I write regularly about the intersection between prison and food. This weekend I came across another interesting connection between food and the prison industrial complex.

A Muslim Death Row prisoner filed a lawsuit alleging that his religious freedom was being abridged because Ohio Prisons refused to serve him Halal meals while they did provide Kosher meals to Jewish prisons.

In response to the suit, Ohio prison officials decided to eliminate pork from all meals served to prisoners in the state. Well this decision does not sit well with Ohio's pig farmers:

Ohio’s pork farmers and processors are vowing to fight the state’s decision to remove pork from prison menus in response to a lawsuit by Muslim inmates.

Dick Isler (IHS’-ler), executive director of the Ohio Pork Producers Council, says the news is especially disappointing because his group fought to have pork placed back on the menu in 2009.

This is another instance that illustrates what we mean when we discuss the prison industrial complex. Pork producers are depending on the business that prisons provide to them in order to make a living. They have a vested interest in the existence of prisons.