(Radio Iowa) – Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson joined pork producers at a farm near Marshalltown today (Friday) to talk about the “Save Our Bacon Act.” It’s an attempt to override California’s Proposition 12, which requires pork to be raised under their rules to be sold there. Dean Frazier raises hogs on a farm near Liscomb that has been in the family for 155 years
“I take threats to Iowa’s legacy of family farming very seriously. California’s Proposition 12 is one such threat, which has allowed for out-of-state activists to dictate how Iowa pig farmers raise our livestock while raising costs for consumers,” Frazier says. He says Iowa hogs are safely raised and these rules increase the cost of pork. “Pork in California cost approximately 20 to 25 percent more than it did before the imposition of Prop 12,” he says. Hinson is a Republican running for the U-S Senate and has been targeted by adds that say the “Save Our Bacon Act” will hurt farmers.
Frazier says the ads are a smear campaign against Hinson and the rest of the Iowa delegation. “Don’t believe all the misinformation out there. The campaign against us has spent over 30 million dollars campaigning against the Save Our Bacon Act, including approximately three to five million dollars in the state of Iowa,” Frazier says. Hinson says the bill protects Iowa producers, and does not hurt those in California. “It doesn’t nullify any state laws per se. California can still regulate their own producers, they just can’t tell Iowa producers how to do their job,” she says. “And so I think we’ve been able to do that, again, fixing this loophole, I guess you’d say, for interstate commerce, respecting states’ rights in the process.”
Hinson says her Democrat opponent Josh Turek is doing what the Democrat leadership in Washington tells him on the issue. And won’t stand with farmers on something as clear-cut as this. It’s so important that we have this fix to overturn Prop 12, again, to stop these California anti-agriculture activists from undermining our Iowa way of life,Hinson says. And they certainly cannot afford an absentee senator who skipped 58 percent of votes this session at the state capitol.” She says that includes missing the vote on the Iowa Agriculture bill.
Several other representatives of ag groups, pork producers and Iowa Ag Secretary Mike Naig also attended the event. Turek’s campaign has already been quoted as saying he does not support California’s proposition 12 and that he doesn’t believe California should dictate how Iowa farmers raise their hogs.
The campaign release this additional statement today: “In the U.S. Senate, Josh Turek will champion legislation that allows Iowa farmers to compete, including passing nationwide, year-round E15, sponsoring a Right to Repair bill, cracking down on monopolies, and committing to pass a damn Farm Bill. Meanwhile, Ashley Hinson has repeatedly betrayed rural Iowa and voted to hurt farmers by supporting chaotic tariffs and a Middle East war that is driving up the cost of diesel and fertilizer. To make matters worse, she forced her unpopular, pro-China ‘Save Our Bacon Act’ into the Farm Bill, jeopardizing passage of the Farm Bill that Iowans desperately need.”
