Weiler Anelyse M, Zavitz Tayler
Department of Sociology, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Can Rev Sociol. 2025 Feb;62(1):75-98. doi: 10.1111/cars.12489. Epub 2024 Nov 3.
Mainstream practices for producing meat, eggs, and dairy raise numerous concerns regarding public health, animal welfare, and environmental integrity. However, governments worldwide have expanded anti-whistleblower legislation that constrains informed public debate. Since 2019, several Canadian provinces have adopted so-called "ag-gag" laws designed to prevent hidden-camera investigations on farms and meat processing facilities. How do governments across Canada justify ag-gag laws as serving the public interest? To what extent do agricultural industry interests shape government adoption of ag-gag laws? Using Freedom of Information requests and debate records from provincial legislatures, we find that biosecurity is the most prominent justification for ag-gag laws, and that governments exhibit a close, collaborative relationship with industry actors. This case demonstrates that when it comes to contested sites of capital accumulation, governments are drawing on new spatial-legal tools to protect the status quo interests of private industry by dissuading dissent, debate, and public scrutiny.
生产肉类、蛋类和奶制品的主流做法引发了众多有关公众健康、动物福利和环境完整性的担忧。然而，世界各国政府都扩大了反举报立法，限制了知情的公众辩论。自2019年以来，加拿大的几个省份通过了所谓的“农业保密”法，旨在防止对农场和肉类加工设施进行暗访调查。加拿大各地的政府如何将“农业保密”法正当化为符合公众利益？农业行业利益在多大程度上影响了政府对“农业保密”法的采纳？通过信息自由申请和省级立法机构的辩论记录，我们发现生物安全是“农业保密”法最突出的正当理由，而且政府与行业行为者表现出密切的合作关系。这个案例表明，在涉及有争议的资本积累场所时，政府正在利用新的空间法律工具，通过劝阻异议、辩论和公众监督来保护私营企业的现状利益。
