Court Order Offers Reprieve from Shortages of pork and Higher Prices

A court ordered delay in the enforcement of Massachusetts Question 3 secures consumer's access to pork while the Supreme Court reviews a constitutional challenge of California's Proposition 12.

Last week a United States federal court judge for the District of Massachusetts signed a court order  delaying enforcement of a state law that would have banned the sale of pork in that state that comes from animals not housed according to the state's prescriptive sow housing standards.

Enforcement of Question 3, a Massachusetts ballot initiative similar to California's Proposition 12, was to have taken effect August 15th.Michael Formica, the Assistant Vice President and General Counsel with the National Pork Producers Council, says delays in enforcement of Question 3 and Proposition 12 offer consumers a reprieve from shortages of pork and higher prices while the U.S. Supreme Court reviews Proposition 12.

Clip-Michael Formica-National Pork Producers Council:

Ultimately consumers in states where they have passed these laws are going to face significantly higher prices for food but even consumers outside of those states are going to face higher prices for food because these laws are ultimately destructive of the entire supply chain.They require significant adjustments.We've been going through a supply chain crisis for the last year and folks have seen runaway inflation in gas prices and food prices.

Gas prices have come down a little but food prices have not come down and, if anything, they continue to rise and that's without the supply chain and market place disruption caused by a law like Proposition 12.

Formica notes the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the National Pork Producers Council and American Farm Bureau Federation challenge to Proposition 12 on October 11th and, while the Supreme Court is under no deadline, he expects a ruling before June of next year and possibly as early as January or February.