Jan 18 2011
A Hard-Boiled Catch-22
During the 2008 “Proposition 2” campaign in California, the Humane Society of the United States alleged that it had uncovered a “price fixing” scheme by egg farmers’ largest trade association. HSUS sued the trade group, and pressured the federal government to investigate. Now grocers are jumping on the bandwagon. WDAF-TV4 in Kansas City, Missouri reports (emphasis added):
Grocers claim the effort was coordinated through egg industry trade groups, which disguised the effort as an animal welfare program. The program required egg producers to eliminate hens by limiting the number of birds in each cage.
So let’s review. Allegedly, egg farmers were fixing prices by reducing the supply of eggs. And they did this by reducing the number of hens in each cage.
In other words, the egg industry is getting hammered for creating an animal welfare program that asked farmers to give hens more space to live in … which is exactly what HSUS wants?
What the heck is going on?
HSUS has been telling farmers to give hens more space for years. In fact, that’s really the only thing Proposition 2 was about. The measures related to veal and sows were largely window-dressing.
And HSUS now demands that California egg farmers go “cage-free,” giving hens at least 216 square inches of space. Proposition 2 only requires that hens must have enough space to engage in certain movements. One California producer created a new “enriched” cage with more space than a conventional cage, but HSUS won’t accept it.
When you think about it, Proposition 2 itself was a price-raising scheme. HSUS, by trying to force California farmers to go cage-free, would impose new capital, feed, and labor costs on them—expenses that in turn get passed on to consumers. Researchers at the University of California-Davis reported in July 2008 that eggs from non-caged hens cost at least 25 percent more at the grocery store.
Read this one carefully (again, emphasis added):
If a shift to non-cage production were to be imposed nationwide… [w]e would expect consumer costs to rise substantially, by at least 25 percent, and perhaps much more … Egg production in the United States would continue with reduced volumes, but consumers would pay more and consume fewer eggs because of the higher price.
Reduced volume, fewer eggs, higher prices. Sound familiar? That’s what HSUS is yammering about with its “price fixing” complaints, but its leaders want to impose the exact same thing.
Oh—and according to the Los Angeles Times, the egg farmers’ alleged “price fixing” may actually be legal under the 1922 Capper-Volstead Act, which exempts certain associations of farmers from anti-trust laws. Ultimately that’s a question for the lawyers to wrangle over. (Surely HSUS, with 30+ lawyers on staff, knows that.)
But the bottom line is that what the egg trade group was allegedly doing—giving hens more space and manipulating the price of eggs upward—is exactly what HSUS has been trying to do (albeit via a political mandate). It's almost like Wayne Pacelle didn't want the egg farmers to get any credit for leapfrogging him in the "humaner than thou" department.
Posted on 01/18/2011 at 09:30 AM by the HumaneWatch Team
Animal Agriculture • Courtroom Drama • Eggs • Gov't, Lobbying, Politics • (5) CommentsComments
Maggie- the CA legislature actually passed a bill to close the ‘loophole’ of having less expensive eggs from unknown sources (like Mexico) shipped in.
now, no shell eggs can be shipped into the state unless the producers meet the requirements of Prop 2, requirements no one is willing to specify. they were left intentionally vague so groups like HSUS could come in and say, ‘sorry, not good enough”. in fact, after a producer made millions of dollars in improvements, HSUS representatives claimed they were unacceptable and would have the producer shut down. they also went on record as stating that there is no need for specific language, since cage free is what they meant all the time.
no one there knows what to do and HSUS is laughing all the way to the bank.
I saw this report on Fox 4 and posted on my Facebook about it. “I call BS on the grocers’ lawsuit against the egg producers. The suit should be against H$U$ and other AR groups for pushing legislation that reduces the number of chickens farmers can afford to house.” A few friends who know what H$U$ really is posted that they agree, but others really believe the whole factory farm load of BS.
Agree with Maggie. As a resident of CA I am appalled at the amount of animal rights legislation that gets passed in CA. Keep in mind that once again it is the well-monied animal rights lobbying and propaganda machine influencing legislators ($$$$$) and largely urban-dwelling voters who buy the emotional garbage, with no knowledge whatsoever of animal husbandry. Once again as in other states it is the people involved in animal agriculture, breeding and raising of companion animals, horse owners et al who suffer as a result of this emotion-driven ignorant legislation.
Prop 2 has turned into a big joke. It was about “enriched cage systems”, not “cage-free”. How is it that facilities that are rebuilding housing systems to be in compliance with the “enriched system” mandate are now getting flak from wayne-o about not being “cage-free”. Prop 2 was not about “cage-free”. It was about housing systems that allow individual birds more room within cages.
An unfortunate legislative byproduct has been the passage of a state law mandating that shell eggs brought into the State from outside CA only come from facilities whose housing systems conform to Prop 2 standards (whatever those are). So ... no cheap eggs from Mexico. Seems to me there should be grounds for a lawsuit under the auspices of interfering with interstate commerce, but what do I know.
CA passes more touchy feely animal rights legislation than anywhere in the country. In spite of their laws aimed at harming all forms of animal agriculture the actual incidence of animal cruelty in CA is in line with the rest of the US. Animal Cruelty by state has been less than one act per million of population. No matter how many laws you pass, they can’t make everyone sane.
Comments are moderated, and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. Extremely lengthy comments and those that contain obscenities may be edited before they are posted.
Add a comment:
The governor of the state went on TV and begged people not to pass Prop 2 because it would increase the cost of eggs. What are the people in CA smoking? You give a business a huge hit in the pocket, reduce their income and then sue them because their product costs more. HELLO! Earth to CA. Next they will end up eating Mexican eggs as egg farmers will move to another state where the business climate isn’t run by animal rights activists using lies and spin to wreck animal agriculture. Once they have to hire lawyers to defend themselves they will pass that cost along as well. It’s madness.
Horse slaughter was outlawed due to animal rights activists and now horses are starving to death or being transported to Mexico or Canada for slaughter.
Dog breeders are being attacked with emotional appeals and actual attacks by animal rights activists, if allowed to continue, will eventually cause dogs to become very expensive if not extinct. We live in the USA and some of our own citizens are having their constitutional rights violated because they want to breed a dog by the actions of these groups. This should not be accepted by any US citizen. Legislators that are getting on board with them should be ashamed. We do notice by the way. The ex-gov in Ohio can tell you that.
Farmers both crop and animal agriculture are under attack by the same groups - either animal rights groups or “greenies”. If these fringe groups are successful we will find only the rich will be able to eat.
The US has one of the safest and most abundant food supplies in the world. Thank a farmer. Also thank them because they continue to be a major contributor towards balancing our trade deficit. They are successful and they know their business best. Protect them. The life you save may be your own.