Excerpt
How Factory Farms Criminalized Journalism to Block Viral Videos of Animal Cruelty
An excerpt from “Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth, from Farm to Fable” reveals how the animal agriculture industry created a new model of repression
By Will Potter
July 9, 2025
Investigative journalist Will Potter has spent more than 25 years exposing how corporations and governments work hand-in-hand to crush dissent. His groundbreaking book Green Is the New Red documented how nonviolent activists were branded as terrorists by the post-9/11 security state. Now, in his long-awaited follow-up, Little Red Barns: Hiding the Truth, from Farm to Fable, Potter turns his lens on one of the most secretive and violent industries in the United States: factory farming.
Little Red Barns is the product of a decade-long investigation into the hidden world of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations — massive industrial sites where most meat, dairy, and eggs in the U.S. are produced. As a new wave of investigators began exposing the cruelty and pollution inside these facilities — with pinhole cameras, drones, and undercover footage — the industry fought back. Agricultural trade groups quietly drafted and lobbied for so-called “ag-gag” laws: legislation that makes it a crime for anyone, including journalists, to document what happens behind closed doors.
In the exclusive excerpt below, Potter traces the origins of these laws and the corporate-state alliances that enabled their spread. What emerges is a chilling portrait of censorship and political complicity. And it’s not just about animal agriculture: the same legal strategies are now being deployed against environmental activists, labor organizers, and protest movements across the globe. In Little Red Barns Potter warns that factory farms weren’t the endgame; they were the testing ground.
When discussing the influence of corporations in the legislative process, and their coordinated efforts to send their opponents to prison, sometimes I fear that I sound like I’m wearing a tinfoil hat. Conversations like this often veer into the territory of conspiracy theories, secret societies, and dark figures gathered around oak tables. The truth is not nearly as sexy. Ag-gag became law through what can only be described as the good ol’ boy network.
In Utah, State Representative John Mathis opened an ag-gag hearing by gesturing to the animal agriculture industry in attendance. “It’s fun to see my good ag friends in this committee,” Mathis said, “all my good friends are here.”
In Idaho, after the ag-gag law passed, industry lobbyists praised the close relationship between politicians and business.
“I think it was another outstanding session where agriculture got a lot of help from the legislature,” one said. “That’s due in no small part to having a lot of people in the legislature who are still very closely tied to agriculture and the industry.”
Such buddy-buddy relationships grease the political wheels. And when industry calls in a favor, they get a quick response. In Kentucky, for example, the Humane Society exposed Iron Maiden Hog Farm. It went viral and became a national story, with news outlets revealing that sick and dead piglets were being ground up and fed back to their mothers. The media called this “piglet smoothies.” The next month, a proposal to outlaw farm investigations was included in what was previously a piece of animal welfare legislation.
Some ag-gag bills were literally written by the industry and handed off to lawmakers. In Idaho, for example, Mercy for Animals exposed Bettencourt Dairy, the state’s largest dairy farm and a major supplier for Burger King and Kraft. Workers were shown dragging cows with chains around their necks and repeatedly punching them in the face. Footage was later released that showed workers sexually abusing animals.
Publicly, Bettencourt said the farm has “zero tolerance for animal abuse in our dairies.” Farm owner Luis Bettencourt fired the five workers shown on video, saying this had never happened before and “We’re all devastated here.”
Privately, he and the state’s $2.5 billion dairy industry lobbied for a new ag-gag law that prohibited “audio or video recording” on an agricultural facility. It also made it illegal to “obtain records” without the farm owner’s consent or to make a false statement on a job application in order to investigate.
Emails obtained by The Intercept revealed that Dan Steenson, a registered lobbyist for the Idaho Dairymen’s Association, had drafted the ag-gag bill. Steenson emailed the text of the legislation to Brian Kane at the state attorney general’s office before it was formally introduced. The bill was drafted, introduced, passed, and codified into law in just over two and a half weeks, showing the swift power of the good ol’ boy network.
Similarly in Iowa, the Iowa Poultry Association helped draft the state’s ag-gag bill. Iowa Representative Annette Sweeney, the most vocal sponsor, was a rancher herself. She was also the former executive director of the Iowa Angus Association. She drafted the bill at her kitchen table with help from the Iowa Poultry Association.
In Florida, Senator Jim Norman said he introduced his ag-gag bill at the personal request of Wilton Simpson, owner of Simpson Farms, which produces 21 million eggs annually. The bill would have punished photography “at or of a farm” as a first-degree felony, with up to 30 years in prison.
The relationship between the agriculture industry and elected officials is symbiotic, to put it mildly. Sometimes the line between the two disappears entirely.
