Prop 12 Battle Heats Up as Pork Fix Faces Pushback Amid Aggressive Political Ad Campaign

[00:00:00][music] >> Time now for Chip's Corner, Chip Flory joining us this weekend. Chip, pork producers have been switch searching for an answer to address Prop 12 from California. Save our bacon act seemed to do that. It was passed in the house version of the farm bill, but it has become such a controversial piece of legislation. Why?

[00:00:24]>> Well, it's controversial because the anti-animal ag groups are very well organized and very well funded and they are making this a big, big deal in farm states where there are some key races happening out there. And even where there aren't key races happening. For example, in the state of Iowa, there are TV ads being run that target US Senators Ernst and Grassley.

[00:00:55]Ernst isn't running. Grassley isn't up for re-election if he will be up for re-election until 2028, but they are still targeting them and saying that they are on the take from China. And of course, what they're probably referring to are some some campaign contributions in the past from Smithfield Foods. We've tracked that down and it looks like both senators received about $7,000 in campaign contributions from Smithfield. But these ads are also saying that it's putting small that the Save Our Bacon Act will put small family farms out of business. So, we had a conversation with some farmers about this and one of them, I asked Rob Brenneman, president of the National Pork Producers Council, what he thinks about the efforts to prevent the fix to California's Prop 12.

[00:01:55]>> We just can't have 50 different ways to raise pigs. It's not affordable. And Prop 12 cost money. It costs more money than what we were used to. Some of us have done it and some of us haven't. And so for those who do, there's still be a market if it's popular, right? But and if it was popular, consumption of pork would go up, not down. So there's something wrong with the story that they're talking about. This will consolidate the industry if it continues because our next generation needs certainty in the direction that they need to raise pigs or farm or whatever they're doing and there's no certainty.

[00:02:30]If we don't get a fix to Prop 12 today, there's no certainty on how everybody raises pigs.

[00:02:38]>> Listen, you got to bottom line it and stick with this because Prop 12 from the very beginning was an effort to end animal agriculture. That's it. They got their foot in the door with Prop 12.

[00:02:51]They're not going to let it close.

[00:02:53]They're going to push hard. They are an organized, well-funded group. They put $30 million into this campaign already and will continue to spend money. If you're wondering if it's working or not, just go over to the state of Kansas.

[00:03:10]Senator Marshall, who has always been a big supporter of a Prop 12 fix, pulled his support from the language of that is in the farm bill that's going to be considered by the Senate. He pulled his support. Why?

[00:03:27]Because this group planned a half-million-dollar TV campaign against Senator Marshall in his state if he continued to support it.

[00:03:38]So he pulled his support.

[00:03:40]>> The ugly side of politics. Chip Flory, thanks so much for putting some perspective around that. I've seen some of these campaigns pop up and wondered the story behind it. Chip Flory, you can catch him every morning for AgriTalk AM and then Michelle Rook takes a deep dive into the markets for AgriTalk PM. All right, thanks Chip. Well, what if every seed in the field could be tracked from planting to harvest [music] and even predict its own stress along the way?

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