A California law regulating the sale of pork, which was recently upheld by the Supreme Court, could cost pork producers millions, driving up the price consumers pay, an Iowa farmer told Fox News Digital.Â
“We’ve done our part, but not every farm has been able to do that,” fourth-generation farmer Dwight Mogler said, explaining how his facilities have changed to comply with new, strict standards imposed by California. “At some point in time, your appetite for debt, your ability and appetite for risk, your lender’s appetite for risk reaches a point where you go no further. And then you’re forced with the decision of basically going out of business or shutting the farm down and selling it.”
California’s Proposition 12, a 2018 ballot measure that was approved by voters, banned the sale of pork products unless the animal from which it derived was housed in specific space requirements of at least a 24-square-foot pen among other standards. The law was challenged, but upheld by the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision in May.Â
A CALIFORNIA LAW IS PUTTING PORK PRODUCTION AT RISK, FARMER SAYS. WATCH:
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“People have really lost an understanding of how true farms work today,” Mogler said.Â
Two agricultural associations – NPPC and the American Farm Bureau Federation – challenged the 2018 law, saying almost no farms satisfy those housing conditions, and that the “massive costs of complying” will “fall almost exclusively on already out-of-state farmers,” passing them on to consumers across the U.S..Â
The Justice Department also argued against the state’s standards, saying they were a violation of the Constitution’s dormant commerce clause, which barred states from passing legislation that discriminates against or burdens interstate commerce.
But, Mogler said special interest groups who supported Proposition 12 don’t understand isolating a pig in a more confined space is a purposeful farming technique aimed toward protecting the…
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