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This column was published by Nebraska Farmer on July 7, 2023, and is excerpted here with permission.
Agricultural producers looking to Washington, D.C., have been waiting for Congress to begin deliberations on the farm bill due later this year. While formal action was yet to begin as of early July, Congress essentially started the debate with a focus on food assistance program spending in both the debt ceiling legislation passed in June and the annual appropriations bills under current consideration.
While attention to Congress remains a continual priority for ag producers and organizations, attention to ag policy developments happening off Capitol Hill also is important. Recent news from the Supreme Court and in the executive branch agencies will have significant implications for agriculture as well, and will help frame the legal and regulatory environment under which agriculture operates going forward.
Prop 12 upheld
In May, the Supreme Court upheld California regulations that set housing requirements for egg-laying hens, gestating sows and veal calves, but not just in California. The rules, known as Proposition 12, were passed by California voters in 2018 to extend rules originally included in Proposition 2 in 2008 for California producers to producers everywhere who sell into the California market.
Read the full article via Nebraska Farmer ...