What they’re thinking: Iowa pork industry copes with California’s Prop 12, faces headwinds

WELLMAN — The last five years have been a roller coaster for Eastern Iowa pig farmer Matt Gent.

“Anywhere from really good times in the pork industry, to COVID shutdowns (and) dealing with all of that, to things like (California’s) Prop 12 legislation, and now kind of a downturn in the pork industry,” Gent said.

After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld California’s animal welfare law last year, Iowa pork producers face investing millions of dollars to modify their operations if they want to sell bacon and other pork products in one of the nation’s largest consumer markets.

It comes at a time when hog farmers are experiencing large losses.

U.S. pork producers experienced their worst losses in 25 years in 2023. Producers lost an average of $32 per hog, only $5 more than the previous worst year in 1998. A combination of factors, including higher input costs, lower hog prices and oversupply, led to the losses.

Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest hog producer and pork processor, announced earlier this month it will close its Altoona ham boning facility, leaving 314 workers without jobs.

The Gazette sat down with Gent, a pig farmer from Wellman who in January was named president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, to discuss challenges and opportunities facing the industry. Gent and his family operate a farrow-to-finish swine enterprise near Wellman in Washington County. They also grow corn and soybeans.

  Buy Photo

California's prop 12 regulations

Q: The U.S. House Agriculture Committee advanced a farm bill with language similar to a bill introduced by Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson that ensures Iowa hog confinement operators can sell their pork nationwide. How important is it for Iowa producers that provision be included in a new Farm Bill?

Editor’s note: The language included in the House farm bill prohibits state and local governments from imposing standards on the production of livestock over state lines to prevent barriers to interstate commerce. States still would be permitted to regulate production within their own borders. Voters in Massachusetts and California have approved regulations that ban the sale of products from animals raised using specific types of animal confinement systems. The regulations require egg-laying hens, commercial breeding pigs and calves raised for veal to be given enough space to stand up, turn around and extend their limbs. The regulations effectively prohibit the use of swine gestation crates. Animal welfare groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, say the measure will lead to better animal care.

A: Gent said Proposition 12 has had little impact on Iowa producers, but multiple state requirements could be challenging for farmers.

“Initially, when California passed Prop 12 (in 2018), there was an effect in the market, because we didn't really know how it was going to affect Iowa producers,” Gent said. “Since then, over the past year, there's been enough production change to meet Prop 12 demand that it really truly doesn't affect a producer that doesn't want to” adjust operations to comply with the California law.

But he and other producers “can't take our farm and meet 50 different state requirements.”

Gent said Iowa pork producers “are doing the right thing for the animal every day.”

“Because what's right for the animal is essentially right for our business. The happier the pig is, the more it produces and the better our bottom line is,” he said.

Many producers use confined gestation, setting up sows in small pens, to keep them from fighting and maximize efficiency. “And so the consumer thinks that a gestation crate, or a farrowing crate, or an antibiotic, or whatever it might be, is wrong for the pig,” Gent said. “But it's being done for reasons to protect the pig and make it happy and healthy. So that's part of what we have to do as producers: We have to educate.”

Q: My understanding of Prop 12 in California (which went into full effect in January) requires pork sold in their state to come from the offspring of sows that have at least 24 square feet of space in their pen. How different was that from what Iowa pork producers were already doing? What changes did producers need to make to account for them?

A: “So a producer that wanted to become Prop 12 compliant maybe had to make little changes or very big changes” depending on the operation, Gent said.

To become compliant with California’s requirements, producers either had to reduce their inventory to meet the new space requirements or make substantial capital investments if they wish to retain production capacity, Gent said.

He said his family’s operation uses both open pen gestation as well as crates, and has chosen not to comply with Prop 12.

“Essentially, the (meat) packers have told us that we have everything we need; we have the commitment we need for today's market,” Gent said. “The second thing is for our family, we still feel that the crate is a very safe, happy, healthy, efficient way to raise an animal.”

  Buy Photo

Manure management and water quality regulations

Q: Fertilizer and manure spills in recent months have killed fish and fouled Iowa waterways. It's led to mounting calls for state and federal action on Iowa's agricultural water pollution that some believe to be linked to high cancer rates in the state. What's your response to those who say that voluntary efforts are not enough to improve Iowa’s worsening water quality? And what measures have Iowa Pork Producers taken to prevent pollution and improve water quality in the state?

A: Gent stressed that strict regulations and monitoring are in place to ensure safe and efficient manure application.

“I know myself and the producers that I know in this area, in this county, are held to extremely high standards,” Gent said. “We get checked on, audited yearly by the (Iowa Department of Natural Resources). We have to turn in all of our records of manure samples from the pit before and after we apply. Some producers have adopted technology to allow them to apply manure with real-time, on-the-fly analysis. … So, if throughout the pit the fertilizer value changes, then it changes in real time how much we can apply per acre.”

Q: There is a proposal, the Clean Water for Iowa Act (House File 2354), that would require all factory farms to obtain a water pollution permit. Advocates argue that it would bring regulations in line with that is expected of other industrial operators like coal plants, paper mills, and that it would provide the public with much needed information about which facilities are polluting and where. How do you feel about that?

A: “Anything to do with cleaning up the water source is a good thing,” Gent said, adding the family has three wells ranging from 150- to 1,800-feet deep on its farm property.

“And so if I felt like what we're doing with manure is wrong, then why would I drink from the same ground that I’m pumping manure on? And so I think once again it's education. It's showing people that we live and raise our families in the same places. … Iowa pork is behind every clean water act we can find because it's just a better way of telling our story, whether that's putting in buffers along creeks and rivers, cover crops, stuff like that. The more green material that's out there longer throughout the year to help stop erosion,” the better.

Biosecurity measures for animal disease prevention

Q: The big story in Iowa right now for the livestock industry has to do with bird flu. The pork industry in previous years has dealt with its own issues with animal disease and swine flu. I understand you have implemented biosecurity measures. What has the Iowa pork industry learned from its experience that could be applied to the situation that Iowa cattle and dairy farmers are dealing with?

A: Gent said the Iowa hog industry has evolved to prioritize biosecurity and separation of different stages of livestock to prevent the spread of disease, including the use of high efficiency particulate air, or HEPA, filters and showering facilities to protect against airborne diseases.

“All the employees have to shower going in and shower going out,” Gent added. “And so the facilities today are just unbelievably clean and safe. And that's the most frustrating part of my job is helping the consumer understand. … But for biosecurity reasons, it's hard to show that to the outside world.”

Challenges and opportunities

Q: What are some of the big challenges facing Iowa pork producers today that I guess maybe we haven't already talked about?

A: “Probably top of mind today is market demand of pork. Unfortunately, we probably have a domestic demand problem. Exports have been very good for our industry, but it's hard to grow them substantially more,” Gent said.

He said the industry needs to adapt to changing consumer preferences, particularly among younger generations, and highlighted the importance of product development and catering to the needs of busy consumers.

“The consumer today wants everything so readily prepared (that) it can go in the air fryer, or whatever,” Gent said. “And so our industry has to do some product development and basically kind of figure out how to cater a little more toward the younger consumer.”

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com