Don’t Gut Prop. 12’s Humane Standards for Animals

In 2018, I worked hard to help Californians understand Proposition 12, which helped ensure minimum humane standards for pigs and chickens sold in California and gave the farm animals minimal space to turn around in their cages, for example. And Californians overwhelmingly voted yes and the law passed! Since then, the pork industry has been trying to gut or overturn the law. They sued, and the case went to the Supreme Court, which thankfully ruled in favor of Prop. 12 and upheld these more humane standards for farm animals.

Now, however, the big agribusinesses are at it again. The Food, Farm, and National Security Act of 2024 (known as the “Farm Bill”) is a five-year legislative roadmap for how food is produced across the country. A segment of the pork industry is trying to use the Farm Bill to nullify California’s Prop. 12 and other state farm-animal welfare laws. Nullifying this law via the federal Farm Bill would not only overrule the will of California voters, but it would be a step backward and undermine progress of treating animals more humanely.

The proposed Farm Bill language in the U.S. House of Representatives would go beyond dismantling Proposition 12; it could also invalidate hundreds of other state laws that protect public health. Rep. Salud Carbajal is a member of the House Agriculture Committee and has some say in this matter. As one of his constituents, I am respectfully asking Representative Salud Carbajal to stand against these controversial attempts to gut Proposition 12. If you care about the welfare of animals, please join me in contacting him to insist he works to keep language that invalidates state animal welfare and agriculture laws like Prop 12 out of the final Farm Bill!