California’s Department of Food Agriculture (CDFA) recently published its finalized animal confinement regulations, codified at 3 C.C.R. § 1320-1326, as well as the accompanying Final Statement of Reasons. The finalized regulations are largely identical to the proposed second modified text, published in June.

By way of background, California’s Proposition 12 establishes standards for the confinement of certain farm animals (breeding pigs, calves raised for veal, and egg-laying hens) and bans the sale of eggs, veal, and pork products that do not comply with those standards (see our previous blogs here and here).

As our readers know, enforcement of California’s Proposition 12 was delayed for some stakeholders in January 2022, after a judge for the Superior Court in Sacramento County ordered that grocers, restaurants, and retailers would not be subject to enforcement of the new restrictions on whole pork meat sales until six months after the state enacted its final regulations. An appeal was filed by the State of California and is currently pending.

In addition, Proposition 12 is currently being litigated in the U.S. Supreme Court, after several agricultural groups petitioned the court to review a Ninth Circuit Court decision to uphold Proposition 12, alleging that the law’s national impact on pork producers is an undue burden on interstate commerce. The case remains ongoing.