‘Rotten Egg Bill’: Would Uniform Standard for Hen Cages Cripple Chicken Industry?
- Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:11am by
Liz Klimas
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(Photo: AP/Charlie Neibergall)
Last week, seven Senators proposed legislation that would standardize the size of cages for egg-laying hens across the country in an effort to allow for eggs to be sold across state lines. Although this may sound like a win-win — both for the hens and those distributing eggs — others in the agriculture industry — and some animal rights groups — are up in arms over the bill.
The bill was sponsored with bipartisan support and is also backed by the Humane Society of the United States and Egg Producers United.
“This legislation will help ensure the American consumers continue to have a wide variety and uninterrupted supply of eggs at affordable prices,” Gene Gregory, president of United Egg Producers, said in a statement provided by the Humane Society. “Our industry is being endangered by the growing patchwork of differing and contradictory state laws and ballot initiatives that are impeding the free flow of interstate commerce in eggs that is so vital to grocers, restaurateurs, food manufacturers and consumers.”
The Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2012 proposes giving white hens no less than 124 square inches of space and brown hens no less than 144 squre inches within the next 15 to 18 years. Currently, most hens get 67 square inches. The legislation would affect more than 280 million hens in the United States.
The Poultry Site reports the Humane Farming Association being “outraged” over the bill. The HFA, according to its campaign website Stop the Rotten Egg Bill, is against the proposed legislation because it keeps hens in cages — instead of “free range” as it would prefer. It even produced this short, dramatic animation in opposition of the bill:
The HFA and others also take issue with the fact that the legislation would “preempt state laws [saying it] is a direct assault upon egg laying hens, voters, and states’ rights,” HFA Director Bradley Miller said. He told The Poultry Site that the industry is “seeking to establish egg factory cages as a national standard that could never be challenged or changed by state law or public vote.”
Even those in other parts of the agriculture industry oppose the bill. The National Pork Producers Council, the American Farm Bureau, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and the National Turkey Federation are among them. National Hog Farmer reports these groups and others are concerned the proposed legislation could lead to other bills that would affect their livestock.
“My biggest concern with H.R. 3798 is that outside groups with no knowledge of the industry will be dictating my livelihood and potentially compromising the welfare of my livestock,” President of the National Cattleman’s Beef Association J.D. Alexander said. “This legislation creates a slippery slope. Today, it’s egg farmers but tomorrow it could be any other segment of animal agriculture and we’re not going to let that happen.”
The Hill reports senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), who introduced the legislation, saying the “patchwork” of state laws affecting egg distribution in its current state hinders interstate commerce:
“As states with disparate standards continue to protect their own egg producers by banning the sale of eggs from States with lower or no standards, a complicated web of state laws will impair interstate commerce.”
A similar bill has already been introduced in the House.
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Comments (59)
deerfawn
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 12:23pmall this over regulation does is put small businesses out of business and makes monopolies out of a few larger businesses. The consumer pays more at the store, and more taxes to pay for more regulators. No real good comes from them.
Report Post »lukerw
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 2:15pmOnce the Fascist get down to demanding Conformity of Domesticated LiveStock… it means their Plans to Robotise you are already in Place!
Report Post »Secret Squirrel
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 11:23am.
Report Post »“no less than 124 square inches of space and brown hens no less than 144 square inches ”
Sounds like discrimination to me. Or is it affirmative action for hens?
Secret Squirrel
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 11:19am.
Obama wants to destroy the American farmer.
You should not be surprised.
Look at other attempts.
1. Farmers must have CLD commercial licenses to drive a tractor. (failed)
2. Kids can’t work on a farm. (failed)
3. Chickens can’t be in cages. (probably fail, but they won’t quit.)
What’s next? Cows must each have limos?
Goal, only three farmers, Monsanto, Archer-Daniels, and Co-Agra..
Report Post »Ryykk
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 10:52amA slippery slope indeed. Soon the government will have the requirements as they have in Europe. They require that someone play with the animals with toys several times a day. In fact most farms now employ a full time entertainer for farm animals.
