WASHINGTON — The pressing topics of the National Pork Producers Council’s (NPPC) fall 2024 briefing were “familiar” ones, as NPPC President Lori Stevermer, a pork producer from Minnesota, put it in the conference call on Sept. 9.

Top of mind for the organization is getting a farm bill out the door this year that addresses pork producers’ concerns regarding Proposition 12, labor and animal disease prevention, among other issues.

“Yes, we have been talking about the farm bill for a while — and labor,” Stevermer noted. “We wish we didn’t have to. We wish the farm bill was passed. We wish we had additional labor options, whether it’s TNs or H2A visa reform. We wish we could talk about positive things like what we’re doing with sustainability and the traceability work … but we have to deal with what’s in front of us, and there’s work to be done.”

Part of that work for Stevermer has been being part of the conversations in county fairs, state fairs, Farm Fest and the Democratic National Convention when she attended in August.

“Everyone I talked to said, ‘We need a farm bill,’” she reported.

The US House Agriculture Committee passed its version of the farm bill in May. With the Senate still waiting for passage of the legislation, NPPC is pressing Congress to take action to get the farm bill through.

“We need a farm bill — now,” stressed Bryan Humphreys, chief executive officer of NPPC. “We don’t need to be talking about extensions. We need to be talking about how to get a farm bill done in 2024.”

Duane Stateler, NPPC president-elect and producer from Ohio, explained the importance of passing a new bill rather than continuing an extension of the 2018 version.

“Things change in a five-year period: markets change; everything changes,” he said. “That, and also the threats change, such as foreign animal disease … That’s why a lot of these things that are in the new farm bill are there.”

One of the noteworthy items NPPC looks to address in the new farm bill is a solution to the repercussions California’s Prop 12 poses on producers. Not only is NPPC concerned about the costs Prop 12 inflicts on producers who modify their operations to meet its standards, but the group is also largely concerned for the law’s implications regarding the Interstate Commerce Act.

The passage of Prop 12 and Massachusetts’ Question 3 (Q3) have demonstrated how different states can begin to implement their own standards for how in- and out-of-state producers raise livestock. With the potential of 48+ regulations on how to raise livestock if this trend continues, NPPC looks to Congress to put a stop to this.

“This isn’t a question about what’s already happened,” Humphreys said. “This is a question about how do we move forward, and how do we protect the American food supply from a patchwork of regulations that no individual producer or packer can comply with across the country.”

The Supreme Court has given Congress authority over defining the Interstate Commerce Act, which NPPC believes could be the solution it’s looking for to put an end to laws like Prop 12 and Q3.

“Not just us as producers are affected,” Stevermer said. “I mean, we predicted this, that pork prices would be affected in California, and the USDA chief economist has verified that.”

After the enforcement of Prop 12, California’s pork prices jumped by 20%, and the supply likewise dropped by 20%.