Farmers Applaud Luna, Garbarino, Fitzpatrick & Costa for Farm Bill Amendment to Strip Pork Policy Rider
“We call on Speaker Mike Johnson, Leader Steve Scalise, and the House Rules Committee to allow a vote on Luna’s amendment and send the SOB back to China where it came from.”— Jonathan Buttram, President of the AL Contract Poultry Growers Assoc.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, the Organization for Competitive Markets and Competitive Markets Action applauded Reps. Anna Paulina Luna, R-FL, Andrew Garbarino, R-NY, Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pam, and Jim Costa, D-CA, for introducing a bipartisan amendment to the U.S. House Farm Bill set to be voted on and debated on the House floor next week. The measure is also cosponsored by Reps. Nancy Mace, R-SC, Mike Lawler, R-NY, and Jeff Van Drew, R-NJ.
The Luna-led amendment (#28), would strip out a poison pill rider that mirrors H.R. 4673, the so-called Save Our Bacon (SOB) Act, championed by House Agriculture Committee Chairman Glenn Thompson, R-PA, and Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-IA, and backed by the Chinese-controlled Smithfield Foods, the largest pork producer in the U.S. The language Amendment #28 seeks to strip out, would hand over American pork production to the Chinese and nullify California’s Prop 12, and Massachusetts’ Question 3, and more than 500 state agriculture laws across the country that protect small farmers and ranchers in the meat, dairy, and seafood sectors.
Amendment #28 follows a series of Republican Congressional letters from 2023, 2024, and 2025 led by Luna, Garbarino, Mace, Fitzpatrick, and newly appointed Agriculture Committee Member Rep. David Valadao, R-CA, urging Thompson to exclude the SOB language. The collection of letters were signed by current Reps. Andy Biggs, R-AZ, Carol Miller, R-WV, Tim Burchett, R-TN, Buddy Carter, R-GA, Gus Bilirakis, R-FL, Tom Kean, R-NJ, Chris Smith, R-NJ, Carlos Gimenez, R-FL, Byron Donalds, R-FL, Vern Buchanan, R-FL, Lance Gooden, R-TX, as well as former Reps. Alex Mooney, R-WV, Majorie Taylor Green, R-GA, Mike Garcia, R-CA, Matt Gaetz, R-FL, Matt Rosendale, R-MT, Bob Good, R-VA, and Mike Waltz, R-FL, now President Trump’s U.N. Ambassador.
More than 2,000 farms, advocacy groups, and conservative action groups such as Moms for America, as well as Texas Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller, country music star John Rich, General Mike Flynn, and others, have been vocally opposed to the SOB and those voices have been completely ignored by Chairman Thompson and his Chinese cohorts.
“We applaud Rep. Luna and her colleagues for their tremendous leadership and work to kill the SOB that would strengthen China’s grip on American agriculture,” said Taylor Haynes, president at the Organization for Competitive Markets and founder Wyoming Independent Cattlemen’s Association. “American family farmers are in peril and it’s a David and Goliath situation these brave Members of Congress are empowering us to win.”
“As American farmers, we have a duty to feed our nation with food that is safe and produced in the best possible manner,” said Mike Schultz, founder of the Kansas Cattlemen’s Association and vice-president at the Organization for Competitive Markets. “That means standing together in the face of Chinese threats like these. This isn’t just about the one industry. It’s about every one of us and the very plates on our kitchen table.”
“Chairman Glenn Thompson’s sellout to China must be stripped out of the farm bill or the measure should go down in flames, and we will do everything in our power to stop it,” said Marty Irby, president of Competitive Markets Action and board secretary for the Organization for Competitive Markets. “We must protect and put America’s food safety and security first, and we applaud Luna and the other Members of Congress who are leading the charge to defeat this terrible legislation.”
“Rep. Luna and her colleagues in Congress fighting against the SOB are heroes to the American producers that Chairman Thompson has sold out to foreign conglomerates,” said Jonathan Buttram, President of the Alabama Contract Poultry Growers Association and Treasurer at the Organization for Competitive Markets. “We call on Speaker Mike Johnson, Leader Steve Scalise, and the House Rules Committee to allow a vote on Luna’s amendment and send the SOB back to China where it came from.”
The Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit based in Lincoln, Nebraska. The foundation of the Organization for Competitive Markets is to fight for competitive markets in agriculture for farmers, ranchers and rural communities. True competition reduces the need for economic regulation. Our mission, and our duty, is to define and advocate the proper role of government in the agricultural economy as a regulator and enforcer of rules necessary for markets that are fair, honest, accessible and competitive for all citizens.