ashley hinson pressed Congress to include the Save Our Bacon Act in the Farm Bill as negotiators work through a split between the House and the Senate. The measure would bar states from regulating livestock raised elsewhere as a condition of sale or consumption, putting California's Proposition 12 directly in play.
At a news conference on July 10, Hinson stood with about 40 farmers, agriculture workers and their families on a farm outside Marshalltown and said, "This is a fight for the livelihoods of our family farmers who are putting everything on the line — the blood, the sweat, the tears — into feeding the world". She also said, "It's a fight for rural Iowa, and it's a fight that I am committed to taking on every single day."
House and Senate split
House lawmakers included the Save Our Bacon Act in the version of the Farm Bill that passed the chamber on April 30. John Boozman, who chairs the Senate Agriculture Committee, left the measure out of his Farm Bill draft, leaving the two chambers with different approaches on a bill that could decide the issue.
The law would nullify rules such as California's Proposition 12, which restricts sales of pork from pigs born from sows housed with less than 24 square feet of floor space. It would still leave states free to regulate livestock raised in their own borders, but not livestock production in other states tied to sales or consumption rules.
Iowa farm pressure
Brian Feldpausch, vice president of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation, said, "One state shouldn't be allowed to dictate to the other states what's going on." He added, "One state can't control what the other 49 do. It shouldn't regulate how farmers and businesses operate across its borders and across the entire country."
Many Iowa pork producers use smaller gestation stalls, making the outcome of the Farm Bill fight important for producers who sell into markets affected by state rules.
Chris Petersen, a Clear Lake hog farmer, appears in an ad for the American Meat Producers Association saying, "The Save Our Bacon Act saves China's bacon, not ours". The ad also says, "Now the Senate is considering Ashley Hinson's Save Our Bacon Act in the Farm Bill — and it's a scam."
American Meat Producers Association
Holly Bice said the American Meat Producers Association had spent $2.3 million on ads in Iowa so far and expected to spend over $3 million by the end of July. She said the group’s effort is part of a multi-state $30 million ad campaign opposing the law.
The Senate is still weighing the measure as Farm Bill negotiations continue, and the final decision will turn on whether lawmakers keep the House version’s language or follow Boozman’s draft without it. For Iowa pork producers, that choice will decide whether state sales rules tied to sow housing standards stay in place or are stripped from the federal bill.
