It is Time to Pass to Farm Bill Now, Pork Producers Say

U.S. pork producers are just one of many agricultural groups impacted by worsening economic conditions. The National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) joined over 300 national and state groups to send a letter to congressional leaders on Sept. 9 urging them to pass the farm bill before year's end. Producers across the country have experienced headwinds as the farm bill delays continue, ranging from extreme weather to high input costs to uncertain global demand to supply chain disruptions.

"With all the stress on farmers now, it's important that we get this moved now while we've got the opportunity," Duane Stateler, president-elect of NPPC, said in a media briefing on Monday.

The farm bill is typically passed every five years and supports the nation’s farmers, ranchers and forest stewards through a variety of safety net, credit, conservation and other critical programs. The law was originally scheduled for reauthorization in 2023. Congress voted last November to extend the existing legislation to Sept. 30, 2024. Since that point, the leadership from both parties on the Senate and House Agriculture Committees have worked to push the legislation forward.

"If the farm bill goes into next year, it starts all over. We have many good things in this farm bill which makes it imperative we get it done in 2024," Lori Stevermer, NPPC president, said in the briefing.

Stakeholders in agricultural communities across the U.S. are heading to the Capitol this week to advocate for passage of the legislation with a stronger agricultural safety net. Farmers and their allies say recent challenges have exposed areas of the farm bill that need to be strengthened.

The 2024 Farm Bill is a golden opportunity to address a top issue for pork producers across the country – California Prop 12," Stevermer said in an earlier article. Proposition 12, a 2018 California ballot initiative, prohibits the sale of uncooked whole pork meat not produced according to the state’s arbitrary housing dimensions.

The initiative places the cost and compliance burden on pork producers, who are nearly all located outside of California, and puts the industry at risk of significant consolidation, NPPC wrote. The Supreme Court of the United States said this is an issue for Congress to solve, and NPPC has been urging passage of the farm bill which includes a federal solution to Prop 12.

"We cannot continue down a path of unscientific rules and regulations," Bryan Humphreys, NPPC CEO, said on the call. "It's not a question about what has happened, but it's a question of how do we move forward and protect the U.S. from this patchwork of regulations? We appreciate the bipartisan solution in the farm bill to make that happen."

Rob Brenneman is an Iowa pork producer who has converted some of his production to Prop 12.