The U.S. pork industry honored Chairman Glenn Thompson for his support of farmers through major farm legislation, workforce initiatives, and efforts to strengthen rural agriculture.
Read MoreNew Stand-Up Program targets one of the barriers to expanding local and regional processing: the cost states face in establishing or growing their own meat inspection systems. USDA is putting up to $50 million in new funding behind an effort to expand state meat inspection programs, potentially opening additional processing opportunities for livestock producers and small and mid-sized meat processors. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced the new Stand-Up Program on September 16. Administered in partnership with USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the initiative will help states establish new Meat and Poultry Inspection programs or expand existing ones. For pork producers, the announcement is significant because processing capacity isn’t simply a packing-sector issue. Access to inspected slaughter and processing can determine where smaller producers can market pigs, how far animals need to travel and whether locally processed pork can reach customers beyond it
Read MoreThe 2026 Farm Bill moved forward in the Senate this week. For America’s pork producers, however, the more consequential story may be what didn’t move with it. The Senate Agriculture Committee advanced the Agricultural Act of 2026 by a 12–11 vote Wednesday, while an effort by Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst to pursue another route toward addressing California Proposition 12 did not advance during the committee proceedings. The Farm Bill moved forward. One of the pork industry’s biggest policy fights did not. On paper, that’s Washington procedure. On the farm, it raises a much larger set of questions. Proposition 12 has evolved beyond a debate over sow housing. It now reaches into barn investment, interstate commerce, veterinary authority, differentiated markets and the fundamental question of who gets to establish the production standards for pork moving through a national food system. For producers making investment decisions measured in decades rather than election cycles, those aren’t simp
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