DES MOINES, Iowa – With a revamped menu and long opening hours, Jeannie Kim managed to keep her San Francisco restaurant alive during the pandemic.
It is all the more frustrating that she fears her breakfast-oriented Diner could be ruined within months by new rules that could make one of their top menu items – bacon – hard to come by in California.
« Our number one seller is bacon, eggs and hash browns, » says Kim, which has been running SAMS American Eatery on Market Street for 15 years. « It could be devastating for us. »
Early next year, California will begin pushing through an animal welfare proposal that was overwhelmingly approved by voters in 2018 and that needs more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic that they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of pig farms meet the new regulations.
Unless the courts intervene or the state temporarily allows non-compliant meat to be sold in the state, California will lose almost all of its pork supply, much of which is from Iowa, and pork producers will face higher costs to reclaim a key market. Animal welfare organizations have been pushing for more humane treatment of farm animals for years, but California rules may be a rare case where consumers clearly pay a price for their beliefs.
With little time left to build new facilities, inseminate sows, and process the offspring by January, it’s hard to imagine how the pork industry can adequately supply California, which accounts for about 15% of the total in the La nd produced pork consumed.
« We are very concerned about the potential impact on supply and, consequently, cost increases, » said Matt Sutton, public policy director for the California Restaurant Association.
California’s restaurants and grocery stores consume About 255 million pounds of pork a month, but its farms produce only 45 million pounds, according to Rabobank, a global food and agriculture financial services company.
The National Pork Producers Council has asked the U.S. Department of Agriculture for federal aid to retrofit Fund pig farms across the country to fill the void. Pig farmers said they did not adhere to it because of the cost and because California has not yet established formal regulations to administer and enforce the new standards.
Barry Goodwin, an economist at North Carolina State University, estimated the additional cost to be 15 % more per animal for a farm with 1,000 breeding pigs.
If half of California’s pork supply were suddenly lost, bacon prices would rise by 60%, according to a study by Hatamiya Group, a consultancy hired by opponents of the state proposal , raise a package from $ 6 to about $ 9.60.
On a typical Iowa pig farm, sows are housed in open-air crates that are 14 square feet when they join a herd and then for a week as part of the insemination process before moving to larger group pens of around 20 square meters with other pigs. Both are less than the 24 square feet that California law requires to give breeding pigs enough room to turn over and stretch their limbs. Other operations keep sows in boxes most of the time and therefore would also fail to meet regulations. The California Department of Food and Agriculture said that while detailed regulations are not yet finalized, the most important rules for space are have been known for years.
“It is important to note that the law itself cannot be changed by regulations and the law has been in force since the proposal to contain livestock (Prop 12) passed by a large majority in 2018 The agency said in response to questions from the AP.
The pork industry has filed lawsuits, but so far courts have supported California law. The National Pork Producers Council and a coalition of California restaurants and business groups have asked Governor Gavin Newsom to postpone the new requirements. The council also hopes that meat that is already in the supply chain could be sold, potentially delaying bottlenecks.
Josh Balk, who leads farm animal protection efforts at the Humane Society of the United States, said the pork industry should accept the overwhelming view of Californians who want more humane treatment of animals.
« Why are pork producers constantly trying to overturn animal cruelty laws? » asked Balk. « It says something about the pork industry when it looks like their business is losing on the vote when they try to defend the practices, and then when animal cruelty laws are passed, they try to overturn them. ”
In Iowa , which raises about a third of the country’s pigs, Farmer Dwight Mogler estimates the changes will cost him $ 3 million and space for 250 pigs in an area of ?? n would now offer 300.
According to Mogler, he would have to earn US $ 20 more per pig to be able to afford the costs, and so far the processors have offered far less.
“The question for us is If we make these changes, what will be the next change in rules in two years, three years, five years? ”asked Mogler.
The California rules also pose a challenge to slaughterhouses that are now different parts of an individual Pig can send to locations across the country and to other countries. Processors need to develop new systems to track California pigs and separate those premium cuts from standard pork that can serve the rest of the country.
At least initially, analysts predict that customers in other parts of the country will themselves with rising California pork prices, you won’t see much of a difference. Eventually, California’s new rules could become a national standard because processors can’t afford to ignore the market in such a large state.
Kim, the San Francisco restaurant owner, said she survived the pandemic, by cutting down her menu, driving hundreds of miles across the Bay Area to deliver food and cutting staff.
Kim, who is Korean-American, said she was particularly concerned about small restaurants, their customers cannot afford big price hikes and who specialize in Asian and Hispanic dishes that typically contain pork.
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“You know, I work and live with many Asian and Hispanic populations in the city and their diet is pork. Pork is huge, ”said Kim. « It’s almost like bread and butter. »
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