Congress urged to block California’s Prop 12

By Tom Barton, Lee Des Moines Bureau

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, alongside seven other governors, is urging congressional leadership to overturn California’s animal welfare law Proposition 12.

Reynolds sent a letter July 23 to congressional leaders urging support for legislation to block California’s regulations reintroduced by a group of U.S. House members, including Iowa Republicans Ashley Hinson, Randy Feenstra, Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

“Livestock producers in our states should not have to comply with regulations determined by another state's electorate,” the letter states.

California voters passed Proposition 12 in 2018. That animal welfare law restricts the sale of certain meat and poultry products in California from animals raised using specific types of animal confinement systems, including from breeding pigs.

“We support the right of individuals to choose which animal products they purchase and consume,” Reynolds and the other governors wrote. “If consumers in the marketplace create a demand for products to be raised in a certain way, producers may be incentivized to change their practices to meet this new demand.

“We also support the right of each state to lawfully regulate livestock production within their own borders,” the letter continues. “But when one state decides to regulate another, federal legislation is appropriate and necessary.”

The bill would prohibit state and local governments from interfering with production of livestock in other states.

“The Save Our Bacon Act reaffirms livestock producers' right to sell their products across state lines, without interference from arbitrary mandates,” Hinson, of Marion, Iowa, said. “This legislation will stop out-of-touch activists — who don't know the first thing about farming — from dictating how Iowa farmers do their job.”

Iowa pork producers have said they face investing millions of dollars to modify their operations if they want to sell pork products in one of the nation's largest consumer markets.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld California’s law in a May 2023 ruling. The 5-4 decision affirmed that states can regulate the sale of products within their borders based on moral or welfare concerns, even if it affects out-of-state producers. The court, though, said Congress could intervene if it deemed the state law unduly burdensome on interstate commerce.

The ruling has large implications for U.S. pork producers. California makes up nearly 15% of the national market for pork, leading many producers to choose between adjusting their farming practices or finding alternative markets. Similar state-level mandates — such as Massachusetts' Question 3 — create an unworkable, conflicting patchwork of state rules for American farmers, said Aaron Juergens, a Carroll County pig farmer who serves as Iowa Pork Producers Association president.

The California law has harmed consumers and producers, Juergens said.

Supporters are hopeful the measure will pass under Republican majorities in the new Congress and with support from the new Trump administration.

California's Proposition 12 has increased pork prices in that state. In the first eight months of California's Proposition 12 implementation, covered pork products increased 20% on average in the state, with some cuts like pork loins experiencing increases of 41%, according to a study by

USDA economists.

Estimates also show pork producers face costs of up to $4,000 per sow to comply with California's mandate.

Holly Cook, an economist with the National Pork Producers Council who grew up on a farrow-to-finish hog farm in northeast Iowa, testified July 23 before the full House Agriculture Committee on the implications of Prop 12 for farmers and food prices.

“Compliance with Prop 12 raises the cost of production at the farm level,” Cook said. “While becoming compliant looks different for each individual farm, every approach comes with cost. For farms with group pen gestation systems, converting barns to be compliant may mean a 30 to 40% decline in production, a result of having fewer sows combined with reduced efficiencies. Farms may also face higher average costs for utilities, veterinary care, labor and feed, and will have to spread their fixed costs out over fewer weaned pig produced.”

Supporters are hopeful the measure will pass under Republican majorities in the new Congress and with support from the new Trump administration.