North Dakota is among the states supporting a legal challenge to a Massachusetts law concerning the confinement of livestock. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Iowa and 21 other pork-production states, including North Dakota, are pushing for an appeal of a federal district court ruling that upheld a 2016 ballot measure in Massachusetts to prohibit the sale of pork, poultry and veal from livestock that were “confined in a cruel manner.”
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird headed an amici curiae, or an informational brief in support of one side of a case, with 21 additional states to voice opposition to laws that impose “unworkable restrictions” on hog producers.
The 2016 measure, known as Question 3, has been challenged multiple times by hog farmers and pork coalitions, most recently by Missouri-based Triumph Foods, with support of a coalition of pork producers in 2023.
The law is similar to California’s Proposition 12 in that both restrict the sale of meat from pigs, calves raised for veal or egg-laying hens that were raised in a confining manner, “that prevents the animal from lying down, standing up, fully extending its limbs, or turning around freely.”