Voters in California and Massachusetts approved bans on gestation crates and pork sales tied to them. Now a Farm Bill provision aimed at federalizing the fight has reached the Senate.
The fight over how America treats pregnant pigs is now headed for the Senate, where Congress is considering whether it can blunt bans that were approved by voters in California and Massachusetts.
In much of U.S.. pork production, breeding sows are kept in gestation crates—small enclosures that prevent the animals from even turning around.. Animal advocates call the practice among the most severe forms of livestock cruelty. and opponents say it subjects pigs to lifelong confinement until they are sent to slaughter.
Those concerns have already translated into law at the ballot box.. California and Massachusetts voters have approved measures that prohibit the use of gestation crates and also ban the sale of pork from farms that use them.. The pork industry has challenged the state rules in court repeatedly. and it also has pushed lawmakers for federal legislation that would nullify the bans.. That effort recently gained traction in the House. where language tied to the industry’s push was included in the House Farm Bill.
The Senate is now drafting its own version of the Farm Bill, and the outcome will determine whether the two-chamber differences become a bargaining point.
Supporters of the state bans argue that the crates prevent pigs—described by animal welfare scientists as highly social and intelligent—from walking or turning. while also contributing to chronic stress behaviors such as biting the bars.. Temple Grandin. a prominent animal welfare scientist. has compared the experience to forcing a human to live in an airline seat.
Producers have said gestation crates help them monitor pregnancies more closely and control feeding.. Still, the industry’s opponents contend that the system keeps sows in confinement for virtually their entire lives.. Breeding females are typically kept in the crates until they are shipped for slaughter when their reproductive output declines at around five years old.
The state bans didn’t always lead to immediate. widespread changes in production. experts and advocates say. in part because many earlier measures were adopted in states that account for limited portions of national pork output.. But the momentum accelerated in 2016. when Massachusetts voters approved not only a prohibition on gestation crates inside the state. but also a requirement that pork sold in Massachusetts cannot come from farms using the crates. regardless of where the farm is located.
Massachusetts passed the measure with 78% of voters in support. Two years later, California adopted a nearly identical law, with 63% support.
That shift forced pork producers to adapt if they wanted to continue selling into two states that together represent nearly 15% of the U.S. population.
Now, the industry is seeking to reverse that result through federal legislation.. Several meat trade groups, along with Triumph Foods, have sued California and Massachusetts numerous times.. Their legal argument has centered on the dormant commerce clause. a doctrine that limits how far states can regulate in ways that affect other states.
All the lawsuits failed. A case brought by the National Pork Producers Council reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which in 2023 upheld California’s law as constitutional.
Beyond the courts, industry groups have spent years lobbying Congress to strip the effect of the state bans.. The latest effort is the Save Our Bacon Act, first proposed last year.. For the first time. it gained a foothold in federal legislation: in late April. the House of Representatives passed its Farm Bill version with language from the Save Our Bacon Act included.
Critics say the provision would effectively allow more use of gestation crates by removing the force of state voter-approved restrictions.. One hog farmer, Brent Hershey, who opposes the federal change, described it as stripping away state authority.. “It’s really a Save Our Crate Act. ” he said. arguing that a vote for the Farm Bill would be a vote to cage animals that cannot walk or turn around.
Hershey told Vox last year that he used gestation crates for much of his career raising pigs in Pennsylvania but later changed course after his daughter challenged him.. He converted his operation to group housing. in which multiple pregnant sows are kept together in a larger pen. a common approach farmers adopt to comply with state bans.
For some producers, the choice isn’t only about animal welfare, but also about economics.. Many farms have already spent money to retrofit facilities to sell into California and Massachusetts.. USDA estimates released in April 2025 put the share of U.S.. hog producers making investments to comply at 27%, a figure likely increased over time as additional farms responded.
The industry is not entirely unified.. Clemens Foods, one of the largest pork companies, has publicly opposed the Save Our Bacon legislation.. A Clemens spokesperson said in an email to Vox last year that the company and others have invested significant capital and “human capital” to meet regulations set by California and Massachusetts. and that Clemens remains “vehemently opposed” to any legislative or regulatory action overriding those laws.
