Trump Sues CA Over Skyrocketing Egg, Pork Prices

The Trump administration is suing California and aims to overturn three laws that the federal government says are driving up grocery prices in the state.

Particularly, the White House says the three measures have made the price of eggs and pork soar.

“The State of California has contributed to the historic rise in egg prices by imposing unnecessary red tape on the production of eggs," the suit states.

The suit targets AB 1437, Proposition 2 and Proposition 12. These laws have "prevented" farmers across the nation from using agricultural methods that were in widespread use before, the administration said.

Here's how the three laws affect agriculture:

• Proposition 2, approved by voters in 2008, established animal welfare standards for farm animals, including egg-laying hens.
• AB 1437 set regulations on egg quality for human consumption.
• Proposition 12, passed by voters in 2018, requires specific minimum-space requirements for chickens and other farm animals.

The suit argued that these laws fall under the federal government's domain and are preempted by a 1970 federal law.

Gov. Gavin Newsom made light of Trump's suit in a post on X last week.

"Trump’s back to his favorite hobby: blaming California for literally everything," he said. "Next up [ California Governor] Gavin Newsom caused the fall of Rome and sent the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs!"

The Center for the Environment and Welfare, a consumer watchdog, applauded the Trump administration's lawsuit.

“It’s great to see the administration taking decisive action to protect the country from California’s overreaching policies, but Americans facing high food costs can’t afford to wait for years of court appeals,” says Jack Hubbard, the CEW’s executive director.

"Recent polling shows California voters now regret the passage of Proposition 12, and there is strong bipartisan support for a legislative fix to nullify California's inflationary farm mandates," he continued.

Hubbard says that "anti-meat" groups spent $13 million to pass Prop. 12.

"These radical organizations...want to drive up costs for eggs and meat because they don't want people to eat animal products."

Within the lawsuit, there was no mention of bird flu, a historic and record-breaking outbreak of the disease, which drove up egg prices nationwide as diseased chicken flocks died or were euthanized.

Since the outbreak officially began in 2022, over 166 million laying hens have been culled in what’s known as the worst bird flu outbreak in recent memory. That rapid reduction in supply bedeviled consumers and drove egg prices to record levels — in January, U.S. egg prices jumped to an average of $4.95 per dozen, surpassing previous records, and in some areas like parts of California, prices climbed as high as $10.99 per dozen.

Prop. 12 imposed strict standards on the spaces where pigs are born and live, which changed how farmers could produce the bacon for Americans’ breakfast tables.

The law says that if hog farmers want to sell pork in California, they can’t use gestation crates — 7-foot-by-2-foot metal cages that leave pregnant sows with no room to turn around. Sows, who typically weigh between 500 and 800 pounds, spend their entire pregnancies in these crates, a practice that a 63 percent majority of California voters rejected when the referendum sailed through in 2018.

The law has been challenged before, but was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2023. Back then, industrialized ag leaders warned the law would increase the price of bacon, chops and other pork products at the grocery store, drive small operations out of business, and further consolidate what is already one of the most concentrated of ag industries.

“That’s yesterday’s story,” said Paul Willis, an Iowa hog farmer who co-founded the Niman Ranch meat company almost three decades ago to establish a market for humanely raised pork.

“It’s the industrial model that ran family farmers out of business,” he said in a June 2023 telephone interview with Patch.

How Stress Tastes In Meat

Willis argued in favor for Prop. 12 and said animal welfare laws helped create more opportunities for smaller meat companies like Niman Ranch that prioritize humane treatment throughout an animal’s life, from conception to slaughter, in line with growing consumer preferences.

He pointed to strict policies, such as banning electric prods often used in industrial settings, as key to reducing animal stress.

“Anything you can do to reduce stress is important, from the gestating sows to the baby pigs to the final day when they go to the packing plant,” he said, giving as an example the hard-line policy prohibiting the use of electric prods, common in large operations. “During that process, it’s important they’re not stressed or frightened.”

Read more about that here.