Pork industry sees Prop 12 enforcement hurting pig farmers, consumers and animal health

May 22, 2023

The pork industry says the U.S. Supreme Court’s split decision to uphold California’s Proposition 12 law that regulates space given to breeding pigs and their offspring will create hardships for both pork producers and consumers, as well as possibly having a negative impact on animal health.

Proposition 12 is a voter-enacted law that considers confinement of pigs "cruel" if it prevents a pig from "lying down, standing up, fully extending (its) limbs or turning around freely." California voters approved an initiated measure proposing the law in 2018 with 63% of the vote.

While supporters of the law promoted it as a move to improve animal health, pork producers say that doesn’t hold up. One major issue with the law is that it seeks to stop the use of gestation stalls.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

Chapters: 00:00 Everything breaks the week before harvest 01:00 Tork supervises while I fix the truck 12:30 Out to the barn to find the curtain problem 14:30 One rusty part hung up the whole curtain 20:00 Running the curtain cable from the ladder 24:00 Walking the beans and corn before harvest 26:30 Wrapping up

We're a 6th generation family farm in southeast Iowa showing the real ups and downs of pig farming and row crop farming. No script, just the work. Subscribe and follow along.

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