Attorney General Bird Signs Agreements with Pork Processors

DES MOINES-Attorney General Brenna Bird today announced she has signed agreements with thirteen pork processors that allows them to continue long-standing pig-ownership agreements with Iowa farmers that have been in place for up to 20 years.

In 1975, the state of Iowa passed a law that banned pork processors from owning the pigs they process. In 2000 and 2002, the law was amended to also ban processors from financing or contracting for the care of pigs they process. A pork processor sued and obtained a judgment in 2003 that the ban violated Constitutional prohibitions against interfering with interstate commerce. While the judgment was on appeal in 2003, the Legislature amended the law to correct the constitutional discrepancies. However, faced with further litigation over the amended law, then-Attorney General Tom Miller entered into an agreed judgment with the pork processor in 2005.

The 2005 judgment allowed the processor, in exchange for some concessions, to operate as it had been. The State then entered into similar judgments with other processors, all set to expire on September 16, 2015. The judgments were renewed and then converted into agreements. Also beginning in 2015, the State entered into similar agreements with processors who had not been part of earlier consent decrees. Each of those agreements were reached with the consent of the Governor and legislative leadership, and all of them are set to expire on September 16, 2025.

After discussing the matter with the Governor's office and Republican and Democrat leaders of the Iowa House and Senate, Attorney General Bird has signed extensions that make the agreements with the thirteen pork processors effective through September 16, 2031. This will ensure stability for Iowa pork farmers.

You can read the agreements here.

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For More Information:

Jen Green

[email protected]