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State Sen. Jake Flake has introduced a proposal in the Legislature that is as close to a pig in a poke as any bill we've seen in recent years.

Flake, a Republican, is a cattle rancher in the White Mountain community of Snowflake. His district includes the only industrial pig farm likely to be affected by his proposal.

Flake believes farming and ranching are highly complex activities — so much so that, he says, the industry should essentially be exempted from regulation by the Legislature.

He's introduced a resolution calling for a constitutional amendment that would seriously restrict the Legislature's ability to make any new laws affecting agriculture.

The proposal should be rejected before it goes to the voters.

Constitutional expert Paul Bender, a law professor at Arizona State University, described Flake's bill as "nutty." Not surprising since the bill manages to strip a legislative body of its reason for existence.

As Flake undoubtedly knows, biomedical engineering and nuclear fission are at least as complex as agriculture, yet these industries are not exempt from state regulations.

Furthermore, you can choose any topic you like, from taxation to taxidermy, and you'd find members of the Legislature who are less than expert on the details. That's the way democracy works. Even a person who is not a pig farmer may vote on matters affecting pig farmers.

We somehow doubt that this piece of fundamental information has eluded an old hand like Flake, who was speaker of the House before he was unhorsed by term limits and landed in the Senate in 2005.

No sir, in fact we'd say Flake knows a pig in a poke better than most members of the Legislature. His town has an annual Ground Hog Day Breakfast at which pork sausage, or "ground hog," is served to all comers.

What makes this proposal especially arrogant is that it is clearly a reaction to the "Humane Farms Initiative" petition that animal-rights activists are circulating throughout the state. The initiative would require that veal calves and pigs be kept in enclosures large enough to allow them to stretch their limbs.

If the advocates gather enough signatures, that measure will go on the ballot in November. But if Flake's proposal is successful, it would immediately cut the legs out from under the Humane Farms Initiative because Flake's measure would be retroactive to January 2006.

Flake's bill was the brainchild of lobbyist Bas Aja, director of governmental affairs for the Arizona Cattlemen's Association. It is co-sponsored by Sen. Marsha Arzberger, D-Willcox, who also comes from an agricultural background. But Arzberger says Flake's bill should be amended so that it doesn't bar the Legislature from passing any agricultural laws.

As the bill stands, it allows new agriculture laws to be adopted or enforced only by a state agency that does not yet exist but that would be created by the Legislature.

Bender, the law professor, rightly points out that this proposal has broad and dangerous ramifications. As he said in an Associated Press story, "Lots of laws that you and I would not think of as agriculture laws limit and restrict the production of agricultural products." He cited as examples minimum wage laws and some environmental and water-quality regulations.

The measure has passed through two Senate committees, including the Natural Resources and Rural Affairs Committee, which Flake chairs.

Adopting this measure and sending this constitutional amendment to the voters sets a precedent that places the perceived needs of an industry above public health and safety.

If this reactionary measure passes, lawmakers can start a list of all the other subjects too complex for them to understand and write special exemptions for businesses and industries involved in those areas.