By KIMBERLY PIERCEALL
The Press-Enterprise
Egg-laying hens in California have won the right to have more wing room, but the industry that sells their eggs contends a proposition granting those rights is unclear.
Prop. 2, crafted by the Humane Society of the United States and supported by 63.2 percent of California voters, will take effect on Jan. 1, 2015, and demands that animals be given enough space on farms to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely. The law applies to egg-laying hens as well as pregnant pigs and calves raised for veal.
There are no veal calves in California, and the effect on pregnant pigs would be negligible, according to Joy Mench, UC Davis' director of the Center for Animal Welfare.
Egg producers contend the cost will be serious.
Gary Foster, general manager of egg producer Norco Ranch, said the company doesn't know what its next step will be, but moving out of state is "always an option."
Norco Ranch and its parent company Norco-based Moark, which has 3 million egg-laying hens in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, contributed 11.3 percent of the total $7.7 million raised to oppose the proposition since January.
Just 5 percent of Norco Ranch's customers prefer cage-free eggs and demand in the past six months hasn't grown, he said.
Without demand from customers to pay for cage-free eggs, the company's grocery store customers would be unwilling to pay $18 million more a year to cover costs just because they're "good guys" and raising cage-free chickens, he said.
Jennifer Fearing, chief economist for the Humane Society and campaign manager for Prop. 2 said other producers are already bringing cage-free eggs to markets.
"They are an innovative and adaptive people," she said of the industry.
Published: Monday, November 17, 2008