Livestock Groups Say California's Prop 12 Bad for Farmers & Consumers

Livestock Groups Say California's Prop 12 Bad for Farmers & Consumers

Russell Nemetz
Russell Nemetz
California voters Tuesday approved Proposition 12, an initiative that bans, starting in 2020, the sale in the state of pork and veal from animals raised anywhere in the country in housing the state banned through a 2008 ballot initiative.

In 2010, the California Legislature banned the sale of eggs from hens housed in so-called battery cages regardless of where they are raised. Prop. 12 also requires egg-laying hens in the state to be cage free.

NPPC, which strongly opposed it, maintains that the initiative violates the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause and that it will be costly for farmers and consumers.

The organization is supporting federal legislation that would prohibit states from regulating agricultural production practices outside their borders and is backing lawsuits - now pending before the U.S. Supreme Court - filed by attorneys general from nearly two dozen states against California's egg sales ban and a 2016 Massachusetts ballot measure that banned the sale of eggs, pork and veal from animals raised in housing prohibited by the same measure.

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