The US legal system, having worked its magic personifying corporations and depriving minorities of various rights, is now laser focused on animal illfare.*

Two stories are in the news today. One involves pigs. Pigs are on my mind because Markegard, our regenerative farm source, is now limiting pork to members only, having become unable to meet demand. My husband and I are members, but even member quantities are limited, and supplies of specific cuts sell out quickly. That combined with living in the lovely but remote hamlet of Santa Cruz, whence deliveries only arrive every two weeks, has led to our household being forced to turn to rotating-sow pork more often.

I’m not referring to any sort of porcine dance step. California’s gestation crate rules, which require sows to be in crates of 24 as opposed to 14 square feet, allowing them to turn around, were approved by voters four years ago. Now those are being challenged by pork producers in Iowa, who fear that their rectilinear-sow pork won’t be as valuable if such a large market–13% of pork is sold in the Golden State–is eliminated.

Markegard Farm sows live in large pens together with other sows most of the time, and occasionally have conjugal visits with the boars; all of them get chances to forage in the forest. If I can’t get those, I at least want to get the ones who are able to curl into a ball to sleep. Animals may die for my nutrition, but I think they should have some small pleasures first.

Meanwhile, the northern right whale is critically endangered, and climate change is forcing it to forage in new areas of the oceans, specifically areas near Maine in which vertical-line lobster traps threaten the whales, so Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch, a guide to sustainable seafood, downgraded Maine lobster to Do Not Buy. Mainers are not happy, and they aren’t just complaining about it. Maine’s full complement of representatives is pushing a federal law to defund government funding of MBA, a non-profit organization of world renown.

Seafood Watch is not affecting 13% or even 1.3% of seafood purchases, even here in California. We talk about it in the Seymour Center, a destination for folks interested in conserving the world’s oceans, and maybe a quarter of those have even heard of it. I bet the publicity from this Maine case is the most exposure it has had in years.

Forget about doing the right thing, whatever that is. I just would like for all people to let other people do what they want. Some people may want to eat Maine lobsters because they kill right whales, and I won’t stop them. I remember years ago when voters in Denton, Texas were prevented by their state government from banning fracking in playgrounds. Why can’t voters in an entity like a town or a state choose a lifestyle they prefer?

And why is free commerce more sacred than so many other freedom?

imagine at least one person reading this thinks the right thing for me to do is to be a vegetarian. I’m not arguing that in this blog, but I tried the vegan lifestyle for six months, and my body is telling me to go with evolution on this one.

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* According to the web, source of much enlightenment, this is a word.