The U.S. pork industry is looking at options for dealing with California’s Proposition 12, recently upheld by the Supreme Court. Michael Formica, the chief legal strategist for the National Pork Producers Council, talks about where the industry is at regarding Prop 12.

“At this point, following the Supreme Court’s decision specifically with regard to Prop 12, we’re, as an organization, we’re trying to work and partner with California on ensuring as smooth an implementation of Proposition 12 as possible, to try and understand the impacts and implications it is having in the marketplace for producers, for the supply chain, for our customers. Most importantly, for consumers, producers are out trying to provide pork for those consumers.”

He says there aren’t a lot of options for the industry in dealing with Prop 12.

“For us, with proposition 12, there’s limited options and legal options available to try and stop it. It doesn’t mean that there are none with regard to future similar ballot initiatives. We continue to watch the battleground and prepare for future fights.”

While the organization looks at options, NPPC CEO Bryan Humphries says they’re trying to make the transition as smooth as possible in California.

“When the ruling came out, there was still a lot of work for the State of California to do on the rules and clarity for producers. And so our team jumped in very heavily to work on smooth implementation, recognizing that legal recourse where we were at was a struggle. Our goal was still to ensure that the consumers of California could get the product if it was available. So, we worked on a smooth transition, and for that, on our website is a lot of information available on our Prop 12 component that has some background information on it and then links to CDFA’s website, where they have recordings and information and updates for producers to better understand what’s next to become compliant for Proposition 12.”

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