Latest news with #Proposition12
Vox
24-07-2025
- Business
- Vox
What won't Trump blame on California?
is a senior reporter for Vox's Future Perfect section, with a focus on animal welfare and the future of meat. President Donald Trump's second term has been very good to large meat companies, which raise and slaughter some 10 billion animals each year. But his administration just gave the industry perhaps its biggest gift yet — in the form of a lawsuit against California. The lawsuit, filed on July 9 by the Department of Justice, seeks to dismantle part of California's Proposition 12, the nation's strongest law for farmed animals, which requires that pork, veal, and eggs sold in California come from animals who were raised with minimum space requirements — essentially cage-free conditions. Passed by ballot measure in 2018, Proposition 12 doesn't quite guarantee humane conditions for farmed animals, but it does at least ban some of the worst factory farming practices: confining egg-laying hens in tiny cages and female breeding pigs in 'gestation crates,' cages so small that they prevent the pregnant pigs from turning around for virtually their entire lives. The Trump administration's lawsuit would nullify the part of the law that covers eggs, which it partially blames for high egg prices not just in California, but across the whole country. Most female breeding pigs in the US are confined in gestation crates for virtually their entire lives. The crates prohibit them from even turning around. Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals A little more than half of US egg-laying hens are perpetually confined in battery cages, which prevent them from opening their wings. Getty Images/iStockphoto The lawsuit, however, is confusing two entirely separate issues. Cage-free eggs do cost more than eggs produced with cages, though not by much — just a few pennies per egg. Agriculture economists overwhelmingly agree that US egg prices have skyrocketed nationwide over the last few years not because of cage-free egg laws, but because of the bird flu, which has led to the brutal culling of more than 100 million egg-laying hens since 2022. That has caused acute egg shortages and price spikes — especially in fall and winter months when bird flu hits the hardest. 'What you saw was this huge amount of birds out of the system, and then we just have a shortage of eggs,' said Jada Thompson, an associate professor of agricultural economics at the University of Arkansas. She estimates that 90 percent of the rise in national egg prices can be attributed to bird flu. So ending cage-free laws won't do much to bring down egg prices, nor do egg producers want to dismantle those laws, because they've already invested billions of dollars to convert their barns to cage-free. Then what, exactly, is the point of the lawsuit? The Justice Department didn't respond to an interview request for this story. But a number of factors suggest it's likely a smokescreen for other political goals. The Trump administration and Republicans like to beat up on California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who many speculate has presidential ambitions of his own. The administration is also motivated to be seen as doing something — anything — to bring down grocery prices. And according to Chris Green, executive director of the Animal Legal Defense Fund, the lawsuit is also being used to drum up support for a federal bill, known as the Food Security and Farm Protection Act, which would nullify Proposition 12 and similar laws. The bill has gone by many names in recent years and has so far failed to pass, and has long been a priority for the pork industry. The goal of the lawsuit, Green believes, is 'to attach Trump's name to this [issue], and to try to whip votes' for the Food Security and Farm Protection Act. US Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins has also called for striking down Proposition 12. There are lots of reasons why the Trump administration might be eager to help the pork industry. All politicians like being viewed as supportive of farmers, an issue that doesn't always fall neatly across party lines: The Biden administration, too, sided with the pork industry against Prop 12. But the industry overwhelmingly donates to Republican candidates, and Bruce Rastetter — a pork magnate, Republican megadonor, and Iowa political kingmaker — has backed Trump and served as an agricultural adviser during Trump's first term. In other words, although the case is facially about egg prices, it might really have nothing to do with eggs at all. It instead represents the Trump administration's effort to help the pork industry preserve one of the cruelest farming practices ever devised. The decades-long fight over keeping animals in tiny cages Over the last two decades, animal protection groups have successfully campaigned to persuade major food companies, like McDonald's and Chipotle, to eliminate gestation crates for pigs and cages for egg-laying hens from their supply chains. Many states, like California, have banned cages, too. (Disclosure: I worked on a 2016 ballot measure in Massachusetts that is similar to California's law.) Although they initially pushed back against cage-free campaigns, egg producers eventually embraced cage-free production to comply with state laws and meet demand from restaurants and grocery stores. In a recent letter to Agriculture Secretary Rollins, the president of the country's top egg industry trade group wrote that dismantling state laws like Proposition 12 would squander the industry's investments in cage-free production and create an 'additional burden' for egg farmers. Activists with the animal protection group The Humane