The National Pork Producers Council is challenging California’s Prop 12 in court.
Prop 12 establishes specific minimum size requirements for the confinement spaces of laying hens, veal calves, and breeding pigs.
Livestock products from animals raised outside of California in confinements that don’t meet the minimum requirements cannot get sold in the state.
Michael Formica is the NPPC’s Assistant Vice President and General Counsel.
He says they recently held oral arguments in court on the issue, “we’re challenging Prop 12 in court. We had oral arguments before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, and we’ll be cautiously optimistic waiting on how that resolves. At the same time, we’ve also been deeply engaged with the state of California, trying to help educate them about the hurdles that Prop 12 causes for pork producers and weigh in with them on what is and isn’t for pork producers changes to make to their farm.”
He says Prop 12 is leaving pork producers in limbo.
“One of our big concerns, beyond Prop 12 itself, is that under Prop 12, California was supposed to release final regulations back on September 1 of 2019; it’s now April of 2021. Prop 12 contemplated and expected we’d have over two years after those regulations come out to figure out how to comply, and California has not even proposed regulations yet. And that’s causing a lot of concern within the industry.”
For now, Formica says the NPPC is getting a lot of questions from producers on how to comply with Prop 12.
