Cage-free egg farms peck away at consumer reality
by Linda Valdez - Aug. 10, 2008 12:00 AM
Republic columnist
I toured a couple of egg farms and changed my buying habits.
It started with a column I wrote a while back about factory farming. I questioned the morality of treating food animals like cogs in an industrial machine. Some farmers took issue.
Clint Hickman of Hickman's Family Farms took me on a tour of the egg farm his family runs near Buckeye.
I saw some of the 4 million hens Hickman's has in so-called battery cages. Animal-rights advocates find these cages so offensive they are trying to get voters in California to outlaw them.
Stacked one upon another, these cages rose high above me and stretched in long rows. A group of chickens lays eggs in those cages for about two years. Then the birds are euthanized, and new chickens are brought in.
This wasn't Birdie Paradise, but it wasn't Avian Hell, either. Read More
Telling the story of agriculture is the greatest tool that producers have in educating consumers about how their food is raised and why we have implemented technology. Agriculture has changed a lot over the last century, and for good reason. There were more mouths to feed and there were more efficient ways of doing it. In animal agriculture, we will always have to have the best interests of the animals in mind, and that is why we have developed the technologies that we utilize today. Congratulations to Hickmans’s for going out and telling their story!
Showing posts with label egg industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label egg industry. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Prop 2 Could Break Egg Industry in CA
Measure could send egg industry packing, study says
By Reed Fujii
Record Staff Writer
July 23, 2008 6:00 AM
Proposition 2, a ballot initiative that aims to provide egg-laying hens in California room to move, more likely would force the state's $300million egg industry to move out of the state or out of business entirely if approved, a University of California, Davis, study suggests.
Proponents, however, argue that the measure on the November ballot will lead instead to widespread reform of egg-production practices.
Proposition 2 would establish a state law requiring that certain confined farm animals be allowed enough space to extend their limbs or wings fully, lie down, stand up and turn around. Laying hens would have to have space to spread their wings without touching the sides of the cage or other hens.
That would practically eliminate the current practice of confining laying hens to small cages, raising the cost of production 20 percent or more, and require the industry to invest about $500million in new housing for the chickens, said Daniel Sumner, co-author of the study released Tuesday and director of the Agricultural Issues Center at UC Davis.
Those are expenses state egg producers can't absorb while remaining competitive, he said. Read More
The egg industry will no doubt be very seriously harmed economically if Proposition 2 passes in California. While proponents argue that it didn’t happen in Arizona with the approval of Prop 204, the size of the industry that it affected in Arizona was much, much smaller. It will affect a $300 million dollar industry in California that will no longer be able to compete.
By Reed Fujii
Record Staff Writer
July 23, 2008 6:00 AM
Proposition 2, a ballot initiative that aims to provide egg-laying hens in California room to move, more likely would force the state's $300million egg industry to move out of the state or out of business entirely if approved, a University of California, Davis, study suggests.
Proponents, however, argue that the measure on the November ballot will lead instead to widespread reform of egg-production practices.
Proposition 2 would establish a state law requiring that certain confined farm animals be allowed enough space to extend their limbs or wings fully, lie down, stand up and turn around. Laying hens would have to have space to spread their wings without touching the sides of the cage or other hens.
That would practically eliminate the current practice of confining laying hens to small cages, raising the cost of production 20 percent or more, and require the industry to invest about $500million in new housing for the chickens, said Daniel Sumner, co-author of the study released Tuesday and director of the Agricultural Issues Center at UC Davis.
Those are expenses state egg producers can't absorb while remaining competitive, he said. Read More
The egg industry will no doubt be very seriously harmed economically if Proposition 2 passes in California. While proponents argue that it didn’t happen in Arizona with the approval of Prop 204, the size of the industry that it affected in Arizona was much, much smaller. It will affect a $300 million dollar industry in California that will no longer be able to compete.
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