League protest outside of a Buffalo Wild Wings, asking the company to phase out battery cages from its supply chain. Evelyn Hockstein/For The Washington Post via Getty Images The pork industry, however, has been an entirely different story. For the last six years, meat trade groups have repeatedly sued against Prop 12. Two years ago, the US Supreme Court voted to uphold California's law. Having failed in the courts, the pork industry, led by the trade group National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), is now hoping that Congress will make it illegal for states to develop animal welfare standards for animal products sold within their borders, as California and Massachusetts have done. The industry has argued that Prop 12 would lead to mass pork shortages in California — which didn't transpire — and skyrocketing prices for pork nationwide. The law did moderately raise prices in California, but it didn't affect national prices. And I would argue that California's modest price hike is a small price to pay to prevent what a reasonable person would only call torture. Temple Grandin, the renowned animal scientist, has likened gestation crates to forcing a human to live their entire life in an airline seat. The pork industry's brewing civil war over cage-free bacon NPPC has also claimed that Prop 12 would put many small pork producers out of business. But smaller producers are less likely to use crates, so the law actually gives them an edge by increasing demand for crate-free pork. According to the nonprofit Americans for Family Farmers, around 500 pig farmers have signed a letter opposing legislative attempts to dismantle cage-free laws, and some smaller and midsized meat companies — like Niman Ranch, True Story Foods, and ButcherBox — have taken the same position. Some bigger farmers want to keep crate-free laws intact, too. One of them is Brent Hershey, a pork industry veteran based in Pennsylvania with 3,000 female breeding pigs, or sows, who give birth to nearly 80,000 piglets a year. Hershey had begun using gestation crates in the 1980s, and for a while, he brushed off criticism of the crates, both from people he took on tours of his farm and animal rights activists working to ban them in various states. 'Over and over again I would take people to see the farm, and I always got a reaction out of ladies. They would see that gestation crate, and they would just be like — right away — 'You mean they're in that all the time? When do you let them out of there?'' he said. 'There was always a negative reaction.' Sows in gestation crates. Jo-Anne McArthur/We Animals Media Over time, he began to question the welfare of pigs confined in gestation crates, and so did his daughter. 'One day, my daughter just looked at me and she said, 'Dad, we are not going to accept that,'' Hershey said. ''We are going to demand that you do it a better way.'' Over time, he started to experiment with crate-free systems. Then a week after the Supreme Court upheld Proposition 12, he tore out his farm's gestation crates. Now, he says, his 3,000 sows have more space than the minimum 24 square feet per pig that California requires. While the extra square footage costs him more money, he's seen a few benefits: Fewer pigs die prematurely, and he's able to charge a small premium for his pork. But he argues that it doesn't make sense to compare the higher cost of crate-free pork to that of conventional pork, as though gestation crates are a reasonable baseline. 'Why are we using it as a measurement?' he said. 'You're measuring yourself against a mistake.' Pennsylvania-based Clemens Food Group, the nation's fifth largest fresh pork processor, which buys pigs from Hershey, wants to keep crate-free laws in place, too. 'Many in the industry, including Clemens, have invested significant capital (and human capital) to meet the regulations set by the people of California and Massachusetts,' a spokesperson told Vox in an email. 'Accordingly, Clemens remains vehemently opposed to any legislative or regulatory action that would overrule' those laws. This story was first featured in the Processing Meat newsletter Sign up here for Future Perfect's biweekly newsletter from Marina Bolotnikova and Kenny Torrella, exploring how the meat and dairy industries shape our health, politics, culture, environment, and more. Have questions or comments on this newsletter? Email us at futureperfect@ Other top pork companies, including Tyson Foods, JBS, and Seaboard Foods are all listed as Prop 12-compliant vendors by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, though none of them responded to an interview request for this story. Yet the National Pork Producers Council is still working to kill Prop 12. Hershey, who served on the board of the organization's Pennsylvania chapter for 20 years, said the trade group is out of touch with many consumers and is fighting for relevance within the industry. NPPC is really 'struggling to justify their existence,' Hershey said. NPPC declined an interview request for this story and directed me to its blog post about the Justice Department's lawsuit. At a US House Agriculture Committee hearing on Prop 12 this week, meat industry representatives were invited to testify, while animal welfare scientists, animal advocates, and small farmers were not. It all amounts to political theater to set the stage for upcoming Farm Bill negotiations, where lawmakers are expected to try to fold in legislation to nullify state cage-free laws. Even if it passes, though, I suspect Hershey will still be glad he tore the gestation crates out of his farm: 'This is not rocket science,' he told me. 'A 10-year-old can look at a gestation crate and tell you that's not okay.'
