DES MOINES, IOWA (September 30, 2024) — Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird is leading 21 other states in supporting the appeal of a district court ruling that upheld Massachusetts’s radical pork ban.
Massachusetts’s new “Question 3” pork ban goes further than Proposition 12 by preventing other states from selling pork in, or even transporting pork through, Massachusetts if farmers do not comply with Massachusetts’s strict hog-housing requirements. This means that even if Iowa-produced pork meets all Iowa and federal safety and quality standards, but not Massachusetts’s new restrictions, they cannot do business in that state.
Massachusetts’s pork ban will have effects far beyond Massachusetts’s borders. Pork producers and family farmers across the country will face crippling costs that may force many to close shop. Families already facing skyrocketing prices for pork will see those prices continue to rise. The pork ban also sets a dangerous precedent that would allow states to upend markets across the nation to push their political agendas.
“The Massachusetts pork ban is absolute hogwash,” said AG Bird. “Iowa is the leading pork-producing state in the nation and is home to countless farms that Iowans have passed down through families for generations. With this ban, Iowa farmers are left with two drastic options: Pay the extreme costs to comply with red tape that could drive them out of business, or be banned from selling their pork. Either option is a loss for Iowa’s hardworking family farmers and pork producers, but I won’t let that happen. Massachusetts does not get to tell Iowans how to raise their pork.”
The States make the case that the Massachusetts pork ban violates the Constitution. Violations include the Dormant Commerce Clause, which gives the federal government, not state governments, the power to regulate interstate commerce. It further violates the Import-Export Clause, which prohibits states from imposing import regulations on products brought in from other states. The ban also violates the Full Faith and Credit Clause, which requires states to respect the laws passed in other states.
Iowa led the amicus brief and was joined by Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, New Hampshire, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Read the full amicus brief here.
