Buckeye Reporter

In a release, the Ohio Farm Bureau urged their membership to vote in favor of Issue 1, which will be on the ballot on August 8. The release argues that recent ballot driven initiatives outside of Ohio have empowered special interest groups to pursue similar initiatives across the country the Bureau says are anti-agriculture.

"We have already seen groups like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) target Ohio in part because our process and threshold to amend our constitution is relatively low," Ohio Farm Bureau staff said in a June 1 release. "Just recently, Farm Bureau was part of a U.S. Supreme Court case fighting Prop 12, a California ballot initiative that dictates how livestock raised in Ohio should be produced if potentially sold into that state. Unfortunately, Prop 12 was upheld and is now the standard. Now that the courts have upheld Prop 12, special interest groups have the incentive to start to work state by state to create new anti-agriculture and anti-business regulations." 

Adam Sharp, Executive Vice President of Ohio Farm Bureau announced the company's official endorsement of Issue 1 earlier this year saying “Our members created policies through our grassroots process which strongly supports these proposed constitutional changes. Making the process of amending Ohio’s Constitution more fair and thoughtful is something our members think is important and this resolution will accomplish just that.”

A report from Successful Farming reports that California's Prop 12 dictates the ways livestock farmers are able to confine their pigs. These housing adjustments will need to be made by all livestock farmers that are located in CA or that intend to sell pork products in the state. By January 1 of 2024, all breeding swine farms will need to have Prop 12 certification to continue to operate or sell in the state.

According to Farm Progress, California produces less than 1% of the nation's pork, but Californians consume approximately 13% of all pork produced in the United States.

National Hog Farmer says that estimated costs associated with the rules under Prop 12 could be greater than $100,000 per year for the average breeding hog farm due to “smaller inventory of breeding pigs, lower piglet output per animal and increased breeding pig mortality.”

Prop 12 passed by a margin of 63% to 37% in November of 2018, but was subsequently challenged in the courts, according to Ballotpedia.

Earlier this year, by a 5-4 vote, the US Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge to Prop 12 and the proposition was upheld, ABC News reported.

Buckeye Reporter previously reported that including Ohio, currently 15 U.S. states allow for statewide initiatives to change their constitutions, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and South Dakota. Illinois, Arizona and Florida have 60 percent vote thresholds; Colorado's is 55 percent.

The Buckeye Reporter also previously reported that many high profile lawmakers in the state have endorsed Issue 1 including U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, Gov. Mike DeWine, and Secretary of State Frank LaRose among others.

Reportedly "a roster of left-leaning advocacy groups," headquartered in larger cities, have come out against Issue 1, as previously reported by Buckeye Reporter. These groups include Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Black Lives Matter Dayton, Pro-Choice Ohio, Black Out and Proud, the Cleveland Bi+ Network, Columbus New Liberals, Democrat Socialists of America-Cleveland, Ensuring Parole for Incarcerated Citizens, New Voices for Reproductive Justice and the Ohio Federation of Teachers.