Micheal Clements, NAFB News Service

The National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation seek to terminate California’s Proposition 12. The two groups recently jointly filed their opening brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, asking the court to strike California’s Proposition 12 as invalid. AFBF and NPPC say Proposition 12 imposes arbitrary animal housing standards that reach outside of California’s borders to farms across the United States. By attempting to regulate businesses outside of its borders, California’s Proposition 12 violates the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution, according to the court brief. Beginning in 2022, Proposition 12 prohibits the sale of pork not produced according to California’s production standards. The proposition applies to any uncooked pork sold in the state, whether raised there or outside its borders. Currently, less than one percent of U.S. pork production meets Proposition 12’s requirements. To comply with Proposition 12, U.S. hog farmers need to start making investment decisions today to be ready by the implementation date.