The pork industry isn't united over whether Congress should use the upcoming farm bill to overturn California’s Proposition 12, and a proposed legislative fix faces stiff opposition.
After the Supreme Court upheld California’s ballot initiative that mandates animal confinement space requirements, the National Pork Producers Council began working with members of Congress on a way to block the law from being enforced.
Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, and Sen. Roger Marshall, R-Kan., introduced the Ending Agriculture Trade Suppression (EATS) Act this summer with hopes of including it in the upcoming farm bill. The EATS Act would bar a state from regulating farming practices for foods produced in another state.
But not all in the industry are on board with that approach.
“What’s being said now in political circles is that the EATS Act is dead, which hallelujah if it is,” Brad Clemens, president of Clemens Food Group, a major pork producer based in Hatfield, Pennsylvania, told Agri-Pulse.
“We’re opposed to any other similar measure at a federal level that would seek to overturn previously established state-level legislation regarding animal confinement.”
Scott Hays, NPPC's president and a Missouri hog producer, said NPPC viewed the Supreme Court ruling as directing Congress to take legislative action that would smooth the disruption that occurs when states’ laws prevent the free flow of goods across state lines.
“If you dig into the Supreme Court ruling of what it said, even the Supreme Court finds this is a problem. They didn't think it was their problem. And they encouraged Congress to fix that,” Hays said during a recent media event. “We would echo that. We believe that Congress needs to fix this. We understand it's a complicated issue when you start talking about all of commerce between states. But we do need a fix.”
Industry giant Smithfield Foods has already moved to group housing of sows but still backs the congressional effort to overturn Prop 12.
"We fully support a federal legislative solution that will resolve a growing patchwork of state-by-state regulations that make it increasingly difficult to keep food affordable," said company spokesman Ray Atkinson.
But Wayne Pacelle, president of the Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy, told Agri-Pulse he’s hearing reports that as the EATS bill faces growing opposition from members of Congress, new language is being explored on Capitol Hill to amend the Federal Meat Inspection Act, which essentially deals with mammals slaughtered for food: pigs, cattle, lamb and goat meat.
The North American Meat Institute, which represents processors, is opposed to opening that law, said NAMI spokesperson Sarah Little.
There are additional legislative avenues being explored that are more narrowly tailored that don’t open the FMIA, but details are sparse.
Clemens said the “people have spoken” in approving the ballot initiative, and now the courts have upheld it.
“While everybody wants to run to a legislative fix, it’s the antithesis to a free market. The federal government does not need to get involved in this issue,” Clemens said. “We’re absolutely opposed to any type of federal effort that would overrule it and the opportunity that it creates for producers and the pork community.”
Recognizing the market opportunity to provide pork to companies and states seeking crate-free pork, Clemens has invested significantly over the past two decades in moving towards group housing and pen-free systems on its Country View Family Farms, which includes more than 300 family farms throughout Indiana, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York, Maryland and North Carolina. The company also works with independent producers in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana to source its pork processing facilities.
In the early 2000s, Clemens visited European pork production facilities and implemented production systems that allowed an animal to move freely without sacrificing animal welfare. Clemens’ entire system committed in 2008 to the Ohio standard, which requires confirmed pregnant hogs to be placed in an open-pen environment. The shift to the Ohio standard made the additional requirements of Proposition 12 feasible for many of its contract growers, Clemens said.
Established by the Ohio Livestock Care Standards Board, the Ohio standard only relates to a pig once it is confirmed pregnant but does not address breeding animals. California’s Proposition 12 limits any confinement during breeding, except for very limited times. The Ohio standard does not specify square footage per sow but does require that an animal can freely move. Prop 12 specifies that pregnant sows must have 24 square feet.
Since its inception in the mid-1990s, Niman Ranch’s pork company has focused on animal welfare and meeting a growing desire by consumers to produce pork raised under different conditions than conventionally.
Chris Oliviero, Niman Ranch General ManagerNiman Ranch General Manager Chris Oliviero said the company doesn’t normally get involved in public policy debates but decided to share the story of their over 500 small independent pork producers in a brief supporting California’s Proposition 12. Some of the arguments being made by NPPC were that Proposition 12 was bad for small farmers.
“Well, the system that we’ve migrated to over the past 30 years has been terrible for small farmers,” Oliviero argued, noting that the number of hog farmers in Iowa declined by 80% while the number of sow houses grew by 50%.
“We felt that there’s a large number of farmers that weren’t being represented by the position that was being taken by the broader industry,” Oliviero continued.
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Both Niman Ranch’s parent company, Perdue Farms, and Clemens are members of NPPC.
Niman Ranch is concerned about the continuation of an environment of uncertainty if Congress enacts legislation such as the EATS bill.
“If I was running an operation that wasn’t compliant, and I knew that the industry was aggressively litigating this, I’d be pretty reluctant to make the kinds of capital investments that are needed to retrofit an operation to meet the needs of California,” Oliviero said.
“We have an artificial gap in supply right now to fully meet the needs of California and Massachusetts that’s been created by uncertainty. Business hates uncertainty,” he said. “Our biggest concern with the EATS Act is it’s continuing this uncertainty that’s going to limit the willingness of farmers to make the investments that they need in order to meet the identified known demand in California and Massachusetts.”
NPPC CEO Bryan Humphreys said that given the financial struggles many producers are facing in the hog sector, it “raises some real questions of investment it would take to become compliant, whether that’s a retrofit or new building.”
Oliviero said supply and demand eventually reach an equilibrium, but the timeline to get there is going to be further delayed based on the push to pass the EATS Act or an alternative.
Hays said California pork product prices are up about 27% year over year and consumption is down. “We’re not sure if it's availability or if it's price,” he said, as Prop 12 won't be fully implemented until after the first of the year.
Those in California are starting to feel the squeeze of higher prices ahead.
“In the near term, increasing pork prices are likely to put significant strain on restaurants which already operate under tight margins. Breeding pig farms must become compliant before January 2024; many have not,” said Jot Condi, California Restaurant Association president and CEO. “Until that supply chain normalizes, it will be a point of pain especially for restaurants where pork is not easily substituted on their menu.”
Lilly Rocha, executive director of the Latino Restaurant Association and Latino Food Industry Association, told Agri-Pulse smaller restaurants and supermarkets are starting to see pork prices tick up. Restaurants are already dealing with beef prices that have nearly tripled and are concerned pork prices could do the same, she said. Dishes such as carnitas and pork bellies are an important part of Latino culture and restaurants’ menus.
“If prices do get out of control, yeah, we’re going to see some shifts for sure,” Rocha said of pork consumption and use.
Meanwhile, the EATS bill still only has Republican co-sponsors and faces bipartisan opposition.
Pacelle said he anticipates House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson, R-Pa., will recognize the growing bipartisan opposition to the EATS Act as a hurdle to producing a final bipartisan farm bill. More than 171 House members, including five Republicans, are opposed to the bill, and 30 senators signed a recent letter of opposition.
A letter signed by House members in August says the EATS Act would overturn over 1,000 state and local laws, as identified in a Harvard analysis.
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