The chairman of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee says his proposed Farm, Food, and National Security Act of 2026 would bring a federal solution to California’s Proposition 12.
Glenn “GT” Thompson tells Brownfield, “The base language in the bill is called ‘Save the Bacon Provision,’ that basically doesn’t interfere with the state’s policies on animal health at all, but it just says that one state cannot dictate agriculture practices to another state.”
Katie Brown, president of the Illinois Pork Producers Association, says the animal confinement legislation has reduced both producer market access to the state and consumer access to pork.
“I don’t think that we need a patchwork of different bills and different regulations in different states affecting how I produce pork in Illinois and then sell to other parts of the United States,” she says.
For those producers that have already updated their practices to meet Prop 12’s criteria, Thompson says…
“I don’t think they need provisions. I’m proud of them. They got into those markets early and they secured them.” He says, “But if we let Prop 12 stand, then what about Prop 50?”
Committee markup of the new five-year farm bill was scheduled to begin today, but a weather-related postponement caused by a winter storm has now moved it to sometime the week of March 1st.
Brownfield spoke with both at the Illinois Pork Producers annual meeting and Swine Mixer in Springfield.
