Ching Lee

California Farm Bureau

Impacts of California's Proposition 12 – which sets minimum spacing requirements for breeding pigs, egg-laying hens and veal calves – have rippled from farms to fairs this year, as young people who raise project animals for exhibition grapple with implications of the new law.

The biggest impact is expected to be felt by people raising hogs as the state implements the final phase of Proposition 12, approved by California voters in 2018. Specific requirements for veal calves and egg-laying hens went into effect in 2020. As of Jan. 1 this year, additional...