Most Iowa voters oppose bid to override state animal welfare laws, poll shows

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Voters in the key US farm state of Iowa overwhelmingly reject efforts to weaken state animal welfare laws, according to a new poll gauging sentiment on a key nationwide farm policy debate. 

The survey of 625 registered voters in Iowa, which is the epicenter of hog farming, comes as Congress debates including provisions in the new Farm Bill that target two state laws — California’s Proposition 12 and Massachusetts’ Question 3. Both state laws require that hogs, calves and chickens that are on confined farms or sold in the states are raised with adequate room to turn around, lie down and extend their limbs.

The laws largely impact hog farmers that use gestation crates, which are metal cages that often so tightly confine animals that they cannot turn around or move much.

Language to weaken those animal welfare requirements was included in the draft Farm Bill released in May by the US House of Representatives, but was omitted in the Senate draft released last month. The measure remains the subject of debate as the bill is finalized and could be revived, critics fear. The Senate is expected to mark up the bill prior to its August recess.

The Iowa poll, conducted by Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy and released last week by the nonpartisan group Farm Action Fund, found Iowa voters oppose a weakening of the animal welfare laws by a nearly two-to-one margin. The poll found that 45% of those surveyed opposed Save Our Bacon Act legislation, while 23% supported it. When voters were given more information about the bill, 52% opposed the bill, and 30% supported it. 

Anna Pesek, co-owner of Over the Moon Farm in Delaware County, Iowa, said Save Our Bacon legislation “cements a system that no one, besides a handful of major corporations, benefits from.”

“As a pig farmer I believe that pigs deserve better, consumers deserve better, workers deserve better, farmers deserve better and communities deserve better,” said Pesek, who raises around 150 Berkshire hogs every year without the use of confinement or gestation crates. 

“As a pig farmer I believe that pigs deserve better, consumers deserve better, workers deserve better, farmers deserve better and communities deserve better.” -Anna Pesek, Over the Moon Farm

The House provision that preempted those state laws has garnered broad support from meat industry associations that argue such state laws increase consumer costs and hurt farmers.  

The poll came on the heels of a new report from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) that found the number of confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Iowa increased 13% over the past six years. Those CAFOs, the majority of which are hog farms, account for 29% of Iowa’s animal farms but 60% of its manure.

Iowa slaughtered more than 39 million hogs last year, roughly 30% of the nationwide market, according to the US Department of Agriculture’s (USDA).

Support for Save Our Bacon Act 

The National Pork Producers Council, headquartered in Iowa, has led the charge against California’s Proposition 12, including spearheading a failed legal challenge that led the US Supreme Court to uphold the legality of Proposition 12. Wendy Brannen, a spokesperson for the Council, said the new poll does not test the “narrow question before Congress … instead, it measures reactions to various disputed characterizations about both the specific language in the bipartisan farm bill that fixes Proposition 12, and about Proposition 12 itself.”

She said the provision that was included in the House Farm Bill draft deals with a very narrow question: “should one state be allowed to dictate livestock production standards for farmers across the country who operate in a national market? There is broad support for reining in the overreach created by Proposition 12 and protecting a national market,” she added. 

Joe Maxwell, president of Farm Action Fund, defended the poll question framing. “The core to us in this argument is the fact that the federal government believes that it knows better than states,” he said. 

Iowa lawmakers have been at the forefront of Save Our Bacon Act legislative attempts. Congresswoman Ashley Hinson, who is currently running for Senate, introduced Save Our Bacon Act legislation in the House last year and is pushing for its inclusion in the Farm Bill. 

“I fought tooth and nail to make sure this Farm Bill delivers for Iowa, including pushing back on California’s Prop 12 overreach—stopping out-of-touch activists from dictating how Iowa farmers do their jobs and driving up costs for pork producers,” Hinson said in a statement of the Save Our Bacon Act provision in the House Farm Bill draft.

After Iowans were told of Hinson’s support for the legislation in the new poll, 64% said that it made them view her less favorably. Pesek echoed this view. 

“I find it deeply disappointing to see the energy my own representatives are using to push Save Our Bacon, rather than working to address the whole slew of crises that small and mid-scale independent farmers are facing,” she said. “The open, competitive, independent hog market has been decimated since the 1990s … we see more and more pigs being raised in Iowa, by less and less farmers.”

Maxwell said the polling sends a message to lawmakers. “We wanted to send (Iowa) Congresswoman Hinson … a message. And sure enough, that’s what the poll said — that she’s out of touch with her constituents.”

State’s rights 

Critics of Save Our Bacon Act legislation say that rejecting Save Our Bacon Act legislation is not only about animal welfare but about preserving the rights of states to enact their own laws. The new Iowa poll aligned with this — 74% of those polled said states should be able to enact food and agriculture standards, compared to 19% that said Congress should set a national standard.

Last week more than 700 veterinarians from around the country sent a letter to Congressional leaders asking to leave out any Save Our Bacon Act provisions from the final Farm Bill. 

“This harmful legislation would strip states and localities of their rights to pass a wide range of measures protecting animal welfare and public health,” they wrote.

Featured image: A town hall event at Northern Iowa Area Community College in Mason City, Iowa in 2025. (Credit: Rob Sand for Governor/flickr)