In his majority opinion for the 5-4 Supreme Court decision upholding California’s Proposition 12 in May 2023, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, “While the Constitution addresses many weighty issues, the type of pork chops California merchants may sell is not on that list.”
“Pork producers must petition Congress for relief from state laws they don’t like,” he added.
Pork producers have taken up Gorsuch’s challenge. They managed to get a sentence inserted into the 2024 farm bill passed by the U.S. House Agriculture Committee in May that would override a key part of California’s Proposition 12 by prohibiting states from blocking the sale of meat products from other states approved by federal inspectors.
Under “Protecting Interstate Commerce,” the language reads, “No state or subdivision thereof may enact or enforce, directly or indirectly, as a condition for sale or consumption, any condition or standard” on pork “not physically raised in such states.”
That means California pork producers would still have to abide by the space requirements and other restrictions of Prop 12, but out-of-state producers would not be bound by them. The current law applies only to whole, uncooked pork cuts, like bacon or tenderloin, and doesn’t cover other pork products, like ground pork, precooked pork or deli meat.
California produces about 1% of the nation’s pork supply, but California residents consume about 13% of American pork.
California’s Proposition 12 immediately faced lawsuits after it was passed by a voter referendum in 2018. It establishes minimum space requirements for farmed animals (including veal and chickens as well as pigs) and prohibits the sale of certain products from animals that are confined in ways that don’t meet California’s standards, even those from out of state. Farm interests have argued that it is not fair to allow one state to dictate production requirements for other states.
The National Pork Producers Council led a letter signed by almost 900 groups before the committee vote asking Congress to override state laws that prevent the sale of federally inspected out-of-state meat.
The NPPC also advocated for other pork priorities in the bill, including: protecting the nation’s food supply; increasing market access programs for U.S. pork; and increasing resources for feral swine eradication.
David Murray can be reached at [email protected].