Reuters
23-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US Republicans continue push to override California animal welfare law
WASHINGTON, July 23 - U.S. Republicans continued on Wednesday a years-long effort to override a 2018 California law that bans the sale in the state of pork from pigs kept in tightly confined spaces, arguing in a House Agriculture Committee hearing that the law is overly burdensome to farmers. Proposition 12, which also sets housing standards for veal and eggs sold in the state, was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2023 after a legal challenge by the pork industry. President Donald Trump's administration sued California on July 9 over the law's provisions for chicken housing, arguing it has contributed to higher egg prices. Committee Chair Glenn "GT" Thompson has sought to limit the law's scope to California farmers, excluding farmers from other states who sell pork into California, in the next farm bill. The bill is an omnibus funding package passed every five years, and which is two years overdue. "The cost of compliance for small producers could actually push them out of the market altogether, leading to further consolidation in the industry," Thompson said in Wednesday's hearing. The issue has divided the pork industry. Some hog farmers and pork companies oppose overturning the law, as they have already made investments to comply. "There are thousands of farmers across the country who support and depend on commonsense bans against the cruel confinement of farm animals,' said Matt Bershadker, CEO of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in a statement. The average cost of retrofitting or rebuilding barns to meet Prop 12's standards is about $3,500 to $4,500 per sow, according to a letter sent from Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins to Thompson on July 21 and released by the agriculture committee. The average retail prices of pork cuts such as bacon and ham have risen about 1% since January 2024, when Prop 12 went into full effect, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Los Angeles Times
18-07-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Letters to the Editor: Trump administration is cherry-picking science in cage-free-egg lawsuit
To the editor: As an animal welfare advocate, it is difficult for me to keep a level head while writing this letter. My instinct is to make an emotional plea for the continued welfare of the now relatively free-roaming chickens in this state to continue, but that won't help ('Trump administration sues California over cage-free egg and animal welfare law,' July 10). Instead, let me point out that, according to this article, even President Trump appointee Justice Neil M. Gorsuch voted to uphold our 2018 California state law in 2023. His rationale? The Supreme Court could not find this law to have been in violation of the Constitution because the intent was not to interfere with interstate commerce. Has anything changed in the Constitution since then? But now, suddenly, Department of Justice lawyers have decided to pull science out of their hats, claiming that there is no evidence, according to 'peer-reviewed published scientific literature,' that cage-free eggs are safer than those laid in cages. Isn't it interesting that this entity, which is run by Trump apologist and ally Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi, can cite science as a defense now while overlooking the anti-science actions of the president? Look no further than the assault on our universities and the loss of funding for scientific research. Even if Proposition 12 was approved by voters in 2018 out of sheer concern for animals' welfare, Humane Society International has cited at least 15 scientific studies that demonstrate the superior safety of cage-free eggs. The DOJ shouldn't be allowed to cherry-pick information that favors the views of a man who seems to hate science. Anneke Mendiola, Santa Ana
Miami Herald
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Trump administration sues California over egg prices
The U.S. Department of Justice last week filed a lawsuit against California claiming that animal welfare laws enacted by the state have pushed up egg prices across the country by "imposing unnecessary red tape" on their production and are unconstitutional. The Trump administration's suit says that California's regulations governing the treatment of egg-laying hens stopped farmers from using "a number of agricultural production methods which were in widespread use - and which helped keep eggs affordable." The Justice Department also claims in the suit that the laws should be set aside because the federal government regulates the egg industry through the federal Egg Products Inspection Act of 1970, which requires eggs and egg products to be "wholesome" and "properly labeled and packaged to protect the health and welfare of consumers." "[T]he Supremacy Clause [of the Constitution] does not permit California to inflate egg prices by imposing additional standards that regulate the quality of eggs, and the provisions at issue here are invalid," according to the suit. Filed on Wednesday in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the suit names the state as well as officials including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, both Democrats, as defendants. The suit targets a trio of California laws that contain provisions laying out how farmers must treat hens that produce eggs. They include two ballot measures, Proposition 2 and Proposition 12, as well as legislation approved in 2010 by former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican. Proposition 2, approved by voters in 2008, bans the confinement of egg-laying hens, veal calves and pregnant pigs "in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs." Voters approved Proposition 12, which established minimum space requirements for those animals, in 2018. The 2010 law, which went into effect in 2015, prohibits the sale of eggs for human consumption produced by hens not raised in compliance with the standards contained in Proposition 2. In a statement issued on Thursday, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins castigated California for causing "real harm to consumers under its cage-free egg commitments," which she said have hurt consumers by forcing them to pay more for eggs. "It is one thing if California passes laws that affects its own State, it is another when those laws affect other States in violation of the U.S. Constitution," Rollins said. The California attorney general's office pushed back on the lawsuit in a statement reported by The Associated Press. "Pointing fingers won't change the fact that it is the President's economic policies that have been destructive," the California Department of Justice said, according to the news service. "We'll see him in court." Newsom's press office also criticized the suit. "Trump's back to his favorite hobby: blaming California for literally everything," the governor's press office said in a post on X. Egg prices have declined in recent months after soaring earlier in 2025, although they have recently ticked back up, according to data released by the USDA on Friday. Prices for eggs declined by nearly 3% in May compared with the previous month, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Still, egg prices were up more than 41% during May on a year-over-year basis, the agency said. Copyright 2025 Industry Dive. All rights reserved.
