A.G. Gancarski
Florida’s Governor has some plans about how he can help Iowa pork producers sidestep a Supreme Court decision upholding California protections for nursing sows.
During an interview on the Barn Talk podcast, Ron DeSantis suggested his presidential administration would “look to see what administratively we have the authority to do federally to provide relief to Proposition 12 because there may be some things you can do under existing statutes.”
“And if there’s an existing statute that would be on point federally and it’s constitutional, well, that would trump what a state is going to do under the supremacy clause,” DeSantis said, adding that Congress should “fix that problem” with “Democrat senators from Minnesota” working “to side with your farmers on that.”
“I don’t think California should be able to dictate how people are producing pork. I mean, that’s just not good for the economy. It’s not the way the system was designed to work. And I want states to be able to make their own decisions. But when they’re trying to do things that have effects outside their state, that’s a different, different beast there,” DeSantis said.
Earlier this year, in a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a California law called Proposition 12, which mandates more room for breeding pigs. The Court sided with the state against the National Pork Producers Council and the American Farm Bureau Federation, industry groups that contended California law would impose unreasonable burdens on pig farmers.
DeSantis noted that on this issue, he deviates from Justice Clarence Thomas, who “doesn’t ever usually … get anything wrong,” but in this case arrived at the conclusion because he doesn’t believe there is a “dormant” Commerce Clause precluding state regulations.
The California law holds “no person shall knowingly engage in a commercial sale within the state of whole pork meat for human food if the whole pork meat is the product of a breeding pig, or the product of the immediate offspring of a breeding pig, that was confined at any time during the production cycle for said product in an enclosure that fails to comply with all of the standards set forth in Chapter 10, Article 3, regarding Breeding Pigs.”
This includes pig meat brought in from out of state, meaning California markets would be closed to flesh from slaughtered pigs treated worse than state law requires.
California statute dictates that the “enclosure shall allow the breeding pig to lie down, stand up, fully extend limbs, and turn around freely,” with “a minimum of 24 square feet of usable floorspace per breeding pig.” But that’s a bridge too far for the purveyors of porcine flesh.
The Governor’s comments against the California law protecting pregnant pigs are the latest in a series.
DeSantis has vowed to “protect meat” from environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles, which he said would cause a “farm crisis” given the pressures being imposed on the agriculture sector.
“They’re trying to use things like global warming to go after agriculture. They want to go after meat, they want to go after all these things and it’s totally insane,” DeSantis said in October in South Carolina.
The Governor, while at a Never Back Down bus tour stop in Iowa back in August, said his presidential administration would not “let California regulate how farmers in Iowa conduct their business on things like, you know, these pork producers have to follow California law to do this stuff.”
“It doesn’t even make any sense,” DeSantis said.
Ironically given the Governor’s take, more than two decades ago Florida passed a constitutional amendment stipulating that “no person shall confine a pig during pregnancy in a cage, crate or other enclosure, or tether a pregnant pig, on a farm so that the pig is prevented from turning around freely, except for veterinary purposes and during the prebirthing period.”
23 comments
Dont Say FLA
December 27, 2023 at 11:56 am
It’s time for the Pro Life Movement to rebrand: Speciesist And Racist Movement seems like a good, honest name for that special interest group.
Ron Doesn’t Like Crowds 🧩
December 27, 2023 at 3:34 pm
Aren’t they the Hamas Affiliate Party?
the market
December 27, 2023 at 12:00 pm
California effectively dictating meat processing regulations for the whole USA through their position of strength is called “letting the market sort it out.”
…. Except for when the losers talk about it
Ron Doesn’t Like Crowds 🧩
December 27, 2023 at 3:35 pm
Right? ‘Wah wah life isn’t fair’ is their battle cry…
Earl Pitts "Sage Expert on Everything" American
December 27, 2023 at 12:02 pm
Good afternoon America,
STAND BY FOR SAGE NEWS:
This Pig Stuff is the type of “Sage Common Sense” things America is looking for in our next POTUS.
