As of Jan. 1, California Proposition 12 is now in effect and causing pork producers nationwide to react, with an estimated 1,250, or about 4 percent, of producers and distributors coming into compliance.
Josh Trenary, executive director for the Indiana Pork Producers Association, said his largest concern with the law has to do with the precedent it sets for future legislation.
“If a state wants to pass a law that has certain production restrictions on a product, in this sort of new normal after the Supreme Court case, then if those production standards apply to a producer within that state exactly the same as they apply to producers outside that state, then essentially any state could pass a law for any production standard on any product and I'm very interested and or worried about where that might go,” he said.
Read more: Supreme Court upholds Prop 12, could affect Indiana pork producers
The law, known as the Farm Animal Confinement Initiative, was voted into California law in 2018. It sought to protect animals raised on factory farms from confined cages by increasing the minimum space requirements necessary to sell various animal products in the state and outright banned the sale of products that didn’t meet those requirements.
The law was challenged unsuccessfully in the Supreme Court last year by the National Pork Producers Council and American Farm Bureau Federation who cited the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution in the case. They argued that since California imported most of its pork, the law effectively reached across state borders and regulated out-of-state producers.
Trenary said that California needs an estimated 225 million pounds of Prop 12-compliant pork a month, or about 650,000-to-700,000 commercial sows, a number which the state can’t meet on its own.
“California only has 1,500 sows of its own,” he said. “Even that production number, that 45 million pounds per month, most of that even is out-of-state pigs getting processed in California. They're a net importer of pork by far.”
In Indiana, a small number of producers have come into compliance with the law, though they won’t be able to sell to California until their operations are inspected and certified to the new standards.