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 11:20amYeah…who was the DUMB-CLUCK who thought this one up?
Report Post »Lone Ranger
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 11:57pmA full-time entertainer? Well, there’s hope for Al Franken after he leaves the Senate!
Report Post »txannie
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 10:34amFirst, you’re gonna have to change the local ordinances so that you can keep backyard chickens when these new laws go into effect and run most of the larger farms out of business or eggs are gonna get real expensive. I know they don’t want a bunch of noisy roosters, but you don’t need a rooster to make eggs, just chicks. (However, hearing a rooster crow stimulates a hen to lay better) But, on a different slant….Can anyone explain why I can sell eggs from my free-range flock at the local farmers market, but I can’t donate them to the local homeless shelter kitchen or the food pantry? Doesn’t make sense to me.
Report Post »cliffchism
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 9:06amI’m all for bettering the living conditions of the chicken. I raise free-range chicken, myself. But, this law is not the way to do it. First, they are outlawing medicated feed (which is good, but has its consequences). Then, they are mandating that the chicken have more breathing room (which is good, but has its consequences). Medicated feed is needed because the chickens are so close together, that if one gets sick, they all get sick. So, they also mandate that the chickens get more living space. But, it’s really not enough room to make a difference in the sickness level. The chickens are still too close together. If you double the allowable space between the chickens, you halve the capacity of the chicken house. Now, you’ve also halved the profitability of the farm. He won‘t survive and you won’t be eating chicken. You can’t fix a problem that has been developing for over 50 years with a single swipe of the pen, without decimating the manner in which the industry is run, and without decimating the industry. So, if this passes, you can expect to see a lot of chicken houses being boarded up. FWIW, I’m already seeing it.
Report Post »Brooke Lorren
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 4:05pmI agree. I generally don’t buy conventional eggs (I pay for the free range organic eggs), but I also don’t agree in this regulation. The market would change if people chose to buy the other kinds of eggs.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 8:41amWe have the FOX guarding the chicken coop.
Report Post »hidden_lion
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 9:02amBuy your own chickens. Problem solved. You will have vastly superior eggs for a fraction of the cost, and they won’t be 30 days old before you get them from the store. There is no comparison in the flavor from home grown eggs.
Report Post »EqualJustice
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 9:15amMy best friend supplies me with eggs from his chickens! You should see HIS chicken coup. It’s like a home for hens with family photos hung, heated, with piped in music and electric doors and auto feeders. HAHA It’s more of a hobby for him Spring through Fall. GOOD eggs, though! :)
Report Post »country_hick
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 12:42pmHidden_lion:
“Buy your own chickens. Problem solved. You will have vastly superior eggs for a fraction of the cost, and they won’t be 30 days old before you get them from the store. There is no comparison in the flavor from home grown eggs.”
Superior eggs – Agreed
Fraction of the cost – Disagree. 8 layers, 6 ducks, 3 geese plus one rooster and gander – $18/bag of Layena every 2 weeks and that is free ranging and getting all the “bad” vegetables the local super market is disposing of. That is a dozen chicken and duck eggs a day with goose adding 6 every 3 days. Add in grit and oyster shell, bedding, waterers, feeders, lighting for winter eggs, getting up every day to take care of them, gathering eggs 2 – 3 times a day, dinding someone to take care of them if you want to take a couple of days off…
Won’t be 30 days old – agreed although we freeze a lot, have some oiled in the basement, sell the excess for $3.00 for dz chicken, $3.50 for dz duck, and $4.50 for 1/2 dz goose. (And having several people get given the excess and the good karma that brings).
No comparison to store bought – No bout adoubt it!
But is it worth it? Absolutely!!!!!
Report Post »freedomcatcher
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 8:37amThe small independent family farm being raided again.
