Last month, the Supreme Court of the United States held up California?s Proposition 12 as legal. This was not the answer that the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau were hoping to have happen. While many justices agreed that this was going to set a very dangerous precedent for interstate trade in the United States, they also agreed that this was a matter for Congress to handle, not the Supreme Court.
During the World Pork Expo, last week, we had the chance to talk with producers from all over. One of them was NPPC?s President-Elect Lori Stevermer of Easton, MN. She talked with IARN about several topics of great concern for the industry. One of those is the uncertainty and rapid change that this decision is bringing to pork producers. Stevermer talks about the efforts being made by NPPC to work with the California Department of Food and Agriculture to understand the timetable and what it will take to get producers ready.
Prop 12?s rules go into effect on July 1st. That means there isn?t going to be a lot of time for producers to make their facilities compliant. Stevermer says that NPPC is still working to find out if there will be any grace periods extended while producers and sellers have a chance to become compliant.
Of course, adding to the confusion is Congress. While there have been bills introduced to override Prop 12, such as Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson?s EATS Act, those bills could change the game right back to the way things were, so producers won?t want to spend the money to become Prop 12 compliant if Congress were to just override it with Federal legislation.
Stevermer said that despite Prop 12 and the other challenges that the industry is facing, pork producers still seem to be generally optimistic that better days are still ahead.
