Gov. Reynolds, Iowa pork producers want Congress to intervene on California 'bacon ban’

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, alongside seven other governors, is urging congressional leadership to overturn California's animal welfare law.

Reynolds sent a letter Wednesday to congressional leaders urging support for legislation to block California’s regulations reintroduced by a group of U.S. House members, including Iowa Republicans Ashley Hinson, Randy Feenstra, Zach Nunn and Mariannette Miller-Meeks.

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“Livestock producers in our states should not have to comply with regulations determined by another state’s electorate,” the letter states. “For decades, our livestock producers have implemented science-based practices and adopted production technologies that have allowed our nation’s food supply to be one of the safest and most sustainable in the world.”

California voters passed Proposition 12 in 2018. That animal welfare law restricts the sale of certain meat and poultry products in California from animals raised using specific types of animal confinement systems, including from breeding pigs that do not have space to move around in their confinements.

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Iowa pork industry copes with California’s Prop 12, faces headwinds

The regulations were implemented in stages, with restrictions on pork taking effect last year. The pork regulations require that uncooked pork cuts sold in California come from hogs whose mothers are kept in pens that provide at least 24 square feet per sow of space and comply with a list of other related rules.

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“We support the right of individuals to choose which animal products they purchase and consume,” Reynolds and the other governors wrote. “If consumers in the marketplace create a demand for products to be raised in a certain way, producers may be incentivized to change their practices to meet this new demand.

“We also support the right of each state to lawfully regulate livestock production within their own borders,” the letter continues. “But when one state decides to regulate another, federal legislation is appropriate and necessary. We ask that Congress make clear that each state may regulate livestock production within its own borders, but not the production of livestock in other states.”

The bill would prohibit state and local governments from interfering with the production of livestock in other states.

“The Save Our Bacon Act reaffirms livestock producers’ right to sell their products across state lines, without interference from arbitrary mandates,” Hinson, of Marion, said in a statement. “This legislation will stop out-of-touch activists — who don’t know the first thing about farming — from dictating how Iowa farmers do their job.”

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Iowa pork producers have said they 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.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld California's law in a May 2023 ruling. The 5-4 decision affirmed that states can regulate the sale of products within their borders based on moral or welfare concerns, even if it affects out-of-state producers. The Court, though, said Congress could intervene if it deemed the state law unduly burdensome on interstate commerce.

The ruling, a win for animal welfare advocates who argue that Prop 12 promotes humane treatment of animals, has large implications for Iowa pork producers.

“We are here because the pork industry has lost its argument again and again in court and now wants a federal legislative bailout,” Kitty Block, president and CEO of Humane World for Animals, said in a statement. “This effort, led largely by a backwards-facing segment of Big Pork and a few lawmakers, would erase the will of voters across the country and punish farmers who’ve already adapted to meet consumer demand for more humane products.

“Whether called the Food Security and Farm Protection Act or the Save Our Bacon Act, it's corporate special interests trying to get through Congress what they couldn't achieve in the courts or at the ballot box."

Democratic state Rep. J.D. Scholten of Sioux City, who is running for Iowa’s U.S. Senate seat in 2026, called the legislation introduced by Hinson and Iowa’s all-Republican congressional delegation a “window dressing bill” to blame California instead of the corporations.

“If Republicans really wanted to help Iowa farmers, they’d do something about the corporate meatpackers owned by China squeezing our farmers and gouging our consumers,” Scholten said.

How does California’s law affect Iowa farmers?

California makes up nearly 15 percent of the national market for pork, leading many Iowa livestock producers to choose between adjusting their farming practices or finding alternative markets for their products. Similar state-level mandates — such as Massachusetts’ Question 3 — create an unworkable, conflicting patchwork of state regulations for American farmers, said Aaron Juergens, a pig farmer from Carroll County who serves as president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

Juergens, in a statement, said the California law has harmed both consumers and producers.

New U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows retail pork prices in California rose nearly 19 percent, and low-income families cut their pork purchases by 22 percent since the law’s implementation Jan. 1, 2024.

According to a July 21 letter from USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins to House Agriculture Committee Chair Glenn “GT” Thompson, estimates also show that pork producers face costs of up to $3,500 to $4,000 per sow to comply with California’s mandate.

According to Rollins, about 27 percent of U.S. pork producers have made or are marking investment to comply with California’s confinement requirements.

Rollins said compliance costs disproportionately affect small and mid-sized produces, who face tighter margins and less access to capital. As of the first three months of the year, 12 percent of small pork operations raising fewer than 500 pigs “have exited the market or shifted production away from breeding, citing regulatory uncertainty and high transition costs,” according to her letter.

According to the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation: “Farm families and consumers are grappling with record-high prices, and without congressional action to strengthen the Interstate Commerce Clause, consumers will face fewer choices and higher costs at the grocery store.”

U.S. hog farmers experienced losses from late 2022 to early 2024 due to a combination of factors. Higher production costs, lower hog prices and oversupply resulted in average loss of $29 on each hog sold, according to reports by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, equating to billions of dollars in lost equity across the industry.

“While margins have improved in 2025, and many farms are continuing to recover financially, there is no shortage of risk facing U.S. pork producers and their ability to make decisions and remain viable for future generations. The issues created by Prop 12 only add to the uncertainty,” said Holly Cook, an economist with the National Pork Producers Council who grew up on a farrow-to-finish hog farm in northeast Iowa.

Cook testified Wednesday before the full House Agriculture Committee on the implications of Prop 12 for farmers and food prices.

Despite recommending Congress fix Prop 12, Cook said the Supreme Court’s decision opens the door for any state to put stipulations on the sale of pork outside its borders.

While California accounts for about 13 percent of domestic pork consumption, it relies almost entirely on out-of-state farmers to supply compliant products.

“Compliance with Prop 12 raises the cost of production at the farm level,” she said. “While becoming compliant looks different for each individual farm, every approach comes with cost. For farms with group pen gestation systems, converting barns to be compliant may mean a 30 to 40 percent decline in production, a result of having fewer sows combined with reduced efficiencies. Farms may also face higher average costs for utilities, veterinary care, labor and feed, and will have to spread their fixed costs out over fewer weaned pig produced.”

Similar legislation introduced by Hinson and pushed by Iowa’s other U.S. House members stalled in the previous Congress.

Supporters are hopeful the measure will pass under Republican majorities in the new Congress and with support from the new Trump administration.

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