Ripple Effect of Prop 12 Will Be Nothing But Bad News, Rep. Johnson Says

Representative Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) is the first to admit he has no time for politicians who trash judges any time they get a decision they don’t like. He thinks it’s important to respect judicial decisions and not assume everything’s a political decision.

However, if he’s honest, he told AgriTalk’s host Chip Flory that he’s frustrated with the Supreme Court’s decision on California’s Proposition 12. 

“To me, the Constitution protects this idea that interstate commerce is not something states have the ability to distort,” Johnson said. “It’d be one thing if the marketplace in California said, ‘Hey, listen, you go ahead and put something on a label about this is pork that's humanely developed or whatever.’ Although I disagree with that assessment, if somebody wanted to put that on their package, and the individual consumers in California went toward that packaging, that'd be one thing. That's the power of the market.”

If that was the case, he believes producers would respond. But that’s not the case, he explained. We have a really big economy through governmental fiat, Johnson said, and it doesn't matter what the consumer wants. In short, he believes it distorts interstate commerce.

“We all know production methods are humane today,” he said.  “We all know once you put that protein into the stream of commerce, you don't get to segregate it to say, ‘This goes to Idaho, this goes to California.’ I guess it's easy in theory, it's easy in concept. But California is doing this not because they want to change life in California, they're doing this because they want to distort the whole American marketplace.” 

The Supreme Court’s ruling on May 11 has the potential to set a dangerous precedent. 

“If California can do this kind of granular, detailed regulation about how pregnant sows are treated 2,000 miles away, that means every state can do that for every agricultural product,” Johnson warned. “This seems like a race to the bottom to me. The ripple effect of this decision is going to be nothing but bad news.”



More from Farm Journal's PORK:

Prop 12 Reactions: From Hogwash to Delight

Flory and Wiesemeyer React to Prop 12 Ruling on AgriTalk

BREAKING: Supreme Court Backs California Prop 12