The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a case from the Iowa Pork Producers Association against the state of California for requiring restrictions on how pork sold there is raised.
Association attorney Eldon McAfee says they thought a ruling against the National Pork Producers Council had left them an opening for this case. “Obviously we’re disappointed. We thought we had presented a good case for the court to take it up,” McAfee says.
McAffee says they believe California consumers should make their one choice to buy Iowa pork. “It comes back to our producers that we work with, by and large don’t understand how a law in California that most produces agree and others, has no scientific basis for any health effects or anything like that. It’s a choice of how people want animals to be raised,” he says. McAffee says there aren’t any other ways to bring the case forward in court. “It ends the legal avenue in this case, you know there always seems to be legal avenues, right? So this would be, this is the end of this case, the court has declined to take it up,” he says.
McAffee says the next step will likely have to come from lawmakers. “Because because this is Interstate commerce, we believe the best option in moving forward, as the courts have suggested, is for federal legislation to prevent this type of law, such as California enacted,” he says. “And we’re hopeful that Congress will take a closer look at that.”
California’s law requires there be at least 12 square feet of space for gestating pigs to be able to turn around. It blocks any pork not raised in those conditions from being sold in California.