Competing interests of maintaining access to one of the top domestic pork markets while acknowledging the tenuous financial situation created by years of negative hog returns are leading to hard decisions for U.S. pork producers as they grapple with how to respond to California’s Proposition 12 (Prop 12) and similar animal housing laws. 

Speaking with reporters re­cently, National Pork Producers Council (NPPC) leaders said Prop 12 threatens to take away farmers’ ability to farm.

Prop 12 dictates how hogs are raised if raw pork products are sold in California, effectively making...