Senate Farm Bill Drops Save Our Bacon Act
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- The Senate Agriculture Committee released its draft farm bill this week excluding the Save Our Bacon Act, a measure House Agriculture Chair G.T. Thompson pushed to include in the House version earlier this year.
- The Save Our Bacon Act would override state and local laws like California's Prop 12, which bans the sale of pork, chicken, and veal from farms using extreme confinement methods such as gestation crates.
- 14 states currently have laws similar to Prop 12 on the books, according to the American Meat Producers Association (AMPA), an industry group founded last year that opposes the act.
- A recent USDA analysis found that 27% — roughly 1 in 4 — of hog farmers are already Prop 12 compliant, suggesting a transition away from extreme confinement is underway.
- AMPA President Holly Bice said most hog farmers do not support the Save Our Bacon Act, arguing Prop 12 has let producers who invested in crate-free operations sell at a premium and survive industry consolidation.
- Pennsylvania hog farmer Brent Hershey, an AMPA member, called the issue a "civil war" within the pork industry and warned that passing SOB would be "devastating" for producers like him who have already gone crate-free for three years.
- Congress has not reauthorized the farm bill in nearly eight years, resorting instead to stop-gap extensions — and it's unclear whether the House will drop SOB or whether the chamber standoff pushes gridlock into next year.
Why it matters: With 14 states already enforcing Prop 12-style confinement bans and 27% of hog farmers already compliant, the Senate's refusal to include SOB protects those farmers' investments — but the House-Senate split could delay the broader farm bill, which funds billions in conservation, nutrition, and rural development programs.
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