In Minnesota, for instance, investigators with Last Chance for Animals exposed Christensen Farms, a “breed-to-wean” pig farm that produced over 1,300 piglets per week. Investigators documented workers kicking and stabbing downed pigs, and dragging them by their ears. Some pigs had severe injuries, including vaginal and anal prolapses.
Conveniently, one of the employees of Christensen Farms was Representative Rod Hamilton. He was also president of the board of directors of the Minnesota Pork Producers Association and chair of the House Agriculture Finance Committee. After the video was released, Hamilton co-sponsored ag-gag legislation that would make investigating his farm illegal.
This wouldn’t be Hamilton’s last controversy, though. In 2018, Minnesota lawmakers made major changes to the House’s internal sexual harassment policy. Within 24 hours, Hamilton was back in the headlines of the Star Tribune because a 23-year-old woman had filed a police report accusing him of sexual assault. The Republican lawmaker had met the young woman through her lobbying efforts. She had gone to Hamilton to advocate for sexual assault victims.
The power of the good ol’ boy network, however, is that once you’re in, it’s hard to get kicked out. No matter what you do, the other boys have your back. Even after the farm investigation and the sexual assault allegations, the pork industry still treated Hamilton as their pride and joy. In 2023, the Minnesota Pork Board honored him with the Legislator of Distinction Award. An article in Farm Journal’s Pork praised him as “leading with empathy.”
AS AG-GAG BILLS popped up around the country, something seemed fishy to me. These bills were all being introduced too quickly and easily. They were too similar. In many cases, the exact same language appeared in multiple states.
I printed them out and tacked them all on the wall, then underlined the most important language in each. State governments each have their own nuances, and legislative conventions are far from universal. Each bill carries the fingerprints of its authors. And staring at them all, collectively, it was clear that some text appeared to be copied and pasted.
Look at the ag-gag bills of Missouri, HB 1860, and Iowa, HF 589, for example. The language is verbatim. They both create a new crime of “agricultural production facility fraud.” They both criminalize any one who “obtains access to an agricultural production facility by false pretenses,” “makes a false statement or misrepresentation as part of an application,” or has the “intent to commit an act not authorized by the owner.”
Either politicians were just equally brilliant and struck by the same muse, I thought, or they worked secretly, behind closed doors, to share their information and coordinate ag-gag nationally.
My mind immediately went to a covert lobbying group called the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC. ALEC is a secretive organization that connects lawmakers to corporate sponsors in order to reshape state policies on social issues.
The way ALEC works is that corporations donate buckets of money to the group, which then offer state lawmakers all-expenses-paid junkets. As lawmakers are off being wined and dined, going to Broadway shows, corporate representatives draft model state legislation that reflects their interests.
Then, when the lawmakers go home, they introduce these bills in their statehouses but not without wiping away corporate fingerprints. Constituents and other politicians have no idea that the legislation being debated was literally written by corporations. ALEC is often described as a Trojan horse, but the truth is that the group is more like a factory farm for state laws.
I had reported on ALEC’s bill mill previously, documenting its model “eco-terrorism” legislation that criminalizes protests and non violent civil disobedience like tree sits. The “Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act” was drafted by representatives of the pharmaceutical, animal agriculture, and natural resource industries.
From the start, ALEC’s eco-terrorism bill spelled out increased penalties for undercover investigators, such as prohibitions against “entering an animal or research facility to take pictures by photo graph, video camera, or other means.” But this was years ago, and most people had forgotten about the plan.
Could the same front group be at it again, this time with ag-gag?
It’s a difficult question to answer, because ALEC operates secretly. And as public scrutiny of the group increased in recent years, particularly after its union-busting efforts in Wisconsin and ties to “stand your ground” gun laws, the group has made itself even more opaque.
So I started combing through the stack of ag-gag bills, legislative transcripts, lists of sponsors and co-sponsors, and voting records to make a list of politicians who supported ag-gag. Then I created another list of known ALEC members. Because ALEC membership is hidden from the public, I drew on court documents, verified media reports, and any publicly available information I could get my hands on. Finally I cross-referenced my two lists and circled names.
Even from my limited list, it was clear that ALEC members were critical to introducing, sponsoring, and bloc voting for ag-gag bills across the country.
ALEC’s model legislation originates from what it calls “task forces.” One of these is the Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force. Every state where an ag-gag bill has been introduced, except for New York, has members of this task force. As task force members, these state lawmakers have an important role in ALEC, coordinating new bills with corporate sponsors.
