Nebraska AG joins continued fight against animals in Massachusetts
Twenty-two pork-producing states are pushing to appeal a federal district court ruling that upholds a 2016 Massachusetts ballot measure banning the sale of pork, poultry and veal from livestock “cruelly restrained.” .
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird led an amicus curiae, or information brief supporting one side of the case, joining 21 other states in opposing “unworkable” sanctions on hog producers. “restrictions” law. Nebraska Attorney General Mike Hilgers is one of the signatories.
The 2016 measure, known as Question 3, has been repeatedly challenged by pig farmers and the Pork Alliance, recent Launched in 2023 by Missouri-based Triumph Foods with support from a coalition of pork producers that includes Iowans.
this law Similar to California’s Proposition 12, both restrict the sale of meat from pigs, calves or egg-laying hens raised in a manner that “prevents the animal from lying down, standing, fully extending its limbs,” or turning around freely.
United States Supreme Court Pork producers reject California law challenge May 2023. rejected July 2024.
The final claim is that the Massachusetts Farm Animal Cruelty Prevention Act was replaced by the federal Meat Inspection Act. Young supported the law, ruling that it prohibited the sale of non-compliant meat and did not directly affect slaughterhouse rules.
this short Byrd and other states filed a lawsuit in support of Triumph Foods’ appeal of the latest district court ruling.
“Massachusetts’ pork ban is absolute bullshit,” Byrd said in a press release about the brief. “Massachusetts can’t tell Iowa how to raise pork.”
The brief begins by assuming that Iowa imposes trade restrictions on shellfish based on how they are harvested, even though the landlocked state knows little about these processes.
“This is what Massachusetts is doing — imposing a harmful and overly burdensome regulatory program on hog farmers and pork processors that are almost entirely outside Massachusetts,” the brief reads.
The brief goes on to say that the third quarter will “deny out-of-state pork farmers and processors access to the market,” “hurt the farm state” and “increase pork prices for all Americans.”
Opposing states argued that the law violated several interstate commerce clauses of the Constitution.
Recent briefs argue that allowing states to set their own restrictions would create regulatory confusion and high costs for pork producers to comply with the rules.
“Iowa farmers can invest millions of dollars to retrofit their hog farms to comply with Massachusetts requirements, only to find that New York enacts a law that imposes higher per-pig requirements,” the brief reads. Housing requirements.
Federal lawmakers have been pushing for years to pass versions of ending agricultural trade repression, or EATSthe bill prohibits individual state and local governments from enacting laws that impose “standards or conditions on the pre-harvest production of any agricultural product” sold across state lines.
The bill was introduced in 2023 by Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas, with co-sponsors including Iowa Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley.
house agriculture committee 2024 Farm Bill Website Lists similar “legislative solutions” Proposition 12 and similar state laws.
Congress failed to pass a new farm bill before it was due on September 30 due to disagreements over funding. legislator New farm bill likely to pass when they return on November 12th.
From Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Ohio The attorneys general of Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming are all listed among Byrd’s most recent published briefing.
This article was first published in iowa capital dispatchis the Nebraska Examiner’s sister site in the national newsroom network.
