States Fight California's Chicken Cage Law

[RandallFan]

California voters felt the same way, and six years ago they passed , requiring California producers to provide cages that are almost twice as large as most chickens have now. The Legislature followed that with a law requiring that all eggs sold in California be raised under those conditions.
"We can't have our farmers and ranchers at the whim of California's voters, and that's why we filed the lawsuit," says Bruning.

Their chief complaint is that their egg producers must either spend millions to comply with California restrictions, or face being shut out of that enormous market.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/03/07/286811197/poultry-farmers-to-fight-back-on-california-cage-free-egg-law

http://steveking.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/king-litigation-was-inevitable-but-it-isnt-the-only-option

http://www.bleedingheartland.com/diary/6794/branstad-joins-lawsuit-against-california-law-on-egg-production

[Zippyjuan]

Just go cage free. "Cage Free Organic " chicken farm (these could be called "Free Range" since they can go outside- "Cage Free" doesn't have to allow that) :
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2010/09/30/2013043094.jpg

But they can go outside if they want to. Curfew runs from 10:30 am to dusk. Doesn't look like many want to.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2010/09/30/2013043097.jpg

http://seattletimes.com/html/picturethis/2013043103_thenewchickendebatecagefreeandorganicor other.html

Law says they must have " access" to the outside- doesn't say how many chicken per area or even how big the outside must be or the door to get there.

[Weston White]

And I suppose those would be the same farmers that do no qualify for the Global Animal Partnership's 5-Step™ Animal Welfare Rating Standards (http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/about-our-products/quality-standards/animal-welfare-standards)?

[Origanalist]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2010/09/30/2013043094.jpg

That's disgusting, but it's still not as disgusting as stacks upon stacks of cages.

Get your eggs from a local source.

[oyarde]

Well , :) I sell eggs . LOL

[Spikender]

If California voters had a problem with it, they should've just stopped buying eggs from producers that used "small" cages instead of using the force of the Government against them.

I would say that the egg producers could always protest by just refusing to sell eggs in California, thus creating a shortage there, but I'm not sure if they could take that kind of hit to their businesses.

Kind of a lose-lose situation for them.

[Origanalist]

Well , :) I sell eggs . LOL

That's what I'm talking about.

[tod evans]

This is just insane!

The simple fact that some idiot, let alone a bunch of them, would attempt to use government to regulate chickens.

California deserves to go bankrupt.