A lot has been said about California’s Prop 12 and the impact it’s having on the nation’s pork producers. Joe Maxwell, co-founder and chief strategy officer for Farm Action, says independent hog farmers are being excluded from the ongoing Prop 12 debate in Congress.

“I think what’s unfortunate in this country is that if you’ve got money, and you represent the big packers in this country, you have that money, and you hire lobbyists, and they’re in Washington, D.C. every day, walking the halls while independent hog farmers are back home raising hogs and crops, and so, oftentimes, their voice just isn’t heard. The National Pork Producers Council has been leading the way to take away the market that many independent hog farmers now have in California because of Prop 12, and so we’re pushing back.”

He said Farm Action wants legislators to know that the NPPC doesn’t speak for all hog farmers. The claim that the U.S. lost 5,000 hog farms between 2017 and 2022 because of Prop 12 isn’t accurate.

“The National Pork Producers Council has launched a campaign full of misinformation. They’re saying we lost 5,000 hog farmers during a period of time that’s before Proposition 12, California’s gestation crate law, even went into effect. Stop the misinformation campaign. Use data that’s real. This law has allowed (independent producers) to have a market opportunity for America’s independent hog farmer to keep them in business, to stop that downturn in the number of hog farmers we’re losing every year in the United States.”

Maxwell said that Prop 12 didn’t take effect until 2024, and it “levels the playing field” for smaller hog producers.

“You’re an independent hog farm, and you struggle to find a market, to find a place to sell your hogs. When Proposition 12 came into place on January 1, 2024, it opened the door for independent hog farmers to say, ‘Hey, we’ll raise hogs, produce pork the way Californians want it,’ and Californians are paying up to a five percent premium to those farmers to do so. And so, it gives them a market opportunity that JBS, China, Smithfield, Tyson, Hormel, controlling 70 percent of the market, have not afforded these farmers.”

He talked about what happens if Prop 12 gets overturned.

“Over 20 percent of America’s hog farmers have invested in their farms to be able to produce hogs under California standards. They borrowed money, spent money, and now are reaping at least a five percent premium for having done so. If the National Pork Producers Council wins, they’re going to lose that premium market. Those farmers who have invested in their family farm to meet this need will not have the premium and won’t be able to meet their banker’s mortgage. What happens? They go broke. NPPC is working to only add to the number of hog farmers we’re losing in America. Their Prop 12 fix strategy doesn’t save the American Independent hog farmer. It guarantees them that they’re going to go out of business.”