practices, particularly livestock production. Originally created in the 1990s, these laws have recently experienced a resurgence in state legislatures. We discuss the recent history of ag-gag laws in the United States and question whether such ag-gag laws create a "chilling effect" on reporting and investigation of occupational health, community health, and food safety concerns related to industrial food animal production. We conclude with a discussion of the role of environmental and occupational health professionals to encourage critical evaluation of how ag-gag laws might influence the health, safety, and interests of day-to-day agricultural laborers and the public living proximal to industrial food animal production.

Keywords: agricultural worker health; animal feeding operations; community-based participatory research; environmental justice; industrial food animal production; worker health and safety.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

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