The National Portk Producers Council (NPPC) VP believes if residents would have known about supply, price and environmental consequences, they would have voted against Proposition 12.
Residents of California likely didn’t have a clear idea of what would be in store for them once the law was enacted.
Maria C. Zieba, vice president of government affairs for the NPPC, said if voters there knew then what they are finding out now, many who voted in favor of the measure would have done otherwise.
Zieba is a California native, although she said she hasn’t lived there for more than 15 years. However, that connection made her the go-to person on the topic during the NPPC Policy Panel discussion on June 5 at World Pork Expo in Des Moine, Iowa.
Proposition 12, which forbids the production and sale of pork that uses gestation stalls and eggs from caged hens in California, was approved by voters in 2018.
Zieba pointed out that a USDA study proved that Californians are now experiencing having 20% less pork from their own state, as well as a price increase of 20%. And, she added, in order to meet consumer demand, more pork has to be imported.
“Clearly, I think if Californians believed that they would have to be sourcing product from Europe or Brazil, or other foreign countries, and creating that greenhouse gas emission that transportation creates, they probably wouldn’t have voted for Prop 12, knowing all the intricacies,” she said. “It’s not better for animal welfare. It’s not better for the environment, and it’s causing all sorts of different issues on the supply side and on pricing.”
EDITOR’S TAKE:
Proposition 12 has been controversial from the time it was first proposed until today. Time has proven how ill-considered the consequences were when voters passed it years ago. Today, the consumer in California is paying a steep price for pork and pork products. At the same time, the pork industry has been forced to make difficult decisions about serving that market. And, worst of all, the attempts to reduce the environmental impacts of pork production have failed to account for all the added steps in handling products designated for that market. Plus, the icing on the cake, pigs were already being treated very well in comfortable surroundings. Thankfully, the pork industry will survive and thrive despite Prop 12. And pork producers in your area will still be needing to purchase those qualified used and new trucks from CAD members. Now you can even finance them with CADFI – perfectly matching farmers’/ranchers’ payments to their cashflow.
