Thursday, March 7, 2024 Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting
Is Proposition 12 ‘chaos’ or a new market opportunity?
California’s Farm Animal Confinement Initiative, often referred to as Proposition 12, has been in effect since the beginning of this year, despite industry pushback and legal battles reaching the nation’s highest court.
The regulation, passed in 2018, dictates that pork sold in the state can’t be raised in commonly used, small confinement crates. The pork industry and its supporters claim Prop 12 has created “chaos,” but some hog farmers say the change is a new market opportunity and many of the nation’s largest pork producers have already made the switch.
Investigate Midwest reviewed financial statements from more than a dozen of the largest pork-producing corporations and spoke to several farmers to understand the new reality for pork producers.
— John McCracken, reporter
With California’s Prop 12 now law, pork producers adapt while lobbying groups continue to fight
By Ben Felder and John McCracken, Investigate Midwest
In 2021, two years before California enacted new hog confinement standards for pork to be sold within its borders, Seaboard Foods said it would “no longer sell certain whole pork products” in the state.
Passed in 2018, California’s Farm Animal Confinement Initiative, often referred to as Proposition 12, required pork producers to give sows, or mother pigs, at least 24 square feet of space per animal.
When the new standards went into effect on Jan. 1, 2024, Seaboard was listed as a Prop 12-compliant distributor with the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
Read more.
GRAPHIC: The Midwest sees an increase in female farmers
By Mónica Cordero, Investigate Midwest/Report for America corps member
According to Census of Agriculture data, female producers in the Midwest grew by 4% between 2017 and 2022. Nationally, this rise was 1%.
See the whole graphic.
OPINION: Beginning farmers in the US need all the help they can get
Columnist Dave Dickey dissects the good and bad news on farmers' ages from the latest Census of Agriculture report.
He writes: "The average age of farmers and ranchers was 58.1, up slightly from 57.5 in 2017. And therein lies a silver lining. The age increase is smaller than that of prior censuses. And the number of beginning farmers increased 11% from 2017 with an average age of 47.1. Also, 9% of all producers were under age 35."
Read more.
Tickets available for Iowa City storytelling event April 12
WHAT: You are invited to enjoy stories from the careers of five longtime journalists.
WHEN: Friday, April 12, at 6 p.m. at Poindexter Coffee inside The Graduate hotel in Iowa City.
WHY: This event supports reporting by the IowaWatch newsroom of Investigate Midwest.
HOW: Get tickets here.
MORE DETAILS: Read all about the event here.
News from our partners
Proposal would tax Minnesota farmers to help pay for cleanup of nitrate pollution By Star Tribune
Investigate Midwest is an independent, nonprofit newsroom. Our mission is to serve the public as a watchdog over influential corporations and institutions through in-depth and data-driven investigative journalism.
