(The Center Square) – Credit one North Carolina Democrat for knowing what it means to save one’s bacon. Perhaps even his own.
U.S. Rep. Don Davis was the lone member from his party choosing the side of pork producers in Wednesday’s hearing of the Agriculture Committee in the House of Representatives. An Examination of the Implications of Proposition 12 was heavily partisan, even to include the split of the six invited to testify.
California’s Proposition 12 is the colloquial term for the Farm Animal Confinement Initiative. Egg-laying hens, breeding pigs and veal calves have space requirements, and sale of products from the animals is prohibited if not meeting the standard. Voters – with a turnout of 20% said Chairman G.T. Thompson, R-Penn. – favored it in 2018 and went into full effect on Jan. 1, 2024.
Most of the conversation was on the swine industry. California contributes one-tenth of 1% to that. North Carolina’s $111.1 billion agriculture industry includes a No. 3 national ranking in pork production behind Iowa and Minnesota.
California’s market includes about 40 million people and 15% of domestic pork consumption. Compliance with the Golden State’s law can require new construction or retrofits with enormous fiscal impact. For much of the conversation Wednesday, those testifying and lawmakers made clear that a potential change can allow those complying with Prop 12 to continue to do so.
Clear in testimony was that a patchwork of state laws could cause irreparable harm fiscally to the industry, and uncertainty. At all levels of the supply chain there is impact testified two farmers and industry adovacy group leaders, an economist for pork producers, a lawyer representing agriculture interests and a restaurant association director from Los Angeles.
Rep. Alma Adams, D-N.C., chose a line of questioning siding with farmers who have complied. Rep. Mark Harris, R-N.C., said as a conservative he’s normally in favor of state’s rights with limited exception as noted by the Constitution, and this was one of those times.
Davis emerged from the 2024 election where his was the only toss-up congressional district in the state, and likely will be again in 2026. He said there are more hogs (1.3 million) than constituents in the northeastern part of the state he represents.
The law, as Davis pointed out, creates a problem for North Carolina producers with their state law.
“We need a fix,” the 1st Congressional District representative said. “When I speak to farmers back home, producers have a fear for the future of their farms.”
He asked the panelists what happens if Congress doesn’t step in to prevent one state’s law impacting. Tiffany Lashmet, Texas A&M professor and agriculture extension specialist and lone voice testifying favorably to Prop 12, said the concern for producers is additional state laws leading to the need to make more changes to farms.
Patrick Hord, vice president of the National Pork Producers and a hog farmer in Ohio, said “a patchwork of state laws would be devastating to our pork industry.”
When Adams asked Hord why the national council chooses a side not with Prop 12, he noted California’s miniscule production in the industry and said, “NPPC’s position is the concern it is forcing other states to meet the demand of one state.”
Rep. Angie Craig, D-Minn., said it would be unfair to change the rules for those that have updated operations to comply with Prop 12. Hord testified he complies with the California law and said Congress needs to fix the patchwork of rules by states, cautioning how one state’s change – like California – can suddenly render hardship and send many out of compliance.
Holly Cook, economist with the National Pork Producers Council, said the industry has suffered one of its greatest periods of loss from 2022-24. And Californians are spending more on pork while consuming less. Lilly Rocha, executive director of the Latino Restaurant Association in Los Angeles, said Prep 12 is a “death sentence” to family-owned small businesses and “overregulation takes food off the table.”