In addition to being a bill factory, the group also rallies its troops — its members having significant voting power. Mike McIntire reported in The New York Times, “Aides on ALEC task forces keep detailed, color-coded spreadsheets on ‘good bills’ and ‘problematic bills’ in all 50 states, and they regularly send emails to alert legislators about ones that ALEC opposes or supports.”
For instance, Iowa was the first state to pass an ag-gag law, in 2011. There were nine Iowa lawmakers on ALEC’s Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force, far more than any other state. Three were also members of the House Agriculture Committee, where the bill originated. (On the Senate side, there are two ALEC members on the Agriculture Committee).
About 23 percent of Iowa lawmakers who voted for HF 589 were members of ALEC. After the bill passed the House and Senate, it was signed into law by Governor Terry Branstad, who is not only an ALEC member but also a founder of the organization.
In Utah, the second state to pass an ag-gag law, the original proposal was so sweeping that it made videotaping a factory farm the same level of offense as assaulting a police officer. When the bill came to the Utah House for a vote, at least 14 of the 60 yea votes were ALEC members. Two of them, Representatives Roger Barrus and Rebecca Lockhart, were members of the ALEC Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force. When the Utah Senate approved the bill, 13 of the 24 yeas — 54 percent — were from verified ALEC members.
The list goes on. Minnesota’s ag-gag bill, for example, House File 1369, criminalized those who “produce a record which reproduces an image or sound occurring at the animal facility,” including farms, animal experimentation labs, and puppy mills. Four of the seven sponsors are tied to ALEC.
ALEC is best known for its influence on state laws. However, ALEC members often move on to the U.S. Congress where they continue representing the group. Some of the most important congressional players in the long-term campaign to label animal and environmental activists as “terrorists” have been verified ALEC members.
For example:
Representative Don Young, who publicly speculated in the aftermath of 9/11 that the attacks were the work of environmentalists and called for congressional hearings on “eco-terrorism.”
Senator James Inhofe, who had a hand in multiple versions of “eco-terrorism” bills and hearings over the last 20 years.
Iowa Representative Steve King, who publicly brags about his war on vegetarians.
The federal Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act has striking similarities to ALEC’s model bill, and at points nearly verbatim language. The bills are not the same, but that’s not the point: At both the state and federal levels, ALEC’s model bills exist to shape political discourse. They provide the framework for the debate.
The web of connections becomes even more tangled when you examine state and federal lobbying side by side. Some of the same corporations that secretly lobbied through ALEC were also involved in forming another secretive lobbying group called the Animal Enterprise Protection Coalition.
This was a front group that existed solely to pass the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act. Pfizer, Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Wyeth, GlaxoSmithKline, PhRMA, Boehringer Pharmaceuticals, and the National Pork Producers Council were just some of the ALEC sponsors involved.
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Here’s a blub — a promotional positive statement about the book:
“We are in a fight for our lives against a rising authoritarian tide, and this clear-eyed, compelling, clarion call of a book has a message everyone needs to hear. We will not save ourselves if we do not also fight for the lives of others–including non-human animals. No one is better positioned than Will Potter to connect the dots between fascism and factory farming, and he does so with energy, conviction, and incredible insight.”
— Astra Taylor, author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone
I’m digging the book he sent me. Stay TUNED. July 23, 6 -m PST, KYAQ.ORG.
Yes indeed, things have gotten really really worse, and the book thus far is about ag-gag, the history of those laws, and we go back farther than Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, way back to “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” Even farther back to Matthew in that book about bearing witness, or Islam and the concept of being a martyr, witness, whistleblower.
Oh, I recall this bullshit interview/debate on Democracy Now with Will Potter and the schill goofy woman working for the lobby, man, and the manufactured balance, the false balance, the broken equivalency.
Here’s a blub — a promotional positive statement about the book:
“We are in a fight for our lives against a rising authoritarian tide, and this clear-eyed, compelling, clarion call of a book has a message everyone needs to hear. We will not save ourselves if we do not also fight for the lives of others–including non-human animals. No one is better positioned than Will Potter to connect the dots between fascism and factory farming, and he does so with energy, conviction, and incredible insight.”
— Astra Taylor, author of Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone
I’m digging the book he sent me. Stay TUNED.
Yes indeed, things have gotten really really worse, and the book thus far is about ag-gag, the history of those laws, and we go back farther than Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, way back to “Old McDonald Had a Farm.” Even farther back to Matthew in that book about bearing witness, or Islam and the concept of being a martyr, witness, whistleblower.
Oh, I recall this bullshit interview/debate on Democracy Now with Will Potter and the schill goofy woman working for the lobby, man, and the manufactured balance, the false balance, the broken equivalency.
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