Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson is predicting the U.S. House Ag Committee will approve a Farm Bill with a provision that ensures Iowa hog confinement operators can sell their pork nationwide.
Voters in Massachusetts and California have approved regulations that require pork sold in their state to come from the offspring of sows that have at least 24 square feet of space in their pen. Iowa pork producers say it will cost millions to expand hog confinements to meet those space requirements.
“We should not have states that are limiting transportation of products grown in other states just because they don’t like it,” Hinson says. “That, I think, violates the heart of the Interstate Commerce Clause and I think that the language we’re going to see included will respect states rights and make that…our Iowa producers can sell their pork products in states like Iowa and Massachusetts.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld California’s animal welfare law and other federal courts have issued rulings on the Massachusetts regulation. Hinson expects “a solution” to be attached to the Farm Bill that overrides both states’ laws.
“We want to make sure that our Iowa producers can continue to get their products to market,” Hinson says, “and still make sure that consumers in states like California and Massachusetts have access to affordable protein.”
Hinson, a Republican from Marion, has twice introduced a bill in the U.S. House that would prohibit states from imposing standards on the production of food sold over state lines. The Pennsylvania Republican who’s chairman of House Ag Committee has said “a fix” is needed to address California’s Proposition 12, which took effect January 1.