Smithfield Foods. the country’s largest pork producer. has taken the opposite position and publicly supported federal legislation to nullify the state restrictions.. Seaboard Foods declined to comment for the story and directed questions to the National Pork Producers Council. which declined to interview and did not answer detailed questions by email.
In statements. the NPPC has argued that leaving California’s law in place will produce a costly patchwork of state rules.. The group pointed to an unpublished white paper prepared by economists at North Dakota State University and the U.S.. Department of Agriculture.. The researchers estimate that from January 2024. when California’s law took effect. to January 2026. pork prices in California increased by 73 cents per pound. a 15% jump.. For Massachusetts, the estimate was 63 cents per pound, after the law went into effect in August 2023.. The paper also notes that more than half of the price increase can be attributed to what it calls “retail amplification. ” including supermarkets adding a premium.
How much compliance costs producers remains disputed. The NPPC has argued that it costs at least $3,400 per sow, while Hershey said his costs were closer to $600 per sow. Hershey told Vox that the changes have paid off, citing lower rates of premature sow death and more piglets.
On Capitol Hill, congressional lines on the issue appear less predictable than before.. Historically, lawmakers’ stances have largely tracked party splits, with Republicans more supportive of the industry and Democrats more opposed.. This year includes a notable shift: Rep.. Anna Paulina Luna. a Florida Republican. introduced a bipartisan amendment seeking to strip the Save Our Bacon Act out of the Farm Bill.. The House Rules committee allowed votes on many amendments but did not allow Luna’s.
Luna argued on Fox News earlier this month that Congress shouldn’t remove states’ autonomy to decide what’s best for local farmers and voters’ ballot decisions.
The Senate’s draft process is expected to include its own version of the Farm Bill, and if it passes, the two chambers will reconcile any differences.
In the latest sign of Democratic concern, several Senate Democrats told Vox they oppose the Save Our Bacon Act.. Sens.. Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren, Chris Van Hollen, and Alex Padilla replied with strong opposition.. Van Hollen said in a statement to Vox that it makes no sense for Republicans to “bigfoot” state efforts to raise food safety and animal welfare standards.
Markey and Warren called the measure “a highly controversial and poisonous policy” that ignores what they described as the will of voters who backed the state laws by large popular margins.
Some Democrats also did not respond, including Sen.. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. the ranking chair of the Senate Agriculture committee and the lead Democrat on the Senate Farm Bill.. Klobuchar is running for governor of Minnesota. which ranks as the second-largest pork producing state after Iowa. and agribusiness has been a top donor to her 2026 campaign committee.
The dispute over gestation crates has also played out beyond the Farm Bill.. Advocates describe years of industry efforts to counterballot wins through a combination of legal challenges, lobbying, and regulatory maneuvers.. They also point to how undercover investigations in the early 2000s helped expose conditions in farms and slaughterhouses and drew national attention. including footage of gestation crates.
Animal protection groups say those revelations spurred industry groups to pursue laws in roughly two dozen states aimed at making it illegal to videotape inside farms. Some such laws were struck down in court as unconstitutional.
The industry. they argue. also works to shape exemptions and carve-outs in regulation. citing that animal farms are exempt from multiple pollution and labor laws and from much of state animal cruelty enforcement.. In other areas. animal advocates say companies and trade groups have funded campaigns disputing aspects of scientific findings about meat. while marketing claims about animal welfare may proceed without meaningful consequences.
For the current fight. the ballot wins in California and Massachusetts—and the attempt to overturn them in Congress—have become a stress test for how federal farm policy will treat state decisions.. In the coming months. if the Senate advances a Farm Bill that includes language aimed at overriding the state bans. the country will see whether gestation crate restrictions remain tied to popular votes or become a federal battlefield instead.
gestation crates Save Our Bacon Act Farm Bill animal welfare laws pork industry Senate negotiations California Massachusetts bans