One State. One Prayer. Rain for NC’s Farms

June 27, 2026
Friends,

North Carolina farmers have been facing a difficult, months-long drought.

This Sunday, June 28, we invite you to join us for a statewide Day of Prayer. Agriculture is North Carolina’s leading industry, supporting our economy, our communities, and countless families across the state. As farmers continue watching the skies and working through challenging conditions, we hope you’ll join us in making time this Sunday, June 28 to pray for rain, for our farmers, and for the families and communities that depend on them.

Keeping an eye on anti-ag activists

A group calling itself “The American Meat Producers Association” is running a $30 million ad campaign to oppose federal legislation that would preempt California’s aggressively anti-animal agriculture law known as “Proposition 12.” Despite the group’s name, the lobbyist Holly Bice who runs their operation has a history of working for anti-meat activist groups like the Humane Society Legislative Fund and Animal Wellness Action. She also shares a home with John Goodwin, a former spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, a group designated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a domestic terrorist group. 

California’s Proposition 12 requires pork sold in California to come from sows not housed in gestation crates, regardless of where it was raised, including here in North Carolina, one of the nation’s leading pork producing states. USDA economists found the law raised retail pork prices an average of 20 percent in California, and a 2026 study found consumers have paid more than $400 million in higher pork prices since the law took full effect.

This campaign directly targets an opportunity for the Farm Bill to provide relief to pork farmers in NC and across the country that are already facing historic challenges. We’ve written about these challenges often over the last few months; historic drought, rising costs due to global trade uncertainty and war, increased labor expenses, and more. 

Our NC farmers know and face these challenges firsthand every day, and there is no question that they need relief. These activists of course don’t care, and will stop at nothing to eliminate animal agriculture as we know it in pursuit of their extreme agenda. 
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Updates from Raleigh & Washington, DC

The NC Farm Act is now law. Gov. Stein signed Senate Bill 401 into law this week, completing a bipartisan effort to advance much-needed reforms for NC’s farmers and rural communities, like stronger agricultural water protections, relief from burdensome hog farm regulations, and an extension of the conservation tax credit through 2031. 

We applaud the lawmakers who worked hard to get this bill across the finish line, including Senate Agriculture, Energy, and Environment Committee Chairman Sen. Brent Jackson, House Agriculture and Environment Chairman Rep. Jimmy Dixon, and Sen. Lisa Stone Barnes, and we thank Gov. Stein for signing it into law. NC’s farmers need this relief.

Meanwhile, in Washington, DC US Senate Ag Committee Chairman Sen. John Boozman (R-AR) released a discussion draft of a new Farm Bill that his committee and members of the Senate will review and consider over the coming weeks. 

The 900-page draft builds on the $68 billion in farm safety net investments secured in last year’s reconciliation package, and includes expanded support for commodity programs, crop insurance, rural development, and animal health programs. 

For NC’s pork producers, however, there is a significant omission. The discussion does not as yet include language to preempt California’s Prop. 12, the same law the above-mentioned American Meat Producers Association is fighting for.

The National Pork Producers Council, joined by over 330 farm groups, called on Senate leaders to include a provision in the Farm Bill to preempt California’s Prop. 12 before any final vote. NPPC also specifically thanked NC’s own Senators Ted Budd and Thom Tillis for continuing to fight for pork producers on this issue. 

Chairman Boozman is targeting a markup in the Senate Ag Committee before the August recess, and we will continue to monitor this closely and keep our readers informed every step of the way.

In other significant news from Washington, DC, the US Supreme Court ruled 7-2 this week that farmers and the companies that supply them with crop protection tools cannot be sued under state law for failing to add warnings beyond what the EPA requires on approved product labels. This is a major win for farmers. When the EPA approves a product label based on science and a rigorous federal regulatory process, that approval should mean something and should not be undermined by conflicting legal requirements from state to state. We hope this ruling renews momentum for the liability protections that we will continue to advocate for at every opportunity.