News
A look at the Prop 12 fix in farm bill summary
A Proposition 12 fix is included in the House Ag Committee’s version of the new farm bill and the executive director of South Dakota Pork says it addresses a major concern of the pork industry.
Glenn Muller tells Brownfield the pork industry is concerned about a patchwork of state-by-state regulations and a recent summary says the bill is expected to protect producers from having to comply by those regulations.
“We can have the option: they can have the Prop 12 compliance pigs available and the commercial hog market available at the retail space in California.”
The summary, released by Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson on Friday, says the new farm bill clarifies states and local governments cannot impose, directly or indirectly, as a condition for sale or consumption, a condition or standard on the production of covered livestock unless the livestock is physically located within such state or local government.
The summary says the new farm bill would protect the rights of states and local governments to establish standards as they deem necessary, but only for those raising covered livestock within their own borders. And it only covers production, not the movement, harvesting or further processing of covered livestock.
Muller says there are a substantial number of pigs from South Dakota that are raised to go to the California market. He says he looks forward to seeing more specifics on the Prop 12 solution once a public version of the full farm bill has been released.
Why do I not trust states and businesses to govern themselves? Their records for doing so always involve more money for them and less rights for the people they are supposed to protect. Leaving regulations to hog farmers themselves is going to be a nightmare.