Proposition 12 to be Discussed as Part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2024

The Executive Director of the Canadian Pork Council says state specific animal welfare regulations, like Prop 12, are a concern to pork producers on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.The Farm Animal Confinement Initiative, or Proposition 12, passed by California voters in 2018, prohibits the sale of pork, eggs, and veal not produced in accordance with that state's animal welfare standards.

The impact of Proposition 12 on the pork sector will be discussed as part of the 47th annual Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium set for November 5th and 6th in Saskatoon.Stephen Heckbert, the Executive Director of the Canadian Pork Council, says state specific animal welfare regulations are a concern for pork producers on both sides of the border.

Quote-Stephen Heckbert-Canadian Pork Council:

Particularly for Canada, we have an international trade agreement with the United States.We don't have an international trade agreement with California.
We operate in a world in which we assume the Government of the United States is the regulator of these sorts of issues.Proposition 12 is a state level regulation that has placed requirements on farmers and producers in other jurisdictions.

There are no producers in California really so it's really just about talking to them and talking to the U.S. government about our hopes and wanting to make everyone is informed.Our hopes are that we have consistent regulations.If we know what the regulations are going to look like we can deal with that but if you've got, this state has this regulation and Massachusetts now has a different set of regulations and other states possibly have other regulations.

That's going to have a huge impact not only on interstate commerce but it has a huge impact on international commerce and it just makes our lives ignificantly more difficult in terms of how do we make sure that productions systems are consistent across international boundaries.

Heckbert says pork producers in Canada and the United States have an excellent working relationship and are a model of what international cooperation should look like.He suggests we don't need governments imposing restriction that aren’t benefiting anyone, producers or consumers.