With this Pig Stuff Ron and his lovely wife Casey have just paved their way into The White House for The Next Eight Straight years of peace and prosperity of our Great Nation.
This latest installment of “Sage Wisdom” has been brought to you by me, Earl Pitts American
AND THAT IS THE REST OF THE STORY:
Earl Pitts American
Ron Forrest Ron
December 27, 2023 at 12:04 pm
Didn’t Rhonda tether or cage Casey when she was with child? So what’s their problem with that now, all of a sudden?
Michael K
December 27, 2023 at 1:03 pm
Let’s move Rhonda downwind or downstream from a pig factory so he can relish in the “freedom” of unfettered industrial animal slaughter.
My Take
December 27, 2023 at 3:36 pm
I once had to briefly use some installed equipment on a big pig farm. Never saw a pig, they were far away on the farm.
It was still an overpowering stench!
I ll beg you could smell it for miles downwind.
MH/Duuuval
December 28, 2023 at 10:00 pm
STENCH
So it has been reported from places like eastern Carolina and eastern Virginia. There have been a few successful lawsuits, but the hogs in state legislatures quickly closed loopholes against future legal action.
TJC
December 27, 2023 at 1:06 pm
Cruelty to animals is just more woke crap for tough guy Ron DeSantis. Let animals suffer, says Ron, flexing his mouth muscles into a fake smile. I can take it, says Ron. Caring for animals is woke, says Ron. If it gets me votes, let them suffer.
What a little man he has turned out to be.
My Take
December 28, 2023 at 8:09 am
Bring back dogfighting, Ron.
Your redneck droolers will love it.
And cockfighting!
And bearbaiting!!
WGD
December 27, 2023 at 2:38 pm
DeSantis and Republicans working hard to find new ways to institutionalize cruelty. Great campaign slogan.
great campaign slogan.
My Take
December 27, 2023 at 2:42 pm
“Pig” DeSSwinetis should have some natural sympathy.
But DeSSwinetis is himself more vermin than livestock.
By DeSSwinetis’ “logic” we should have no official measues against products of foreign slave labor.
I’m sure he has no personal objection.
MH/Duuuval
December 27, 2023 at 2:46 pm
It is more than ironic that Dee is purporting to advise pork producers elsewhere in light of what Florida voters added to the Constitution. (Not that the Florida Constitution could stand in the way of Dee getting what Dee wants.)
Ron Doesn’t Like Crowds 🧩
December 27, 2023 at 3:33 pm
“They go after same-sex marriages, they go after health care, oh wait that’s what WE go after…”🫣
Tom
December 28, 2023 at 7:40 am
You know how it goes. Say woke three times, click your heels together and we’ll be magically transported back to leave it to beaver land before those damned hippy liberals ruined our lives.
My Take
December 27, 2023 at 9:37 pm
“Be Hard!” — Himmler, to SS (attributed)
My Take
December 27, 2023 at 9:45 pm
He probably kicks kids’ pets.
Sonja Fitch
December 28, 2023 at 4:56 am
WTF! Enough Desantis! Common good ain’t something Desantis comprehends!
Sonja Fitch
December 28, 2023 at 4:56 am
WTF! Enough Desantis! Common good ain’t something Desantis comprehends!
Elmo
December 28, 2023 at 7:33 am
Cruelty to animals as a no-brainer for DeSantis since cruelty to humans is in his DNA.
porky pig for president
December 28, 2023 at 8:26 am
Geeze, I thought that the GOP was about states’ rights? A majority of CA voters decided to give pigs a break before they were turned into bacon. Same for Florida voters. But Rona apparently believes that he knows better and in the unlikely event that he becomes president he wants to let pigs suffer before they are slaughtered. Geeze he just gets more and more crazy every day and mean too. He sure knows how to ham it up! He kind of reminds me of a pig!
My Take
December 28, 2023 at 11:16 pm
“Suffer, sows, suffer! Your pain means more profits.”
— defender of corporate ag, DeSSadist.
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