If recent drought, inflation, supply chain disruptions, and regulatory overreach haven’t been challenging enough to America’s farmers and ranchers, pork producers and consumers have now been dealt a significant gut punch by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS).
In early May 2023, SCOTUS ruled in favor of California’s Proposition 12. The 2018 ballot initiative was passed by the state’s voters as the result of an intense animal rights-funded campaign that inaccurately depicted hogs, veal calves, and egg-laying hens as being treated inhumanely. The ruling reinforces the authority of states to impose regulations that impact the entire nation.
Prop 12 created a battleground when California voters passed it into state law on November 6, 2018. Created, and promoted, by a myriad of animal extremist groups, the ballot initiative targeted animal welfare, specifically requiring larger space requirements for housing egg-laying hens, swine, and veal calves.
NPPC and AFBF challenged California based on regulatory overreach into other states, and the Constitution’s Commerce Clause that is supposed to prevent states from harming each other. Protect The Harvest provided a briefing document in support of the NPPC and AFBF case with SCOTUS. While California produces less than one percent of the pork consumed in the state, Californians eat about 13 percent of the nation’s pork production.
Therefore,
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