A federal judge on Monday approved a compromise joint motion between state regulators and industry groups, who had challenged the voter-approved law, that allows enforcement of most pork-related regulations to begin Aug. 24.
Barring a last-minute judicial intervention, pork sales in Massachusetts are about to change.
As part of the deal, Attorney General Andrea Campbell's office and the Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources will not enforce any new restrictions on"transshipped" pork meat for at least six months. In that span, MDAR will explore a potential regulatory carveout explicitly exempting products that traverse the Bay State but are neither produced nor sold here.
In May, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the California law, and animal welfare groups that backed the Massachusetts ballot question campaign -- as well as restaurants and grocery stores whose sales would be affected -- have been waiting since then for clear answers on what to expect here. Almost all of the pork sold in Massachusetts comes from other states. According to statistics cited in one lawsuit challenging the Bay State's pig welfare law, Massachusetts residents consumed about 356 million pounds of retail pork in 2022, only about 1.9 million pounds of which was produced within its borders.
Plaintiffs reserved their legal rights to continue challenging the regulations on transshipped pork once the review concludes.
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