by Allie Molinaro

Despite broad opposition, the House Agriculture Committee included language in its draft of the upcoming Farm Bill that would overturn citizen-elected laws in California and Massachusetts.

Introduction

In 2016 and 2018, Massachusetts and California passed ballot initiatives mandating that eggs, pork, and veal sold in-state must come from animals raised with certain space requirements. The measures passed with overwhelming support, with Proposition 12 in California receiving 63% support and Question 3 in Massachusetts receiving 78% support.

While modest, Proposition 12 and Question 3 are the strongest farmed animal welfare laws in the country. Both laws only mandate minimum space for the animals; neither law requires other key elements of animal welfare, such as enrichments, outdoor access, or bedding. Proposition 12 requires a minimum of 24 square feet—less than the area of a queen-sized mattress—of space for a pregnant pig, who can weigh upwards of 500 pounds. Federal law does not regulate on-farm handling standards, which is why over a dozen states have created their own policies regulating both in-state production and the sale of products from animals raised out-of-state. Since the passage of California and Massachusetts's ballot initiatives, several groups representing industrialized animal agriculture tried to stop their enactment via litigation and Congressional overreach.

Court Battles

Since 2016, lobbying groups including the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), American Farm Bureau Federation, and the North American Meat Institute (NAMI) challenged Proposition 12 and Question 3 in court twelve times. The industry argued that the laws placed an unreasonable burden on the industry and violated the Interstate Commerce Clause, which gives the power to regulate interstate trade to federal Congress. They also claimed that the benefits of Proposition 12 did not outweigh the negative impacts on commerce. The industry lost all twelve cases, including one that was heard in the Supreme Court. In May 2023, the Supreme Court unanimously rejected the industry's claim that Proposition 12 violated interstate commerce laws, and in a 5-4 decision rejected the claim that Prop 12 put an undue burden on the pork industry and only applied to businesses that elected to sell their products in California. The opinion penned by Justice Neil Gorsuch declared that "while the Constitution addresses many weighty issues, the type of pork chops California merchants may sell is not on that list," determining that such matters lie in the hands of the citizens and their state regulators.

Turning to Congress