California’s Prop 12 is well known by the U.S. pork industry for causing challenges in selling products into the state. But it’s not the first time a state tried this. Bryan Humphreys, CEO of the National Pork Producers Council, says something similar took place on the opposite coast.
“That Massachusetts, Question Three passed a couple of years before Prop 12, back in 2016. Again, it’s very similar. It set arbitrary standards for the sale of products in Massachusetts, so very similar. If you raise pigs that don’t meet the standards set by Massachusetts, you cannot sell certain cuts of product in the state of Massachusetts. What is confusing about Massachusetts and Proposition 12 in California is it is not all parts of the pig. It is certain parts of a pig.”
Distinguishing between what can and can’t be sold in Massachusetts and California can be hard to determine.
“In Massachusetts, there are certain cuts that are allowed to be sold that don’t have to be Question Three compliant, just like California. So again, it goes back to the states limiting the sale of product inside their borders that don’t meet the standards they have set. It’s not necessarily just saying that if you raise pigs in the state of Massachusetts, you have to abide by this. It’s for anybody selling products in. That’s the challenge.”
States should not be able to regulate how other states do business.
“The concern is less about who is pushing it, and the idea that they can attempt to regulate farmers in Wisconsin and Iowa by going to states where there is not a lot of production. There’s not a lot of pork production left in California, and yet they’re attempting to use that as a platform to regulate the folks in Wisconsin. That’s our bigger concern here, and this comes back to a state’s rights issue. Californians should not be able to dictate to the rest of the country how to raise pigs.”