"since effectively all pork in the U.S. would have to be raised to CA standards in order to be sold to CA customers"
Couldn't producers decide not to sell pork to California? Or perhaps to segment production?
Couldn't producers decide not to sell pork to California? Or perhaps to segment production?
Pork producers argued in their legal briefs that CA was such a big market for pork that they would have to raise all pork in compliance with CA rules in order to sell to CA. Taking them at their word, this will mean drastic increases in prices for most of the U.S., with minor increases in prices in CA.
OTOH, if a producer chooses to forego the lucrative CA market, they could continue raising pork using local standards. Some smaller producers will leave the CA market. The big ones won't because CA represents a material portion of their revenue.
I suspect the smaller producers are largely already CA-complaint and just need to be certified as such. Small and medium scale outfits tend to have minimal issue with providing a whopping "24 square feet" of pen space per sow and the ability for said sow to stand up and turn fully around. It's the large corporate outfits running CAFOs that are most impacted by this - and their attempts to brand this as being hostile to "the poor small independent farmers" is as disingenuous as it is predictable.