In the November 2018 election, 62.7% of Californians voted for Proposition 12 — the Prevention of Cruelty to Farm Animals Act.
The Los Angeles Times reports, starting on January 1, 2022, “The law will require that all eggs sold in California come from cage-free hens and that pork sold in the state come from breeding pigs that are not held in cramped cages.
“Pork producers have had the longest time to comply. Some big companies like Hormel Foods have pledged to do so fully, but others have spent the last few years fighting the law rather than figuring out how to implement it. They say that the law will significantly raise the price of pork and that it violates the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which gives Congress sole power over interstate business activity. So far, that fight has been a waste of time that pork producers could have better spent figuring out how to reconfigure their farms.
“Trade associations representing pork producers have sued the state, but so far they have been rebuffed by the federal courts.”
When the law goes into effect on New Year’s Day, it will be a new dawn in the struggle to eliminate needless animal suffering.
The Los Angeles Times agrees. “For fans of bacon and other pork, any rise in cost is the price of not having a pig suffer before it’s killed for food. It’s a price the animals shouldn’t have to pay.”
I’m very heartened by voters in my home state for passing Proposition 12 in a landslide. And proud of our state legislators who crafted an immaculate bill that has withstood repeated — and increasingly desperate — court challenges by the out-of-state poultry and pork trade associations representing farmers operating factory farms, which are concentration camp Hells-on-Earth for animals, as well as massively polluting operations which are a blight on our humanity.
Read the Los Angeles Times article here.
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