There’s no question producers have a lot on their minds right now. Chase Adams, senior director of congressional relations for the National Pork Producers Council (NPPC), said most of the questions he receives from producers lately center around California Proposition 12.
“Producers must make hard decisions every day – do they expand? Do they renovate? What exactly is the future going to look like? What they need most of all is certainty,” Adams said.
During a presentation last week at the Ohio Pork Congress in Lima, Ohio, Adams stressed the importance of getting a farm bill in 2024.
“We’ve got to keep the pressure on Congress to get their work done and do this farm bill this year because we have too much at stake,” he said.
One of the scariest things to Adams is having a patchwork of state regulations.
“We already have a patchwork of two regulations with California Prop 12 and Massachusetts Q3,” he said. “Product that’s Q3 compliant isn’t necessarily Prop 12 compliant, whereas Prop 12 compliant is Q3 compliant. It’s already a mess out there. That’s why we need Congress to take firm action to address this issue, so producers can have certainty going forward.”
NPPC is working closely with Congress as that is how the Supreme Court directed who needs to handle this issue, Adams explained.
“We’ve been very fortunate to have a great champion in Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson of the House Ag Committee. Chairman Thompson has realized the impact that this has not only had on pork producers, but livestock producers across the board,” Adams said. “He has said from the beginning that the House farm bill will have a provision addressing Prop 12 and the issues that it’s put on the pork producers.”
In the Senate, the discussions have been fruitful, he added, but also a bit more challenging. NPPC continues to work with Congress on critical issues affecting producers from tax provisions to the Packers and Stockyards Administration and how producers are going to contract now and into the future.
“We want producers to know that we’ve got their back. We understand the issues that pork producers are facing right now. This has been a very, very challenging time in the U.S. hog industry. We’ve seen some significant losses for a year now. The outlook suggests we may continue to have some challenges,” Adams said. “We want them to know we’re continuing to work for a legal and a regulatory environment that works for them.”
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