Brooks Law Digest: Confinement

A federal judge has dismissed a challenge to California’s Proposition 12 brought by the Iowa Pork Producers Association, finding that the court lacked personal jurisdiction over defendants. The court reasoned that the "quality, quantity, and relationship” of the defendants’ contacts to the plaintiffs’ claims did not support a finding that the California defendants had the contacts necessary to support personal jurisdiction in Iowa. This was the third such dismissed lawsuit brought by producers challenging California’s anti-confinement ballot measure that is due to take effect on January 1, 2022.

Senate Bill 2619 and House Bill 4999 would prohibit states and local jurisdictions from prohibiting the sale of agricultural products using certain practices if the goods were produced in other jurisdictions. The bill would create a private right of action to challenge any such state prohibitions and would order courts to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent them from taking effect until final judgment is rendered in the challenge. The bill is similar to the King Amendment to the U.S. Farm Bill which targeted state laws banning the sale of products derived from animals raised using forms of extreme confinement, such as battery cages, gestation crates, or veal tethering.

The Ninth Circuit has affirmed the dismissal of a challenge brought by the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council to California Proposition 12, a law prohibiting certain confinement methods used in animal agriculture. The court held that the complaint did not plausibly plead that Proposition 12 violates the dormant Commerce Clause by compelling out-of-state producers to change their operations to meet California standards, nor that it imposes excessive burdens on interstate commerce without advancing any legitimate local interest.

North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper has signed into law Senate Bill 605 which directs the state Environmental Management Commission to develop “a general permit for animal operations that includes authorization for the permittee to construct and operate a farm digester system.” The law will also allow preexisting swine farms to construct or renovate farm digester systems if doing so meets several requirements related to capacity and location. The law additionally addresses the formation of voluntary agricultural districts containing animal agriculture facilities to reduce nuisance liability and the scope of local agricultural advisory boards.

The Supreme Court declined to take up an appeal by the North American Meat Institute challenging California’s Proposition 12 ballot initiative which bans the use of intensive confinement methods for egg-laying hens, pregnant pigs, and calves raised for veal, as well as the sale of products sourced from such confined animals. The decision lets a Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling upholding the measure stand.

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak has signed into law Assembly Bill 399 which will prohibit the knowing confinement of a hen used to produce eggs in an enclosure which has less than one square foot of usable floor space per egg-laying hen on or after July 1, 2022. The law will also prohibit knowingly confining a hen in a cage-free housing system that has “less than one square foot of usable floor space per egg-playing hen if the cage-free housing system provides egg-laying hens with unrestricted access to elevated flat platforms, including, without limitation, unrestricted access in a multi-tiered aviary or partially slatted system” or one that has less than “one and one-half square feet of usable floor space per egg-laying hen if the cage-free housing system does not provide unrestricted access to elevated flat platforms, including, without limitation, unrestricted access in a single-level, all-litter floor system” on or after January 1, 2024. The law additionally will prohibit “farm owners or operators” from selling or transporting eggs or egg products without having been issued a certificate by the state Department of Agriculture that those products were produced by an egg-laying hen who was confined in a manner that complies with the law’s requirements.

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak signed into law Assembly Bill 399 which will prohibit the knowing confinement of a hen used to produce eggs in an enclosure which has less than one square foot of usable floor space per egg-laying hen on or after July 1, 2022. The law will also prohibit knowingly confining a hen in a cage-free housing system that has “less than one square foot of usable floor space per egg-playing hen if the cage-free housing system provides egg-laying hens with unrestricted access to elevated flat platforms, including, without limitation, unrestricted access in a multi-tiered aviary or partially slatted system” or one that has less than “one and one-half square feet of usable floor space per egg-laying hen if the cage-free housing system does not provide unrestricted access to elevated flat platforms, including, without limitation, unrestricted access in a single-level, all-litter floor system” on or after January 1, 2024. The law additionally will prohibit “farm owners or operators” from selling or transporting eggs or egg products without having been issued a certificate by the state Department of Agriculture that those products were produced by an egg-laying hen who was confined in a manner that complies with the law’s requirements.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund has filed suit against the Food Safety Inspection Service of the United States Department of Agriculture alleging that the agency has a pattern and practice of unlawfully approving deceptive imagery and graphics on chicken and turkey labels under the Poultry Products Inspection Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.

A new review by Matthew Hayek and Scot Miller published in Environmental Research Letters suggests that the United States may be understating methane emissions from meat and dairy operations, undermining goals of sustainable development.

North Carolina House Bill 863 would require that the state Board of Agriculture establish “minimum humane standards for cows, poultry, and swine” that include, at a minimum: a prohibition on “tethering or confining any calf raised for veal, egg-laying hen, or swine during pregnancy on a farm, for all or the majority of the day, in a manner that prevents the animal from lying down, standing up, fully extending the animal’s limbs, or turning around freely”; a requirement that all “on-farm killing of cows or swine be performed in a humane manner using methods explicitly deemed “acceptable” by the American Veterinary Medical Association”; and a prohibition on the “transport, sale, or receipt, for use in the human food supply, of any cow or calf too sick or injured to stand and walk.” The bill would also require phasing out traditional lagoon and sprayfield animal waste management systems on hog farms by September 1, 2027 but would exempt facilities producing energy from animal waste.