Report Post »AMENDMENT
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 9:14amNo this is not about small family farms, this is about large family chicken farms that try to keep the cost of raising birds down to a minimum, by using less manpower and more machinery (Egg Belt/Conveyor Belts). All the small chicken farms in my area have the birds free ranging by day and in a coop at night, just like i do :)
Report Post »S2art999
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 8:23amNext they will unionize the chickens. Overnight it will increase the union rolls ten-fold, but union members will not change a bit.
Report Post »G-WHIZ
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 11:22amAnd this is why they get the big….BUK–BUK—BUK-BUK-BUK….BDDDDAAKIT!!
Report Post »Psychosis
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 8:16amThe bill was sponsored with bipartisan support and is also backed by the Humane Society of the United States and Egg Producers United
the key here is not the animal rights loons, it is the LARGEST EGG PRODUCER IN THE COUNTRY USING LEGISLATION TO TRY TO ELIMINATE ITS SMALLER COMPETITORS
EGG PRODUCERS UNITED can afford to ( and already has ) put its hens in larger cages
this will force its competitors to expend money and resources putting some of them out of business
Report Post »Melika
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 9:01amYou are absolutely right. It also makes the federal government the overseer of thousands of family egg producers. There is a growing trend for individual families to own a few chickens and this puts those paid thugs right in their back yard.
Report Post »MAMMY_NUNN
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 10:42amIt‘s more humane and cost effective to outsource are eggs and chickens where we can’t see or know how the chickens are kept and fed sorta out of sight out of mind philosophy.
Report Post »ALL-IN
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:46amThere are way to many law on the books now. Any further laws being passed by these morons in Washington are for no other purpose than controll over every aspect of our lives and our businesses. What we need is a decade of repeal. I know of 10 Laws that cover all that need be covered. Politicians and Lawyers are the ENEMYS of FREEDOM . Bankers get their power from people that spend what they have not yet earned. They lure you down a path and into their snare. From that point on they controll you and there goes a large portion of your freedom. FREEDOM is the most valuable thing a person can possess. It seems many of us have traded it in on stuff. You don’t know what you had until it is gone. If you put Freedom first all that is good will follow. It will flush out all that is evil. Just ask yourself before you make any desision, DOES THIS MAKE ME/US MORE FREE OR LESS FREE. You can trust freedom, it means you no harm !!!
Report Post »SgtB
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:37amDid I miss something? I thought that eggs were the cheapest form of animal sourced protein on the supermarket shelf. You can buy several dozen eggs for less than 8 bucks where I live. So why do they even think there is a “need” for this bill? Once again, the animal rights lobbyists are at it. I do think that the way they raise hens for eggs is egregious. But chickens are property and animals and it would not do well for anyone to take the cheapest source of protein and double or triple its price.
Report Post »beenaroundyaknow
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:32amThis is so much crap. What will the changeover cost the producers in new cages and other equipment? Free-range chickens are a figment of the imagination. They may have “access” to an open pen (which few actually use) but for 6 of the 8 weeks of their lives they are in traditional poultry houses. They are kept inside while young to reduce the possibility of disease contamination and reduce the amount of antibiotics they must be fed.
Report Post »Tractorboy
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 2:50pmI think your confusing layers and meat chichens, meat chichens only go 8 to 12 weeks, layers on the other hand can live 10 years or more. Our layers are let out of their run during the day to free range, I saw one of ours eating a toad that got run over in the drive, yum. Commercial operations who keep the lights on can use up the layer chichens in a couple of years or so. As far as eggs prices going up, yeah, eggs are a cheap food source high in protein, way shouldn’t the goverment also screw that up? Uncle Sam burns our corn in our fuel tanks, how has that worked for the price of corn?
Report Post »sawbuck
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:14amYeah because when the government stick it’s nose in something..
It always turns out well for the people…
I’m guessing they are not familiar with the term …. “mass production”
since “bigger cages” Means moving “ Less Quantity” of a product …
Means “higher prices” …for the consumer .
Not to mention moving livestock across state lines (bird-flu ring a bell ).
But I’m going with.. “TAXES” …!!
