Livestock farmers and meat packers are disappointed that four senators who are pushing a bill to over-ride California’s livestock housing regulations lost in the mid-term elections.
Those who lost are Ashley Hinson of Iowa. Gabe Evans in Colorado, Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin and Rob Bresnahan in Pennsylvania.
They are pushing the “Save Our Bacon” bill that would have the federal government setting animal welfare standards for livestock housing and those national standards would over-ride California and other state regulations.
The California standard for housing, such as a ban on confining gestating sows in crates, impacts Canadians who market hogs and pork to the United States where it is costly for packers selling to multi-state customers to segregate pork into lots that do or do not comply with California’s standards.
