No Bacon For You!

[WLJ]

Looks like they may not be bringing home the bacon in California.
Wonder if this means bacon will be cheaper for the rest of us?

At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of hog operations now comply with the new rules. Unless the courts intervene or the state temporarily allows non-compliant meat to be sold in the state, California will lose almost all of its pork supply, much of which comes from Iowa, and pork producers will face higher costs to regain a key market.

Bacon may disappear in California as pig rules take effect
https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/bacon-disappear-california-pig-rules-effect-79189119

California may lose almost all of its bacon supply as pig rules take effect
A state law taking effect Jan. 1 could make pork harder to find and more expensive.
https://abc7news.com/bacon-california-pig-pork/10921900/

Coming Soon: The Great California Bacon Crisis
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/california-faces-bacon-crisis-due-to-animal-cruelty-law.html

[RoadKingLarry]

Now there is a reason to start the 2nd civil war!!
 

[BobR]

Between bacon and high end computers/parts I may have to start making a weekly run to CA.

bob

[Boomhauer]

The pork producers instead of holding fast with *expletive deleted*ck CA will instead comply and force the cost of complying on the rest of us

I don’t even live in the state but California is *expletive deleted*ing me over from clear on the other side of the country.

[Ben]

The pork producers instead of holding fast with *expletive deleted*ck CA will instead comply and force the cost of complying on the rest of us

I don’t even live in the state but California is *expletive deleted*ing me over from clear on the other side of the country.

Yup. Another article I read on it had a pork producer in Iowa saying they pretty much need to comply or they will lose too much business. I guess a population of 40 million plus a bajillion illegals ends up having clout.

I'd like to see them say "no" though. It could be that they lose business for a little while and then CA folds, but  instead they fold because they think CA won't.

[MechAg94]

Yup. Another article I read on it had a pork producer in Iowa saying they pretty much need to comply or they will lose too much business. I guess a population of 40 million plus a bajillion illegals ends up having clout.

I'd like to see them say "no" though. It could be that they lose business for a little while and then CA folds, but  instead they fold because they think CA won't.

This might be one of those cases where federal interstate commerce powers should apply.  But the people in charge at that level likely agree. 

[Nick1911]

The pork producers instead of holding fast with *expletive deleted*ck CA will instead comply and force the cost of complying on the rest of us

I don’t even live in the state but California is *expletive deleted*ing me over from clear on the other side of the country.

The problem is economic.  California has a huge economy.  Gross state product is like 3 trillion dollars.  14% of the US GDP.  You have to put the economic activity of the bottom 25 states together to match California, including the one I live in.  In terms of population, 11.8% of Americans live there.

Nobody wants to lose that market, it's a lot of customers.

Add to that the costs and hurdles associated with maintaining "California-only" production and distribution... yea, unless the cost of compliance is very high, it will likely happen as you say.

[French G.]

In this case it is obvious we will all eat the cost or not eat. That said I cannot find a ton of faults with the Cali rule. It is a nose under the tent for others, but not insane like the Colorado proposal that would ban slaughter before 25% of an animal’s natural life span. This rule makes modest increases in the space requirements for animals. How they are kept now isn’t humane. I still buy meat at the store and I live in the middle of one of the biggest poultry producing areas in the world. Occasionally I work in the chicken and rendering plants. And more and more I feel bad for the turkeys that go by my house day and night. So we have been buying more pastured meat raised in county and I keep my own turkeys and egg chickens. They will have one bad day but until then they eat grass, bugs and be birds. Working on getting my own pasture as well.

[Ben]

In this case it is obvious we will all eat the cost or not eat. That said I cannot find a ton of faults with the Cali rule.

I can't remember the space requirements for the CA rule, but if they are not insane, I wouldn't necessarily have a problem. Our food animals don't need an acre of fairyland each to romp around in, but keeping them shoulder to shoulder in *expletive deleted*it their entire lives is kinda going to the opposite extreme. Not that all the farms do that by any means, but some minority certainly do, and those egregious examples are what are usually used to push these kinds of laws through.

[sumpnz]

I’m mostly with French and Ben.  If I could get to the point of never buying meat from the store by having enough I raise/hunt/catch myself or trade with others that raise/hunt/catch their own, I’ll be a happy guy.  Not because that would somehow “stick it to the man” but because animals raised such that they can express their natural selves for the most part with just one bad moment taste better and are more nutritious.  They’re also more expensive though, and that makes it unaffordable for many.

[Jim147]

$19 a pound is what I'm hearing. That would suck. I'm doing six pounds of pecan candy bacon for our ice cream social on Wednesday.

[Bogie]

I suspect that before they are done, there will be three classes of people in California... Poor people on welfare, and those in the gated communities, with a small group of service providers in the middle who are damn near slaves... "No, you cannot legally move until you pay the debt you owe to the state store."