California Is Standing in the Way of Lower Food Prices

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, egg prices for consumers are expected to rise by 20 percent this year. Democrats are using the opportunity to launch political attacks against the Trump administration for failing to lower food prices. But as Vice President JD Vance told Face the Nation, “prices are going to come down but it’s going to take a little bit of time.”

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Similarly, President Donald Trump will need longer than a few weeks—as well as the help of Congress—to reverse high food inflation that dates back to 2021. And to its credit, the administration has hit the ground running.

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order directing all federal agencies to address the broader cost of living crisis by thinning government regulations. Expanding the housing supply, cutting administrative hoops for healthcare, and fostering job creation so that wage gains better align with inflation are a few of the goals.

The executive action also directs agencies to “eliminate harmful, coercive ‘climate’ policies that increase the costs of food and fuel.” Together with Trump’s emergency declaration, the Democrats’ backwards energy-and-climate agenda is thankfully being reversed—a move that will go a long way towards moderating consumer prices.

After all, the price of every product in the grocery store, ranging from beef to apples and cereal to pasta, is impacted by the energy economy.

Products don’t magically appear on store shelves. Energy is required to make, package, store, and transport food to consumers—a cost that rolls downhill to the checkout counter. Imagine the price tag associated with moving oranges from Florida, almonds from California, or bananas from South America?

But the federal government doesn’t have a monopoly on perpetrating government overreach. Harmful state policies are also contributing to food price inflation. The chief culprit is Proposition 12 in California, which changes how animals must be raised. Coming into full effect last year, the policy is creating a national mess.

For one, it prohibits California farmers from producing eggs and pork using cost-effective, veterinarian-approved techniques that are used by a vast majority of farmers across the country. While states have the right to regulate certain farming practices within their borders, California took it a step further. The policy bans California grocery stores and other businesses from selling the products—even if they are from another state.

California has a vast consumer base that farmers can’t ignore. Therefore, farmers outside the state are economically compelled to cater to the regulation—compliance that is extremely expensive.

The Washington Policy Center, for example, estimates it would cost an average pork farmer $3.5 million to align operations with the new rules. And with the vast majority of farmers operating outside of California, Proposition 12 is effectively a nationwide mandate that translates to higher food prices for American families.

The federal courts have been critical of California’s overreach that extends beyond state boundaries. And so has President Trump, who noted in September, “I will use all authority under the Constitution and U.S. law to stop efforts by California – or other states – that hurt American farmers in other states. I will also direct the Department of Justice and the Department of Agriculture to actively monitor – and strongly oppose – any further efforts to limit the ability of American farmers to sell their products anywhere in this great country.”

But at the end of the day, the power to fix the policy—and others like it in the future—is in the hands of our elected officials in the House and Senate.

The Trump administration is pushing an aggressive policy agenda to improve the lives of ordinary American families. Bringing down food prices is—and should be—a big component of that effort. But the White House can’t do it alone via executive action. His allies in Congress need to step up.

Sean Spicer was the White House press secretary for the first Trump administration. He is also the host of the Sean Spicer Show.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.