As your constituent, I am writing to ask that you consider co-sponsoring Senators Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren’s Farm System Reform Act (S.3221). This bill would place an immediate moratorium on new or expanding factory farms, ban their operation by 2040, and allocate $10 billion each year to help farmers transition away from industrial animal agriculture.

In recent weeks, we’ve witnessed the inhumanity of the factory farming industry time and time again. First, we learned of the massive outbreaks of COVID-19 at industrial slaughterhouses that have killed at least 63 people and sickened 15,000 across the country. And then we learned that in response to slaughterhouse shutdowns, the industry would permit the cruel on-farm slaughter of millions of farmed animals unable to be processed—what the industry calls “depopulation”—to protect their bottom line.

These on-farm slaughter methods run the gamut from bad to horrific: from blunt-force trauma to ventilator shut down, where animals die from a combination of extreme temperatures and the buildup of toxic gases. Even the factory farms intent on cutting costs but unwilling to “depopulate” are using inhumane feed restriction and increased barn temperatures to slow down the extreme, unhealthy growth rates they’ve spent decades trying to achieve through genetic manipulation.

While these practices are wholly unacceptable, they’re only a symptom of a larger problem—one that demands your attention.

The truth is that the industry created this situation, and it was entirely preventable. Their quest to squeeze as much profit out of slaughterhouses as possible by dangerously ramping up line speeds and forcing workers into cramped, unsanitary quarters is what led to the COVID outbreaks that have shut these facilities down. Now instead of addressing these systemic problems, they want liability protection that prevents workers from seeking compensation when they get sick as a result of the industry’s failure to follow proper public health guidelines.

The recklessness demonstrated by the factory farming industry in recent weeks should concern us all. We cannot allow a return to business-as-usual once the current public health crisis is under control. It’s not enough to mitigate this suffering, we must prevent it entirely. We owe it to the lives lost and the millions of animals and workers experiencing this systemic injustice every day.

It’s time to ban factory farming—and Senators Booker and Warren have a plan to do it. I hope you’ll consider leading on this issue alongside them.