Triumph Foods has filed a lawsuit against Proposition 12, a California law that bans the sale of pork from animals not raised under California’s arbitrary welfare standard.
According to Triumph Foods, this lawsuit includes claims never pursued by any plaintiff and expands the challenge against Prop 12 by the U.S. Department of Justice, which filed claims against Prop 12’s egg provisions.
“Congress has already acted and regulates pork production in our country,” Matt England, president and CEO of Triumph Foods said in a release. “A national food supply chain depends on consistent regulation from the federal government, free from a patchwork of interfering state requirements.”
The lawsuit filed by Triumph Foods builds upon the company’s approach against Massachusetts’ Question 3 (Q3), where Triumph was successful in obtaining an order from the district court striking down part of that state law for violations of the dormant Commerce Clause. The same unconstitutional provision exists in Prop 12, the company said in a release on Sept. 24.
“The claims filed against Prop 12 include that the federal government already regulates Triumph Foods – and similar USDA-inspected facilities – and that states cannot add to and interfere with those regulated spaces when preempted by the authority of Congress,” the company said in a release.
In National Meat Ass’n. v. Harris, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that Congress has already enacted legislation in this space, and that state laws that usurp the federal government’s role and disrupt our nation’s food supply are unconstitutional, Triumph Foods said.
Triumph Foods is a farmer-owned company that began operations in St. Joseph, Mo., in January 2006. With its state-of-the-art facility, Triumph employs over 2,400 workers and produces over 1.5 billion pounds of pork annually.
