Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Tuesday, March 10, that Missouri will join 14 other states in a multi-state amicus brief in the lawsuit filed by the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation against California’s Proposition 12.
The proposition, which was enacted by California voters in 2018, imposes strict animal-confinement rules on farmers across the country wanting access to the California market.
The amicus brief was filed in the U.S. District Court on Friday, March 6.
Schmitt said in a news release he will continue to oppose California’s attempts to exercise control over Missouri’s farmers, ranchers, and agricultural industry.
The California law contains two operative provisions. The first provision exercises California’s authority over farming in the state by regulating the manner in which California’s own farmers may confine three types of livestock; 1) calves raised for veal, 2) breeding pigs and 3) egg-laying hens. . A second provision, however, unconstitutionally purports to extend California’s animal-confinement regulations to every farmer in the United States. It prohibits the sale in California of any veal, pork or eggs produced from animals not raised in accordance with the state’s animal-confinement regulations, regardless of where those animals were raised.
The brief, led by Indiana Attorney General Curtis Hill, argues that the U.S. Constitution’s Commerce Clause prohibits California’s attempt to override other states’ authority to adopt their own animal-husbandry policies.
According to the Missouri Department of Agriculture, Missouri ranks second in the nation for the number of farms, over 95,000, and is the seventh largest pork producer in the country at 3.5 million head.