Reposted from: https://www.news9.com/story/68edbd6d437a8e7ebc532ade/how-the-save-our-bacon-act-impacts-oklahoma-farmers
October 13, 2025
Two bills are pending right now in Congress, the Save Our Bacon Act and the Farm Security Food Protection Act (a repackaged version of the EATS Act) – that would effectively overturn California’s Proposition 12 and laws in a dozen or so other states that impose minimum space requirements for breeding pigs, egg-laying hens, and veal calves. Prop 12 not only mandates minimum space requirements for California farms that are raising animals for food, but also for any livestock operations that want to sell their products in California.
Many in the agriculture sector oppose these laws, saying they place a major and unsustainable financial burden on farmers forced to comply with requirements, and also disrupt interstate commerce, in that they impact the ability of many meat-producing farms to conduct business across state lines.
There have already been efforts in Congress to nullify Prop 12, and they have failed. The Supreme Court upheld the California law in a 2023 ruling. Many farms, in California and across the country – including in Oklahoma – have adapted to the regulations and invested to meet the demand of what they see as a new and growing market for premium pork products that are produced in a more humane manner. Many of those farmers were in Washington, D.C. last week, meeting with lawmakers (or their staffs) and urging them not to include either the Save Our Bacon Act or the EATS Act in the upcoming Farm Bill.
Two family farmers from Oklahoma, Leo Staples (Staples Farm in Harrah) and Nate Beaulac (Prairie Creek Farm in Tulsa) spoke about why they made the trip to Washington:
STAPLES: “We’re here to support Proposition 12 and the impacts that, without this–state’s rights, the ability to regulate agriculture…and if this is–if we see bills like the Save our Bacon Act go through, it is going to impact our ability as a small farm–we raise regenerative pork that’s sold, i’s a high quality pork–to compete against the industrial raised pork that’s raised in confined spaces, in our view, inhumanely raised, in some cases, with the issue of gestation crates. And so, we want to level the playing field–we’ll compete with anybody that we want to have an opportunity to do that.”
BEAULAC: “The Eats Act and the Save Our Bacon Act are cleverly disguised as something that is good for the farmer, but in fact, it’s just trying to protect Big Ag from states being able to vote out extreme confinement. So, what Prop 12 did in California is it allowed the American citizens who live in California to vote against big agriculture using gestation crates and extreme confinement, and they said, ‘we don’t want that in our state, we don’t want to buy those meats in our state.’ And that’s a good thing for the animal. It’s a good thing for the American consumer, and it’s a good thing for farmers that are doing things right, because it opens up another market for us, as local farmers, to be able to compete and to be able to bring our products into other places that otherwise wouldn’t appreciate it.”
…whether Prop 12 hurts farmers in other states:
STAPLES: “We can raise anything we want to. We can sell to California if our meat is USDA inspected. It hasn’t put any barriers into us in Oklahoma, as we raise pork or any other, meat-related product.”
BEAULAC: “What it really impacts is Tyson, Smithfield, Cargill, the big guys — it impacts their bottom line. But for us, for the local farmer, for smaller operations, it’s nothing but a good thing.”
…How your operation(s) differ from larger commercial operations:
STAPLES: “The industrial farms that are raising things nose to tail, that use gestation crates, where a female pig comes in there at breeding age, she stays in a small confined crate where she can only stand up and stand down until the few weeks that she has in a farrowing crate when she delivers pigs, until they’re weaned and then she goes right back into that. And that’s–for us at Staples Farm, that’s what we’re primarily against. We think it’s inhumane. Now, we raise pigs on pasture–that’s different. We raise a specific type of pig that’s known for its quality meat. And we’re not saying that you can’t have a farrowing house, you can’t use farrowing crates. My background came from that. And that’s fine. We support that. But it’s in that confinement of, not just pigs, but chickens and other livestock, that we consider to be inhumane. And we say, let the consumer decide.”
BEAULAC: “We are able to–we’re both able to charge a premium for our products because we raise our animals out in pasture, we don’t use any drugs, right? That wouldn’t be the case if–if big food continues to dominate the market, then our products are going to become less and less competitive; it’s going to be harder and harder for us to scale up to the place where we might be able to grab some efficiencies and employ more people.”
…your product compared to less expensive products people buy at the grocery store:
STAPLES: “You’re looking at apples to oranges. And so, you know, you look at all the different things — because our animals are raised outside, they have vitamin D, they–as Nate said, we treat only when they need to be treated–we don’t feed antibiotics. But if an animal is sick, of course, we bring it to our vet in and we treat; but it’s those kind of things that get people to realize, you try it once and you’ll know why you’re paying a little bit more for it.”
…how overturning Prop 12 and similar laws in other states would hurt you:
BEAULAC: “Already, since Prop 12 passed in California, and Massachusetts passed its (Question 3) several years ago, there have already been farmers that have adapted to those requirements and changes and invested money and all of that. So, if Prop 12 were to be overturned, or if they were to start limiting the states’ ability to vote on things like that, then all of those farmers who have adapted, who have changed their practices and invested money to be able to raise products that could sell into California, could sell in Massachusetts, they’re going to lose a lot of money, probably go out of business.”