You Really Expect Me to Eat That?

So as usual, California passed a law in order to protect its citizens from potentially harmful food substances.  This law known generically as "California's Downer Livestock Law" was aimed at commercial livestock farms that slaughter all their animals and package them for sale whether they are healthy and can walk on their own or not.  Downer cattle and pigs have a much higher incident rate of mad cow disease and other infectious pathogens but the commercial food industry, unwilling to give up a few bucks profit, has always found a way to get these downer cattle to the slaughter house and package them as if they are just as safe as the "healthy" livestock.  California's new law stated that any downer cattle or pigs must immediately be culled from the rest of the herd and euthanized to prevent any pathogens from spreading to the other livestock as well as to better regulate downer cattle from entering the slaughter house (federal law apparently already prevents these cows from being slaughtered but we know how well the FDA does their job - in the U.S. only 9% of all downer cattle are tested for diseases compared to 100% in the EU and Japan). 
  It's no surprise that the National Meat Association - specifically pig farmers (who have very high percentages of downer livestock) took this law to court to have it declared invalid.  The pig farmers won the battle with a federal judge near Fresno, CA with the argument that "with proper care and attention a non-ambulatory pig can be rehabilitated to become a healthy pig again and pose no threat to humans if fully recovered."  The judge bought the argument and agreed with the Meat Association.  My skepticism abounds and apparently so did the skepticism of the next judge at the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals who called the decision of the lower court "hogwash"!  What corporate farm is going to take the time or money to "rehabilitate" a downed animal . . . that would be a total of none, in my opinion.  It would take too much money, a veterinarian bill, drugs, special attention from farm workers - yep rehabilitating downed livestock is just not going to happen.  The fight went all the way to the Supreme Court and in a unanimous decision by all 9 judges, they shot down the California law saying that the federal law that does not allow downer livestock to be slaughtered pre-empts the California law and therefore it is invalid.
  Typically I'm not one for government regulation and I like to keep the choices of what I eat under my control and not rely on the government to protect me.  There are people, however, that don't have the drive to research, the time to researach or the knowledge of food production that I have and I think that there needs to be some repercussions for the companies who perform these horrible business practices.
  I try to buy my food by always putting a "face to my food."  This means that you know the person or know of the person that produces your food and you can be sure that it is safe for you to eat and good to put in your body.  After all the undercover videos of forklifts pushing downer cattle to the slaughter house and knowing about the high number of anti-biotic resistant e-coli incidents in corporate produced meat, it's obvious how well the federal law is being enforced.  I'd just as soon buy my meat from the grass-fed farmer down the road, keep my money and economy local and help the people I see on a regular basis as well as taking the money away from the corporate snakes!