USDA Secretary Nominee Brooke Rollins Supports Overturning Proposition 12 in California

President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Agriculture, Brooke Rollins, expressed support for the federal EATS act and the overturning of California’s Proposition 12 during her Senate confirmation hearing.

Proposition 12 was a successful California ballot initiative passed in 2018 and enacted in 2022 to require meat and eggs sold in the state to comply with minimum size and design standards. Specifically, the law applies to female breeding pigs, hens (chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and guinea fowls) kept for egg production, and calves kept for meat production.

The proposition only applies to egg products, whole uncooked veal meat, and whole uncooked pig meat from breeding pigs or their offspring. California producers must abide by the law, and farms outside of the state must comply if they wish to sell these products in California. The process required a third-party certification, including an on-site inspection.

Senator Joni Ernst said family hog farms in Iowa have been devastated by the proposal “only fueling market consolidation of pork producers.” She said, “Ultimately, what we would like to do is move on legislation, craft a way forward so that we don’t have states telling our producers how they can raise their livestock. Very important to us. In line with President Trump’s priority to lower food costs for American families, will you commit to working with this committee to reverse proposition 12.”

Brooke Rollins responded, “I’m a federalism believer; I believe in the founder’s vision of the 10th amendment, and the government closest to the people is the government that should be most active under that 10th amendment. But, this particular issue…There is no doubt that it’s not just affecting California; it’s affecting multitudes of other states, multitudes of other parts of the ag community, including our hog family farms. Iowa and many other states have been really affected by this as well. Yes, I commit to working with you on that and look forward to it.”

The 10th Amendment refers to the concept of federalism, which separates powers between the federal government and the states. The amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

National Pork Producers Council v. Ross was a Supreme Court case in which the pork lobby attempted to overturn Proposition 12 on the basis that it violates the Dormant Commerce Clause. The argument is that the rule excessively burdens out-of-state producers and thus restricts interstate commerce. In a 5-4 ruling, the court decided that the law did not excessively burden out-of-state producers any more than California producers.

California voters approved this proposal, which applies the same regulations to California producers as it does to out-of-state producers. That explains the Supreme Court ruling and indicates an attempted reversal of Proposition 12 will face a legal challenge.

The collaboration between Trump kickstarted the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Kennedy’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, expressed her confusion about the appointment of Rollins instead of somebody focused on the principles of regenerative agriculture.

The HighWire has discussed the benefits of regenerative agriculture over the typical concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), which are colloquially known as factory farms. Joel Salatin was rumored to be a part of the USDA along with Representative Thomas Massie before Brooke Rollins was selected.

Salatin appeared on The HighWire when Host Del Bigtree visited Salatin’s Polyface Farm to learn about regenerative agriculture. On an episode last year, Bigtree interviewed Finian Makepeace and Ryland Engelhart about their regenerative agriculture documentary “Common Ground.”

Proposition 12 doesn’t outlaw CAFO operations and has no impact on beef production. The minimum space requirement for breeding pigs is to allow the animal space to move around and lay down. The criteria for egg-laying birds is a minimum of one square foot per bird.

The pork lobby already attempted to overturn California’s proposition through the Supreme Court and failed. Now, they are supporting the EATS act, which is being championed by Senator Ernst and Ag Secretary nominee Rollins. The world’s largest pork producer, Smithfield, agreed to a $75 million settlement in 2023 for artificially restricting supply to inflate the cost of pork.

Dustin Kittle, an Alabama rancher and lawyer, has called out Trump’s nomination of Rollins and said she was “brought in to preserve the status quo in the USDA.” Kittle made headlines last year when he sued the Biden administration related to the Farm Credit Bureau scandal. The HighWire spoke to Kittle last year regarding the lawsuit and Alabama Farm Credit’s attempt to foreclose on his property despite the fact he had never missed a payment.

Kittle also pointed out the connections between Rollins and newly-appointed Senate Majority Leader John Thune. Kittle wrote in November, “We have a corrupted USDA who has been allowed to engage in an all-out assault against family farms, and it is directly by John Thune and his cohorts on the Senate Ag Committee have done nothing to stop it.”

Luke Lindberg, Thune’s son-in-law, served as a senior fellow for the America First Policy Institute of which Brooke Rollins is the president and CEO. Lindberg praises Rollins’s choice as Ag secretary, and he is also tapped to be the under-secretary for foreign affairs within the USDA.

Earlier this week, Kittle said “It appears that Leader John Thune had his hand in the nomination of the Ag Secretary, using it to get his son-in-law Luke Lindberg the job of USDA Under Secretary. America’s farmers should never be used as a pawn to allow nepotism and cronyism to persist for the benefit of corrupt politicians. We have lost too many family farms in this country due to politicians like John Thune and their cozy relationships with Big Ag.”

It is currently unknown when the Senate will vote to decide if Brooke Rollins is confirmed as Secretary of the USDA.