‘Bacongate’ awaits California in the new year. But state leaders still have time to act

Come Jan. 1, 2022, Proposition 12, a 2018 ballot measure that sets new requirements for farm animal confinement, will go into effect — and with it, potential price increases and shortages on California’s favorite pork products.

As Central Valley leaders representing a broad swath of family-owned small businesses across the food supply chain and a large percentage of families of color that count on pork as an affordable protein, we urge state leaders to save Californians from what the Los Angeles Times is now calling “Bacongate.”

The heart of the issue lies in the state’s own two-year delay in issuing the rules, regulations and guidance that pork suppliers need to comply with the state law.

The state consumes 15% of the nation’s pork supply, but only 2% of that supply originates here. Prop. 12 was passed overwhelmingly in 2018 to require more space for calves, veal, egg-laying hens and pork for consumption in California. It specifically required the state to release regulations prior to September 2019 in order to give the nation’s food supply chain a full two years to come into compliance.

In part because of the disruption caused by the COVID pandemic, now two years behind schedule, the proposed regulations are still in draft form and only recently released for public comment. There is waning hope the rules will be finished by the end of the year, and it’s now impossible for the supply chain to comply by Jan. 1.

Across the state, consumers, grocers, restaurants, retailers, ethnic small business groups, processors and farmers have come together to ask for a delay in implementation until the rules are finalized and to reset the clock to allow them the full two years to comply originally allocated by the law. State regulators have said the key provisions regarding space were clearly laid out in the ballot measure and that the law should go into effect without final input or guidance on compliance.

The reality for our food supply chain is not so simple. Without the final rules and guidance, what bank will finance multi-million-dollar retrofits without a guarantee the changes will adequately meet the new requirements? Beyond this, half of the impact the law will have on producers focuses on turnaround requirements — which the initiative left to regulators to define and which current proposed regulations are silent on.

The result is a vacuum of leadership on getting Prop. 12 right, and a disaster for Californians at their local grocery stores and favorite restaurants as an affordable protein staple many families rely on disappears or becomes unaffordable — disproportionately impacting ethnic families and small businesses.

On top of the direct impact to consumers on their grocery bills, Central Valley residents stand to suffer even deeper losses. In just one processing facility in Manteca that employs hundreds of people, jobs and revenues are expected to be cut in half if the law is implemented in the new year. That’s hundreds of good-paying jobs lost for families already suffering from more than a year of layoffs and hardship caused by the pandemic.

The effects across the state are expected to be similar, especially in smaller cities where processing plants are a main source of community income. It’s time for state leaders to work together and find a practical solution to this preventable food equity disaster. We call on regulators, our legislative partners and state leaders to join us in working to ensure California can keep proteins like pork affordable for working class families, prevent further job losses and business closures, and bring home the bacon for California residents.