Food Security Farm Protection Act Addresses Prop 12

Do not fear: the Food Security and Farm Protection Act is here! 

As of last week, Iowa Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley, along with Kansas Senator Roger Marshall, penned new legislation fueled mainly in response to California’s Proposition 12. 

Refresh: Prop 12 went into effect in January 2024 in California and regulates the confinement of sows, egg-laying hens, and calves used for veal. In simplest terms, it banned the use of gestation crates. 

The law applies to California-raised livestock as well as livestock and animal products being sold into the state. Fourteen other states have since passed similar laws.

The new legislation out of Iowa “averts a disastrous patchwork of contradictory state-by-state farm regulations that would hit hardest small and medium-sized pork producers,” according to the National Pork Producers Council. 

ICYMI, Prop 12 has increased the price of pork for consumers by amounts as high as 41% on specific items.

Not the first attempt: In 2023, Senator Marshall and other Republicans pushed forward the Ending Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act, which challenged Prop 12. (This was after the Supreme Court upheld the original legislation.) And in 2024, more than 900 agriculture groups asked Congress for a “federal fix” to Prop 12.

Soundbite: “Proposition 12 has the potential to further dismantle the livestock industry with the lack of science-based measures. Proposition 12 has already proven to be an unfunded mandate with consumers unwilling to pay premiums for the products that must be compliant with the proposition. The inherent cost to become compliant is overbearing and the simple fact of dollars and cents does not add up.” — Rod Medberry, Iowa Cattlemen’s Association president

Clapping back: The Humane World Action Fund said the latest act would serve Big Pork and not Americans. 

The bottom line: Prop 12 and other similar pieces of legislation make it difficult for farmers to operate across state lines. According to most in the industry, it undermines established, science-based practices that experts put in place years ago.