Part 1: Proposition 12 Versus the US Pork Industry

California's Proposition 12 raises big questions about the precedent it sets. How does the state ballot initiative play out when it collides with federal law? Today, in part one of our two-part series, National Pork Producers Council president Duane Stateler discusses the legislative work underway to address prop 12.

“The bills that we're looking at is so we don't have a patchwork. In other words, we want to stop that. There aren't any more prop twelves in other states, because we see what it's done. I mean, it's raised anywhere from 20% to 40% depending upon the cut that you're looking at. Now, we've had, you know, a year of this into it, and we've seen what it has done to the prices and it all. And the reason of it comes is it not only does it slow me up as a producer, because now at the place where we deliver our pigs, we have different time schedules, because they have to slot some for Prop 12. They have to slot some for, you know, the non prop 12. Now they have an aisle for Prop 12, and they have another aisle now for non prop 12, and you can see what that would happen as you keep creating more, it becomes more of a chaos.”

Stateler points out that they are not trying to change what voters voted in when they approve prop 12. It is intended to not force prop 12 regulations on the rest of the US pork industry.