I smell chicken **** …TAXES… coming out of the “Foxes” in D.C.
That are literally … “In the Hen house”…!
Report Post »justangry
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:14am“Bipartisan” “Interstate Commerce”… Those two words alone means someone is getting screwed. I’m assuming it will be the yeoman farmer, which Jefferson thought would be the norm of American society.
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:10am“a direct assault upon egg laying hens, voters, and states’ rights,” HFA Director Bradley Miller said.
Okay, he certainly has a valid point about the shaky legal logic of trying to claim that this falls under federal authority. But how is it an “assault” on the chickens? The most it mandates is a space of one foot by one foot per chicken. I don’t think that any chickens who are currently crammed into even less space then that, will suffer too greatly from the “direct assault” of giving them a whole square foot to move around. Does he think that these are acutely agoraphobic chickens who will experience crippling panic attacks if they are more than an inch away from another chicken?
Report Post »kickagrandma
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:00amHEY! Can we use this useless bill on congress itself??????
Report Post »mom4times
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:00amglad i raise my own…..eggs…dont have to buy the store junk
Report Post »Meyvn
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 8:54amSame here. They run back and forth from outside to inside and have their choice of 2700 cubic inch brooder boxes. Sometimes they share even though there are empty ones available. Big Brother should stay in his place, and it’s not in our chicken houses.
Report Post »blackyb
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:47amBy all means kill unborn human babies as they clean out chicken coops and make chickens comfortable; is that what they are suggesting? Those people are about as caring as a viper or sharks
Report Post »on a feeding frenzy. They are crazy to the point of being rabid.
Noonien_Soong
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:44amI like my beef rare to medium rare. With that being said, we have entered into an era of “Over Done” where the state condones regulations without personal responsibility. This in effect negates a persons individual interaction of ones own life and the own life styles..
There is a serious lack of education of principles of responsibilities. It seems the “Golden Rules” and simple things like Aesop’s fables have been thrown by the wayside instead for instant gratification. Where are the common senses of living?
Report Post »DagneyT
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:58amIt is the height of arrogance to impose legislation on a field of endeavor in which not one of the legislators has any experience! If they would stick to what they actually know, they’d serve a couple of terms and go home!
Report Post »Optimist4now
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:31amDagneyt
If they stuck to what they actually know, they wouldn’t be where they are.
Report Post »Hoax And Chains
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:41amDoes this mean I’ll have to take my free range chickens out of their field of grass and place them in one of these uniform cages?
Report Post »Chet Hempstead
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:55amNo.
Report Post »Stoic one
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 7:33amthe fed will probably make it illegal for you to own them.
Report Post »Hoax And Chains
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:40amAny opportunity to stick their noses in where it does not belong, you know the federal government will do it… and this just opens the door for more.
Report Post »Hoax And Chains
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:38amThis is the same Federal government that pays farmers NOT to grow produce above a certain amount so prices will not go down in the market. Farmers are paid subsidies to not plant some of their fields.
Report Post »kentuckypatriot
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:30amIf Diane Feinstein had anything to do with this, you know it’s going to hurt the egg producers somehow.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:27am“help ensure the American consumers continue to have a wide variety and uninterrupted supply of eggs at affordable prices”
Oh yes .. right .. more regulation promotes “affordable prices” .. who are they trying to kid? . and are all egg farmers supposed to put in new cages ?. .. I don’t see that keeping prices “affordable” Who sells these cages .. are they sponsoring this??? These bureaucrats need to stop trying to micromanage businesses .. and mind their own business … cutting their own wasteful spending, etc. and getting the H out of our lives and businesses.
Report Post »old white guy
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:34amuniform regulations are something that communists love. unfortunately such communist regulations will not improve production of anything¸let alone eggs.
Report Post »RedHarley
Posted on June 1, 2012 at 6:36amThe key here is that it is being promoted by the “Humane Society of the United States”.
Report Post »This group is NOT doing anything that will help the consumer, the farmers or better facilitate interstate commerce of meat and dairy products.