California’s controversial Proposition 12 legislation will go into effect in less than a month, impacting pork producers in the United States as well as those in Canada.
According to the Canadian Pork Council (CPC), the tracking involved with the state law could require more state inspectors — and that is not going to happen.
“We would do that for the USDA, but there’s no circumstance in which we’d allow us state-level official to come and inspect the plant in Canada and there’s nothing, " said CPC Executive Director Stephen Heckbert. “I’m sure they’re lovely people, but that’s just not something that our federal government would ever allow.”
Industry experts believe transitioning to allow individual state inspectors creates more uncertainty for producers, and that anxiety would only increase after Prop 12.
“There are 50 American states, and you can’t operate a trade agreement with 50 individual states,” Heckbert continued. “We have to count on the United States government as our trading partner. We’ve negotiated a free trade agreement with the United States, and from our perspective, that’s the trade agreement that would govern commerce between our two countries — not a state regulation. There’s either a national standard or there isn’t.”
Heckbert said this new regulation hurdle is the last thing struggling families need right now during a time of high food costs & inflation.
