California Voters Demand to Pay A LOT More For Eggs

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In 08 they demanded all eggs chickens have double the space, and now eggs are about 50% more expensive. Fitting. Ya gotta be willing to pay for the things you want I say.

I will happily chow on my much cheaper breakfast.

Quote:

Proposition 2, as it's called, required eggs in California to come from chickens that have enough room to fully extend their limbs and turn around freely. It was a direct challenge to the egg industry, because most egg-laying chickens can't do that in standard henhouses, where they live in small cages, five or 10 birds to a cage.

State officials had to figure out how to translate Proposition 2's requirement into specific regulations. California's state veterinarian, Dr. Annette Jones, turned to animal welfare experts at the University of California, Davis. "We actually did hire some scientists at UC Davis to do a study for us, to kind of give us their feel, based on some field trials that they did, of how much space" the law required, Jones says.

In the end, they decided that each chicken is legally entitled to at least 116 square inches of floor space.

Some have tried to challenge the California rules in court. So far, that's failed. Jones says that other egg producers have built new henhouses — either free-range houses, where chickens can walk around on the floor, or houses with larger "enriched cages," featuring perches and enclosed hutches where chickens can lay their eggs. "In general, poultry farmers are trying to move in that direction, to provide more space and the ability for their hens to exhibit more natural behaviors," she says.

But building new barns takes time and costs a lot of money. Fong, from the grocers association, says most egg producers so far have taken a simpler, cheaper route. "They are complying with the new standards by reducing the flock size," he says. They've kept their cages for now, but they've halved the number of birds in each cage.

This means, of course, fewer chickens in each house and fewer eggs delivered to supermarkets

People in the egg industry say that this is one reason the egg industry in California has gone into a sharp decline. According to government statistics, the number of egg-laying chickens in California has fallen by 23 percent over the past two years

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/12/29/373802858/how-californias-new-rules-are-scrambling-the-egg-industry

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Type: Discussion • Score: 4 • Views: 926 • Replies: 13

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@hawkeye10,

My willingness to pay for better a chicken standard of living is limited. Let them pay for it themselves.....if they can . Drunk

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@hawkeye10,

Quote:

Ramsdell has 1.3 million birds living in seven hen houses, he said. He’s building two more that will be complete by February, and is planning another two soon after that. He estimates the expense of meeting California’s standard will boost the industry’s production costs by about 25 cents a dozen.

“We’ve been watching this coming on for the last five years, and most people have been in denial,” he said.

Rising Consumption

The price disruptions have arrived just as consumption is increasing. Rising prices for beef, pork and chicken have made eggs a more popular source of protein. The average American will eat 266 eggs next year, up from 261 this year and the most since 1980, according the the Egg Industry Center in Ames, Iowa.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-12/egg-market-disrupted-by-bigger-cages-boosting-price-commodities.html

25 cents per dozen in extra cost is a nice start. Now lets add in everybodies profit take as they tend to work on a percentage of product value basis, and milking the supply and demand curve in a era of shortage by design, and we should be able to get the dozens of eggs at safeway up at least 80-90 cents, probably more!

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I'm willing to pay more for eggs. Mostly I already do since I buy them from my neighbor. I think they taste much better and are worth the extra cost. When they don't have eggs I buy them from a farm stand down the street.

I'm totally willing to pay more for food knowing that the animals were treated humanely.

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@boomerang,

true, the difference between the look and flavour of my uncles hobby farm chicken eggs over industrial farm eggs is not even a contest, hobby farm/free range wins every time

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@hawkeye10,

hawkeye10 wrote:

25 cents per dozen in extra cost is a nice start. Now lets add in everybodies profit take as they tend to work on a percentage of product value basis, and milking the supply and demand curve in a era of shortage by design, and we should be able to get the dozens of eggs at safeway up at least 80-90 cents, probably more!

In the long term, higher prices will attract new egg farmers, increasing the supply of eggs and bringing the prices back down to where they just about cover costs.

Invisible hand at work.

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@Kolyo,

I have been reading that the egg brokers say that have lined up enough CAL COMPLIANT out of state eggs to avert a major shortage in the short term, and that it is hoped that the court challenges will be settled by end of 16 when the problem in theory goes away. A major reason why CAL egg producers are cutting stocks rather than building new facilities to give the birds more room is that they think that the courts will invalidate the law, so major money spent to comply with the law at that point will become a competitive disadvantage. Once the law is either firmed up or goes away the business will adapt to what ever the reality is and produce enough eggs. That is the theory anyways.

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@boomerang,

Quote:

I'm totally willing to pay more for food knowing that the animals were treated humanely.

I would like to point out that the airlines for years have not been able they claim to get people to pay more for airline tickets in return for better treatment. JetBlue is the latest to make the claim, they are now shrinking the space between seats to match the industry, after years of trying to convince people that more humane and comfortable flights are worth paying extra for.

So chickens producing eggs for california get by law more space to move around, but we humans cant get a passengers bill of rights that allows us enough room for our generally large asses in airplane seats. Interesting.

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@hawkeye10,

Why can't the airlines create a new class called "coach plus"? 20% more expensive, with 20% more leg room.

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@Kolyo,

Kolyo wrote:

Why can't the airlines create a new class called "coach plus"? 20% more expensive, with 20% more leg room.

they say that can sell the extra space for the same profit that they can sell the extra sardine accommodations.

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I pay already much more for my eggs, because I buy organic from free range chickens.

We have a responsibility to the animals to treat them as humane as possible. Just because we like to eat them or their eggs doesn't justify to treat them inhumane and cruel as it is still practice in the United States.

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@CalamityJane,

Quote:

doesn't justify to treat them inhumane and cruel as it is still practice in the United States.

alleged facts not in evidence.

1 Reply

@hawkeye10,

Are you happy living under a rock?

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/slaughter/

1 Reply

@CalamityJane,

Method of kill has nothing to do with living accommodations during the 6 weeks before that for broilers and as I recall 9 months for layers. and. And I dont know that unnecessary pain in inflicted at slaughter, which is the only thing I would care about. They are food, not pets, and certainly not humans.

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California Voters Demand to Pay A LOT More For Eggs

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