After farm-photo bill dies in Florida, animal advocacy groups wary of Monsanto-backed version in Iowa

While Sen. Jim Norman’s controversial farm-photo bill may have died in the Florida Legislature, animal rights advocates are cautiously acknowledging the victory is a temporary one whose significance may ultimately be thwarted by laws currently pending in Iowa and Minnesota.

The bill, which would have created penalties for taking pictures on farms, drew a firestorm of opposition from animal rights groups who felt it would hamper whistleblowers’ efforts to expose inhumane farming conditions.

Farm photos now only a misdemeanor in Norman’s bill

“If they don’t have anything to hide, what are they worrying about?”

Egg producer requested Norman’s farm-photo felony bill; similar legislation pending in Iowa

According to the Florida Farm Bureau, state Sen. Jim Norman, R-Tampa, drafted his controversial “Farms” bill at the behest of Wilton Simpson of Pasco County, whose Simpson Farms produces 21 million eggs annually for Florida’s second-largest egg seller, Tampa Farm Service, Inc. As currently written, Senate Bill 1246 would make photography “at or of a farm” a first-degree felony.

Florida Farm Bureau on farm-photo felony bill: ‘We’re revising the whole thing’

A controversial Senate bill currently under review in Tallahassee will be revised, according to a spokesman for the Florida Farm Bureau.

Norman bill would make farm photography a first-degree felony; animal-rights groups outraged

A bill filed by state Sen. Jim Norman, R-Tampa, would make photographing farms without the written consent of the owner a first-degree felony in Florida. Senate Bill 1246, simply titled “Farms,” has caused a stir among animal-advocacy groups for comparing a potential whistleblower who might expose the realities of factory farming — or even a tourist snapping a photograph of cows grazing in a field — with those who commit murder or armed robbery.