Poll Shows Iowa Voters Firmly Rejecting Push to Overturn States’ Rights to Oversee Food and Farm Policy
Des Moines, IA – In a rebuke to Representative Ashley Hinson’s top Farm Bill priority, the Senate Agriculture Committee excluded the Save Our Bacon Act from the Farm Bill at today’s markup. The final bill failed to pass out of Committee but could be revived after the August recess. The decision by the Senate Agriculture Committee to leave the bill out of the Senate markup highlights the deep bipartisan unpopularity of the measure. The Save Our Bacon Act would preempt hundreds of state laws governing food and farm policy.
“Today’s Senate markup of the Farm Bill underscores why Iowa so desperately needs new leadership at the federal level,” said Joe Maxwell, President of Farm Action Fund, which has endorsed Josh Turek, Christine Bohannan and Sarah Trone Garriott for the November election. “The current farm crisis has led to increasing bankruptcies and hardship for Iowa farmers. We need representatives who will confront the corporate monopolies squeezing our farmers instead of doing the bidding of China-owned meatpackers seeking to overturn the right of states to regulate their food and farm policies as they see fit.“
Background
Representative Ashley Hinson (IA-02) was the lead sponsor of the Save Our Bacon Act in the U.S. House of Representatives, which was also co-sponsored by Representatives Zach Nunn (IA-03) and Marionnette Miller-Meeks (IA-01). A recent Mason-Dixon poll showed that the Save Our Bacon Act was rejected by a 20% margin in Iowa. Many Iowa farmers are already Prop 12 compliant and have adapted to California’s standards. Meanwhile, Representative Hinson has received tens of thousands of donations from Big Pork corporations. Opposition to the Save Our Bacon Act is bipartisan, with Fox News Host Tomi Lahren calling out Hinson’s capitulation to Big Pork and John Cleveland of the conservative, pro-liberty Wilberforce Institute writing that “it would represent one of the most sweeping federal intrusions into state authority in recent memory.”
Iowa hog farmer Anna Besak published an OpEd this week stating, “It’s clear the biggest winners from the Save Our Bacon Act won’t be independent Iowa farmers. They’ll be multinational corporations and large integrators that already dominate the country’s pork industry.”
Though Save Our Bacon was not included in the Senate Farm Bill, it was included in the House version of the Farm Bill and could still end up in a final version. Farm Action Fund will continue to push for a Farm Bill that helps to strengthen competitive markets, restores rural communities, and puts the power back in the hands of farmers.
