Bacon prices up 130 per cent

Bacon prices have more than doubled in the last six weeks, the steepest increase in recent history, and California’s ban on sow gestation crates is to blame, said Brian Earnest, a market analyst for CoBank.

And he predicts more price increases are coming for retail pork because of California’s Proposition 12 which went into effect July 1.

CoBank said other factors are soft consumer demand for pork and "a murky outlook for U.S. pork exports.”

Massachusetts is also set to implement strict animal welfare rules.

Challenges to both state measures currently are being considered by Congress, with representatives battling over legislative efforts to overturn Prop 12 through the proposed Exposing Agricultural Trade Suppression (EATS) Act. 

Attorneys general from 16 U.S. states also are asking federal lawmakers to “fix” the California law, which voters approved in 2018.