OPINION:
Jack Hubbard’s attack on California’s Proposition 12, “California food policies jeopardize Newsom’s career” (Web, Sept. 17), is a desperate attempt to protect the large and notorious corporations that dominate the pork industry. These are the same corporations that have spent decades squeezing family farmers, deceiving consumers and treating animals like widgets on an assembly line. It’s a master class in misdirection: blaming California voters and small farmers for a mess that Big Ag created.
Let’s get the facts straight: Californians do not want their food to come from tortured animals.
California’s Prop 12 doesn’t outlaw pork. It doesn’t criminalize bacon. It simply says that if you want to sell pork in California, the mother pigs used for breeding must have enough room to stand up, turn around and extend their legs. That’s it. Passed by nearly 63% of voters in 2018, this was no fringe idea; it was a bipartisan landslide handing the National Pork Producers Council a significant loss. It applies to California and out-of-state producers, ensuring everyone plays by the same rules.
Mr. Hubbard paints a picture of American farmers opposing California’s rules. That’s fiction. Nearly 5,000 farms across 39 states support Prop 12’s standards. In fact, many family farmers supported Prop 12 from the beginning because it rewards those who already do better for animals, rather than letting giant, Chinese-owned, extreme confinement industrial operators such as Smithfield dictate the terms. Farmers who raise animals on pasture or in crate-free systems tend to have healthier herds and higher returns. Prop 12 levels the playing field; it doesn’t tilt it.
Critics love to wave the flag of “skyrocketing prices,” but the numbers tell a different story. Prices for certain products went up about 10% to 20% at the start, but that was during a period of national inflation, labor shortages and pandemic crisis supply chain issues. By 2024, prices stabilized. Pretending Prop 12 is the villain here is dishonest, and a tactic industrial agriculture deploys out of desperation.
In 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Prop 12 in National Pork Producers Council v. Ross, affirming a state’s right to set humane standards for food sold within its borders and handing the NPPC another decisive loss. This year, the court has rejected another industry challenge. A minority of Congress members with financial ties to industrial pork production have tried and failed to overturn it. The message is clear: Prop 12 is the law of the land, and it’s not going anywhere.
If Mr. Hubbard thinks voters regret passing Prop 12, he should check the numbers. A 2022 national poll found that 80% of voters want similar laws in their states. This isn’t some California outlier; it reflects mainstream American values. Massachusetts voters proved the point in 2016 by passing Question 3, a nearly identical measure, by more than 70%. People don’t want their food system built on animal cruelty. This makes it baffling that Mr. Hubbard would argue Californians oppose a law that simply requires pigs to be allowed to stand up, turn around and stretch their limbs. It’s hard to believe a law like this is even necessary, but it shows just how determined the NPPC is to keep animals locked in extreme confinement. Disgusting.
Rolling back Prop 12 isn’t the answer. Removing the long-held rights of states to set standards for agricultural production just to benefit corporations is bad policymaking. Prop 12 and similar state reforms are a step toward aligning our plates with our principles: fairness, transparency, and humane treatment of animals.
Mr. Hubbard’s piece wants you to believe Prop 12 is a “career-killer” for politicians. In reality, it’s a corporate talking point disguised as an opinion piece. Prop 12 is popular, it’s legal, it’s working, and it’s the future. The only thing it threatens is the old system of industrialized cruelty and corporate favoritism.
• Matthew Dominguez is the U.S. executive director at Compassion in World Farming.
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