AgriTalk: Behind the Smoke and Mirrors of Proposition 12

When Trish Cook, past president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association, joined a group of 20 Iowa pig farmers on a trip to California in March to witness the effect of Proposition 12, she wasn’t surprised by the amount of chaos this regulation has created. “We want to a grocery store and I picked up a 1 lb.-package of Hormel Black Label bacon. At that grocery store in California, it was $10.98. I went to my hometown in Independence, Iowa, and it was $4.98 on that exact same package of bacon,” Cook told AgriTalk’s Chip Flory on Friday. In a recent report, USDA’s Office of the Chief Economist (OCE) discovered prices for pork products affected by Prop 12, including loins, ribs and bellies, have seen an average 20% price increase in California since before July 1, 2023 – when the initiative was partially implemented – with loin prices averaging 41% higher than before Prop 12 implementation. Pork not covered by the initiative has not seen a significant increase, the report noted. “It’