King Amendment

Recent comments by Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack regarding the so called “King Amendment” has ruffled the feathers of many within the ag community. Introduced as the “Protect Interstate Commerce Act”, and contained in the House version of the farm bill, the amendment would prohibit states, such as California, from imposing its own standards of food production on other states. When asked about the amendment during a recent media conference call Vilsack said that the amendment is “a bit troublesome in that it would create legal challenges and confusion in the market place”. Those opposing the amendment worry that it would keep some states from implementing stronger food-safety standards than others, possibly resulting in one with a weaker safety record setting standards for all the other states. In defense of the amendment King states that his provision would not prohibit a state from adopting laws regulating ag products produced within its own borders, it would simply prohibit a state from excluding lawfully produced ag products from other states from being sold within its borders and “ensure that radical organizations like the HSUS are prohibited from establishing a patchwork of restrictive state laws aimed at slowly suffocating production agriculture out of existence.”