Long-time Saskatchewan hog farmer says U.S. Supreme Court ruling expected to pressure all North American pork producers

By Bruce Cochrane, Farmscape

Last week's U.S. Supreme Court ruling on California’s Proposition 12 is expected to result in higher pork prices in that state while placing added financial pressure on pork producers throughout North America.

Last week the U.S. Supreme Court upheld California's authority to implement state specific animal housing guidelines for pigs from which comes the pork that is sold to consumers in that state.

Florian Possberg, a partner with Polar Pork Farms, said that California accounts for about 15 to 20 percent of U.S. pork consumption and California tends to set the standard for other states in terms of animal welfare.

“They don't have a lot of agriculture and it's pretty easy for their legislation to adopt very restrictive animal production requirements which is very popular with urban voters but so much for the people that actually produce food. So, not only does it affect California but we fully expect it to set a precedent that will allow other states to follow suit with what California has done. The proposition 12 and the Supreme Court supporting that means in the U.S. now states can set guidelines for other agriculture production outside their states. This could have ramifications for grain production, for milk, eggs, organics,” explained Florian Possberg with Polar Pork Farms.

“The Supreme Court has set a precedent and the big states like New York and Californian, they have very high levels of urban voters and almost no food producers and sometimes urban consumers don't understand the trouble they're causing themselves by supporting some of these initiatives that really don't make a lot of sense,” added Possberg.

Possberg acknowledged that some producers will try to meet California’s codes and supply the California market but they're not going to do it at the same price.

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