House Ag Discusses Prop 12 Effects

This week, the House Agriculture Committee heard testimony about the difficulties the pork industry is experiencing in the wake of California’s Proposition 12.

The largest concern for the industry is for a potential patchwork of laws across the country that pork producers would have to account for when making decisions.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Nebraska: “Are we at risk of having 50 state standards that people have to comply with?”

Travis Cushman, American Farm Bureau Federation: “Yes we are. That was one of the biggest concerns the American Farm Bureau had about this law, and one of the reasons we decided to sue California on it. Currently, we run the risk of states constantly moving the goalposts on what farmers need to do. So they have to make those investments, they, they have it changed again. The risk of states enacting a patchwork of legislation like that, it is kind of bucking up the system that is that threat of creating this kind of Covid like disruptions. We saw the food supply system, and we are very, very concerned about that.

Rep. Shontel Brown, D-Ohio: “And Miss Lashmet, your testimony also mentions the investment that many farmers have made to be in compliance with, being early compliance with prop 12. Do you have anything to add about what that impact might be on those farmers?

Tiffany Dowell Lashmet, Texas A&M: “...none of the buildings would require those farmers to convert back to the systems that they were under pre prop 12. That may overlook the cost that they've already spent in making those changes in the first place. Right. So they have already made those changes. They've got those sunk costs. And I think that that's a point that they frequently raise both in lawsuits, and otherwise when they're looking at those costs that they've already spent them. So even if there's no requirement that they go back in the law, they will have to analyze whether that's something that they want to do and more cost I'd want to incur.

Humane World For Animals, formerly known as The Humane Society of the U.S., which helped author Proposition 12 in 2018, had this comment after the hearing:

“We are here because the pork industry has lost its argument again and again in court and now wants a federal legislative bailout. This effort, led largely by a backwards-facing segment of Big Pork and a few lawmakers, would erase the will of voters across the country and punish farmers who’ve already adapted to meet consumer demand for more humane products.” 

For Market to Market, I’m Peter Tubbs.

Contact: Peter.Tubbs@iowapbs.org