LINCOLN — A court ruling billed as a victory against what animal rights groups call animal cruelty involving hog confinement is being slammed by Gov. Jim Pillen — a hog producer — as well as several major farm organizations.
“This decision is a huge blow for producers and will raise food costs for consumers and small businesses already struggling with mounting inflation,” Pillen said in a press release.
He described the California law upheld last week by the U.S. Supreme Court as “radical.”
Proposition 12, which was approved by California voters in 2018, bans the sale of pork in the state from farms that hold pregnant pigs in “gestation crates.”
The crates are standard practice in modern hog farms, and are barely bigger than the pigs’ bodies. Animal rights groups maintain that the cages are inhumane and that breeding sows should have room to lay down and turn around.
But Pillen, as well as a representative of the Nebraska Farm Bureau and Nebraska’s agriculture director, said the ruling could have widespread, detrimental impacts and could lead to restrictions on other food production.
‘Dictates’ food production
“Proposition 12 effectively gives California animal rights groups the ability to dictate food production practices to farmers and ranchers across America, including those in Nebraska,” said Mark McHargue, the president of the Nebraska Farm Bureau.
“It is imperative Nebraskans, and all Americans understand that California’s Proposition 12 moves us in a dangerous direction, creating uncertainty around our food system,” McHargue said.
Al Juhnke, executive director of the Nebraska Pork Producers Association, said that animal welfare is a top priority for all farmers, and that the California law was “ill-conceived” and a “bill of goods” promoted by animal rights groups.
McHargue said the Farm Bureau is examining “all options” to change the California law.
Court affirms states’ rights
Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, in a statement Thursday said that the Supreme Court upheld the nation’s strongest “farm animal welfare law.”
The court, Block said, “made clear that preventing animal cruelty and protecting public health are core functions of our state governments.”
Farm groups had argued that California lacked the power to dictate farming practices to producers in other states.
