June 22, 2020

US pork council challenges Californian proposition to regulate farm operations outside state borders

US state California's Proposition 12 imposes arbitrary animal housing standards that reach outside its borders to farms across the United States, but that does not sit well with the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation which have jointly issued an appeal last week.

According to the organisations, the proposition violates the commerce clause of the US constitution by attempting to regulate business outside Californian borders.

The appeals challenge, filed in the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, seeks to strike Proposition 12 as invalid.

The proposition is considered unconstitutional as it allows a single state without any commercial hog production to regulate how farmers across the country operate, imposing prohibitive costs with no benefits, NPPC and Farm Bureau argued.

Proposition 12, which started in January this year, prevents the sale of pork not produced according to California's highly prescriptive production standards. The proposition applies to any uncooked pork sold in the state, whether raised there or outside its borders.

Currently, less than 1% of US pork production meets Proposition 12's requirements. NPPC said US hog farmers would need to start making investment decisions today to be ready by the implementation date in order to meet the requirements of the proposition.

- National Hog Farmer