Californians Won't Be Bringing Home the Bacon
As if the past 18 months were not bad enough, now Californians will be faced with coughing up as much as 60 percent more money for a standard package of bacon strips beginning in January — if they can find bacon at all.
Inflation? No. This is a self-inflicted wound.
Voters approved Proposition 12 in 2018. The ballot measure was sold to voters as a law to improve animal husbandry practices for pork and eggs. But it was a Trojan horse.
The measure was created and financed by vegan animal activist groups that want to shut down the meat industry. Obviously, running a ballot measure to ban meat would go nowhere. So cleverly, they designed a measure that would effectively ban most pork from being sold. And they didn’t mention that minor detail to California voters.
Proponents dishonestly told the public Prop 12 would lower the price of pork by as much as 11 percent. Instead, the average price of a pack of bacon is expected to jump from $6.00 to $9.60.
Animal activists also claimed the economy would benefit from the policy, but the California Restaurant Association has already expressed concern that prices will go up. One diner owner told the Associated Press that the expected shortage of bacon “could be devastating” for her business — which is already struggling to overcome the damage done by the pandemic.
It is important to understand why the pork shortage is happening. California Prop 12 requires pig breeding facilities that are significantly larger than the size typically recommended by veterinarians. For farmers, that means building new barns at a cost of billions of dollars.
Imagine you purchase a new house with a 30-year mortgage — and then the government tells you to tear it down and build another after a few years. The financial hit would be hard, even impossible, for many.
This isn’t just a problem for farmers in California. It’s nationwide.
Proposition 12 won’t allow any meat to be sold if it is produced by farmers with standard animal husbandry practices which, again, are approved of by veterinarians. Only 4 percent of the nation's pork is produced in such facilities, yet California consumes 15 percent of the nation’s pork. Hence the shortage and the likelihood that in many parts of California, pork will simply not be available.
This bacon shortage is a reminder of how dangerous ballot box abuse can be. A policy like Proposition 12 should have been determined by veterinarians and farmers who understand animal welfare. Instead, a group of radical animal rights extremists with millions of dollars made the decision.
Imagine if deep-pocketed anti-vax radicals were making decisions about COVID instead of public health officials. That is basically what happened to the pork industry.
There is a reason we elect public officials who can dedicate their entire day to researching these policies in concert with a team of legal experts. Voters don’t have the time nor the expertise to make these technical decisions, especially when the airwaves are being flooded by deceptive messaging.
Californians are going to suffer because of this policy, but there is an option for the Supreme Court to step in and review the constitutionality of Proposition 12.
In late 2018, the Supreme Court declined to review a direct challenge from 15 states arguing that California should not get to dictate farming practices in other states. (My organization filed an amicus brief in support.)
Since then, agricultural groups have filed lawsuits over Prop 12 in lower courts, but federal judges in the infamously left-leaning Ninth Circuit have sided with California.
The Supreme Court should take up this issue and declare that California has no business regulating how farmers in other states raise their animals. Left unchecked, farmers and ranchers across the country as well as duped California consumers will be at the mercy of what low-information voters decided.
If the Supreme Court doesn’t act, Californians will experience a Prop 12 hangover in January — and there won’t be bacon, sausage, or other such comfort food to help the headache.
Will Coggin is the managing director of the Center for Consumer Freedom.
