Pork officials are keeping an eye on things happening in the nation’s capitol and continue their fight against California’s Prop 12.
The National Pork Producers Council is hoping a new Farm Bill can provide some relief.
“The House Ag Bill has wording in there which would create a federal preemption for basically, you know, inspected meat. So it states that no state can put, you know, restrictions on other states. So you can have guidelines and restrictions for your own state and own pork production, which we fully advocate for approval of, but for one state to tell another state, i.e. California telling Minnesota how it should raise pigs, that would not be possible with the language it’s in the House version of the Farm Bill,” Lori Stevermer tells aginfo.net.
The Iowa Pork Producers Association agrees, saying there needs to be action at the federal level.
“So that we don’t have this patchwork of 50 state regulations because that can be very problematic when you look at doing that with the supply chains, doing and that sort of thing. So we’re going to continue to fight and talk to Congress and our members. [We are] really appreciative of the Iowa delegation for supporting our efforts and getting a federal exemption in the House Farm Bill and continuing to work to see what the Senate Farm Bill could look like,” said Ben Nuelle.
Lawmakers are expected back on the Hill shortly after the election. From there, Congress needs to tackle spending bills before the Farm Bill can see any action.
