Pork producers around the nation continue to decide if they’ll conform to California’s new animal housing requirements or opt not to sell meat for that state. California voters passed Proposition 12 in November of 2018, and the final stages of implementation went through earlier this year. National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) President Lori Stevermer of Minnesota says the NPPC continues to look to congress to force a change to California’s law.
“The Supreme Court said that Congress has the authority to assert its interstate commerce power. That’s what we’re asking as a federal preemption. So, one state does not tell another state how to raise their pigs, but handles the matters within their own state, which that’s what we do in Minnesota. We watch out for ourselves,” she said. “We certainly appreciate, once again, all the work that [House Agriculture Committee] Chairman Thompson has done to that effect and like we’ve said before, we’re really hoping that we can get that federal solution through the farm bill.”
“I think that California has the right to designate whatever happens with whatever kind of meat they want to sell in California. And I think with what you see out of GT Thompson, what’s in the farm bill, is the fact that it makes it to where you can have a regulation within your own state, but you cannot force that type of regulation out onto producers in another state,” said NPPC president-elect Duane Stateler, a pork producer in Ohio. “If I’m growing pigs in Ohio, I ought to be able to market them in Ohio or Indiana or anywhere else where I meet their qualifications. But to set different qualifications to force a producer in another state to have to meet a regulation just to market in this market, that’s fine, but you need a free market enterprise.” Consumers around the nation have been paying more for pork this year, due in part to increased demand and a strong export market. However, prices have gone up more in California than in the rest of the nation, due to the costs incurred by the pork industry because of Prop 12.
Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.