11-07-2025
- Business
Trump administration sues California over egg prices and blames animal welfare laws
The Trump administration is suing the state of California to block animal welfare laws that it says unconstitutionally helped send egg prices soaring. But a group that spearheaded the requirements pushed back, blaming bird flu for the hit to consumers' pocketbooks. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in California on Wednesday, challenges voter initiatives that passed in 2018 and 2008. They require that all eggs sold in California come from cage-free hens. The Trump administration says the law imposes burdensome red tape on the production of eggs and egg products across the country because of the state's outsize role in the national economy. 'It is one thing if California passes laws that affects its own State, it is another when those laws affect other States in violation of the U.S. Constitution,' U.S. Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a statement Thursday. "Thankfully, President Trump is standing up against this overreach.' Egg prices soared last year and earlier this year due in large part to bird flu, which has forced producers to destroy nearly 175 million birds since early 2022. But prices have come down sharply recently. While the Trump administration claims credit for that, seasonal factors are also important. Avian influenza, which is spread by wild birds, tends to spike during the spring and fall migrations and drop in summer. 'Pointing fingers won't change the fact that it is the President's economic policies that have been destructive," the California Department of Justice said in a statement Friday. "We'll see him in court.' The average national price for a dozen Grade A eggs declined to $5.12 in April and $4.55 in May after reaching a record $6.23 in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the May price was still 68.5% higher than a year earlier. 'Trump's back to his favorite hobby: blaming California for literally everything,' Gov. Gavin Newsom's office said in a social media post. The federal complaint alleges that California contributed to the rise in egg prices with regulations that forced farmers across the country to adopt more expensive production practices. The lawsuit also asserts that it is the federal government's legal prerogative to regulate egg production. So it seeks to permanently block enforcement of the California regulations that flowed from the two ballot measures. 'Americans across the country have suffered the consequences of liberal policies causing massive inflation for everyday items like eggs,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement. 'Under President Trump's leadership, we will use the full extent of federal law to ensure that American families are free from oppressive regulatory burdens and restore American prosperity.' While 2018's Proposition 12 also banned the sale of pork and veal in California from animals raised in cages that don't meet minimum size requirements, the lawsuit only focuses on the state's egg rules. Humane World for Animals, which was named the Humane Society of the United States when it spearheaded the passage of Proposition 12, says avian influenza and other factors drove up egg prices, not animal welfare laws. And it says much of the U.S. egg industry went cage-free anyway because of demand from consumers who don't want eggs from hens confined to tiny spaces. 'California has prohibited the sale of cruelly produced eggs for more than a decade — law that has been upheld by courts at every level, including the Supreme Court. Blaming 2025 egg prices on these established animal welfare standards shows that this case is about pure politics, not constitutional law,' Sara Amundson, president of the Humane World Action Fund, said in a statement. The American Egg Board, which represents the industry, said Friday that it will monitor the progress of the lawsuit while continuing to comply with California's laws, and that it appreciates Rollins' efforts to support farmers in their fight against bird flu and to stabilize the egg supply. 'Egg farmers have been both responsive and responsible in meeting changing demand for cage-free eggs, while supporting all types of egg production, and continuing to provide options in the egg case for consumers,' the board said in a statement.
