{"id":339472,"date":"2026-05-30T21:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T21:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/339472\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T21:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T21:04:09","slug":"california-laws-are-impacting-utah-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/339472\/","title":{"rendered":"California laws are impacting Utah farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

The genius of federalism<\/a>, as coined by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1932, is that states can act as \u201claboratories of democracy.\u201d Empowered with the autonomy to explore and test new policies, leaders can set examples for others to follow or prove to be cautionary tales. <\/p>\n

But, the dynamic only works if states are protected from intrusion by other states.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, California is forcing its experiment on the rest of the country \u2014 and Utahns are bearing the costs. Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis have an opportunity to act. <\/p>\n

At issue is California Proposition 12<\/a>, which imposes costly restrictions on how farmers can raise pigs or egg-laying hens. Under the law, only eggs and pork that are produced under a \u201cWhole Foods\u201d-style system can be sold in Golden State supermarkets. That also means consumers are paying expensive \u201cWhole Foods\u201d-level prices.<\/p>\n

The policy runs afoul of the federalist system. Unlike local sales taxes or minimum wage laws, Proposition 12 applies to farmers in Utah \u2014 or any state \u2014 who sell food in California. Given that California accounts for a big chunk of the consumer market and imports most of its eggs and pork, the law is a de facto national standard. Simply ignoring the state is impossible for any farmer who values staying in business. <\/p>\n

If the regulation isn\u2019t fixed, cattle ranchers could be targeted by California next. <\/p>\n

\"\"Hogs gather to feed in a pasture on the farm of Ron Mardesen, Thursday, Dec. 2, 2021, near Elliott, Iowa. A 2018 voter-approved California ballot measure, to take effect, Jan. 1, 2022, set the nation’s toughest living space standards for breeding pigs. Critics have called for putting off enforcement until 2024 for fear prices will rise and jobs will be lost. Mardesen already meets the California standards for the hogs he sells to specialty meat company Niman Ranch, which supported passage of Proposition 12 and requires all of its roughly 650 hog farmers to give breeding pigs far more room than mandated by the law. | Charlie Neibergall, Associated Press <\/p>\n

Proposition 12 weakens the free market. Family farms are hard-pressed to absorb the extra costs required to satisfy California\u2019s new arbitrary regulation, which is estimated to be roughly $4,000<\/a> extra per animal. That means small family farms will increasingly disappear \u2014 leading to more consolidation. <\/p>\n

Utahns value a resilient economy made up of many small- to medium-sized businesses that can deliver a wide variety of food options. Not only would Proposition 12 leave Utah families paying more for food, but fewer choices will exist as more and more affordable products are driven out of grocery aisles. <\/p>\n

Some in Washington claim the attack on states\u2019 rights and consumer choice is justified because California\u2019s law supposedly helps animals. The American Veterinary Medical Association argues otherwise, saying<\/a> Proposition 12 does \u201cnot objectively improve animal welfare and may unintentionally cause harm.\u201d Meanwhile, the American Association of Swine Veterinarians emphasizes<\/a> that \u201cthere is no single housing system that is optimal in all situations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2026 Farm Bill<\/a> \u2014 which passed the House in April \u2014 stops California from imposing its will on Utah and the rest of the country. All but three Republicans and more than<\/a> a dozen Democrats in the lower chamber came together to approve the bipartisan package. Even President Donald Trump has come out swinging, saying<\/a> \u201cI will use all authority under the Constitution and U.S. law to stop efforts by California \u2014 or other states \u2014 that hurt American farmers in other states.\u201d<\/p>\n

The legislation now heads to the Senate where Utah\u2019s delegation can help ensure that California\u2019s foolish regulatory ambitions stop at the state line. Sen. Mike Lee is a famously staunch defender of federalism. This is an opportunity for him to vote his principles. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The genius of federalism, as coined by Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1932, is that states can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":339473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,8378],"class_list":["post-339472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-news-feed-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=339472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/339472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/339473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=339472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=339472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=339472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}