Pork producers all across the U.S. continue to push lawmakers on Capitol Hill to pass a legislative fix this year for California’s Prop 12.
“We want one law from the federal government that says you can’t have a regulation or a law within one state that regulates outside of their borders when it comes to how we raise our pigs,” says Jackie Bowman Ponder, who serves on the Board of Directors for the National Pork Producers Council. She is also the Chief Legal Officer for Bowman Family Holdings, which is based in Indianapolis and owns pork production facilities across Indiana and Michigan.
California’s Prop 12 prohibits the sale of uncooked whole pork meat not produced under the law’s arbitrary and costly housing dimensions. California’s law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in May 2023 in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross. The law has been in effect in the Golden State since Jan. 1, 2024.
“So, we don’t want people in California telling Indiana farmers how to raise their pigs,” she says. “They can regulate what happens within their borders, but not outside of their borders. That is what we’re looking for in a fix for Prop 12.”
Ponder says she is encouraged that Congressman Glenn “G.T.” Thompson (R-15-PA), who is Chair of the House Agriculture Committee, shared that the legislative fix is part of “Farm Bill 2.0” that he plans to introduce in the coming weeks.
“There was a Prop 12 fix in a Farm Bill that was put forth by the House Ag Committee last year. We’ve been told that fix is expected to be in a markup of the Farm Bill that will go to the House at the end of February. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he’s committed to having it go to the floor for a vote, and there would be a fix to the patchwork regulation in that Farm Bill,” she says.
Ponder encourages pork producers and members of the ag industry to contact their lawmakers in Washington, D.C. and tell them to support the fix for Prop 12 in the Farm Bill.
Meanwhile, Politico reports that Republicans on the House Ag Committee want to get a floor vote on the Farm Bill before the Easter recess.
