The long-awaited decision on if California residents, can by proposition, put an item on the ballot to dictate without any basis in science, the conditions under which pork is allowed to be produced for sale in California, regardless of production location is in.
Unfortunately, the answer (which can only be divined from reading 5 separate opinions rendered by five different Supreme court judges), is you bet. Go ahead, California, take the wheel.
This tortured outcome was an artful dance of reasoning as the justices attempted to preserve the concept that one state can’t make regulation that impact another state but that in this particular case, it’s okay. Because we can balance and excessive harm to the market”.
What the opinion doesn’t do is provide a clear cogent road map for what future good idea factory propositions will be handled. Indeed, the court’s high scholars couldn’t even agree on what parts of its prior holdings in the “Pike” case where controlling, with judges meandering in and out of agreement part by part, with some judges saying the pork industry didn’t show the harm this law has while other just said no, not that but still the law isn’t a problem.
What it does is creates more wiggle and “well but wait what about this….” In legal cases in the future. Good news if you are an appeals lawyer, not so great news if you are a producer trying to invest in long term capital assets to raise food and fiber.
The group of fractured thinkers will get another change to demonstrate how each one of them has their own “hot take” instead of coming to a consensus with the upcoming Clean Water casers. I am sure between hogs and water; it will all be crystal clear……… or hogwash.
Farm bill heats up.
The farm bill, which funds a number of pretty important programs in the Midwest, is set up for renewal this September. All the ag and ag adjacent interest groups will be seeking a portion of the pot. From Renewables, climate change, biochar research, EQUIP payments, precision farming loans, organic, traditional row crop, food and school lunch are just some of the stakeholders that will be spending their Sumner trying to shape the cheese wheel of the farm bill into a mold they enjoy.
