(NAFB) – Following approval by the Massachusetts Legislature, Governor Charlie Baker Wednesday signed into law a measure delaying implementation of the state’s Question 3 initiative.

Delayed until August 15, 2022, the 2016 ballot initiative, like California’s Proposition 12, will ban the sale of pork from hogs born to sows housed in pens that don’t comply with Massachusetts’ new standards. It applies to any uncooked pork sold in the state, whether it’s produced there or outside its borders. Nearly all pork currently produced in the United States fails to meet Massachusetts’ arbitrary standards.

National Pork Producers Council President Jen Sorenson says, “Question 3, like Prop. 12, lacks any scientific, technical or agricultural basis and only will inflict economic harm on America’s pork producers.”

In addition to delaying the initiative’s implementation, the compromise measure requires the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources to write rules and regulations for the law, in consultation with the state’s attorney general within six months.