I recently reported that a California law taking effect next year could make pork challenging to find and more expensive to purchase. The new rules mandate very specific living conditions for the livestock that few farmers meet.
While I stock-up on bacon, Iowa Senators Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst are pushing back against California’s law with their own.
The California law, Proposition 12, will ban the sale of pork from farms where a pig is raised on less than 24 square feet of space. Since only 4 percent of the nation’s hog farmers abide by it, the law will eliminate 96 percent of pork suppliers from the California market. Iowa is the largest pork supplier in the nation.Ernst and Grassley on Thursday introduced a bill, the Exposing Agricultural Trade Suppression Act, that would combat California’s law by preventing any state from regulating the production or distribution of agricultural products in other states and localities.”We thought we’ve seen it all from the radical left—from defunding the police, to the Green New Deal, to trillions in new spending with skyrocketing inflation—but this takes it to a whole new level: banning bacon? No way, folks,” said Ernst, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee. “Radicals in liberal states like California shouldn’t be allowed to punish hardworking farmers and producers in Iowa, which is why I’m pushing to strip out this ridiculous law and ensure Iowans can continue selling the nation’s best pork, bacon, and eggs to Americans across the country.”
It is being reported that 20 states have already challenged California’s proposition. However, looking at the numbers, perhaps their citizens might enjoy having more bacon at lower prices. It appears Golden State citizens eat more than their fair share.
According to a report from the Associated Press, only 4% of hog operations currently comply with the new rules and unless the courts intervene or the state temporarily allows non-compliant meat to be sold in the state, California will lose much of its pork supply….Californians consume 15% of all pork produced in the U.S., and Iowa leads the country in hog production. To make sure they stay compliant, Iowa farmers are making tough decisions before the law goes into effect on January 1, 2022.
Two Chapman University professors recently studied the motivating factors for Californians moving out of state. The results were exactly what you might think:
Our research findings rigorously show that the two major reasons that account for California’s net outflow and Florida’s inflow are regulatory policies and state and local taxes. In terms of regulation, George Mason University’s Mercatus Center ranks California as having more regulation than any other state in the nation. As for state and local taxes, the Tax Foundation’s State Business Climate Index places California as the second highest in the nation, while Florida is the fourth lowest.These differences in regulation and state and local taxes, according to our equation, explain virtually all of California’s net migration outflow and Florida’s inflow. To be more precise, the difference between California’s outflow of -0.51% and Florida’s inflow of +0.62% is 1.13%. Our research indicates that 0.68% of that difference is explained by California’s highly regulated business environment and that 0.50% is explained by its higher taxes. The total of these two impacts (0.68% + 0.50%) is 1.18% — almost equal to the 1.13% difference in net migration between California and Florida.California’s political focus, especially over the last ten years, has been on increasing taxes and regulation. Regrettably, California’s public servants and especially its Governor have decided to ignore the effects of burdensome regulation and high relative state and local taxes on where people decide to live and work.
A third reason may soon be added.
“I don’t know why anyone would want to live in a state where it’s almost impossible to buy bacon. But California wants to impose such a rule on its residents,” Senator Grassley said.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY