From the Editor: September 2011

Two opposing parties recently reached an agreement that can be summed up in one word: historic. 

On July 7, the United Egg Producers (UEP) and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) released a statement saying that the two parties have agreed to work together towards the enactment of new, comprehensive federal legislation for the care and housing of laying hens in the U.S. The proposed standards advocated by UEP and HSUS, if enacted, would be the first federal law addressing the treatment of animals on farms. 

These standards will mandate labelling on all egg cartons nationwide to inform consumers of the method used to produce the eggs; prohibit feed- or water-withholding molting to extend the laying cycle; prohibit excessive ammonia levels in henhouses; and prohibit the sale of eggs and egg products nationwide that don’t meet these requirements. They will also include the replacement of conventional cages with enriched housing systems (that will include nest boxes, scratching areas and perches) that provide each hen nearly double the amount of space they are currently allotted (a minimum of 124-144 square inches per bird versus the current 48 and 67 inches).

The two groups plan to jointly ask the U.S. Congress for federal legislation which would require egg producers to increase space per bird in a tiered phase-in process, with the amount of space birds are given increasing, in intervals, over the next 15 to 18 years.

On the surface, it appears as though the UEP succumbed to the old adage, “if you can’t beat them, join them.” However, given the intense pressure that the HSUS has placed on egg production practices by appealing to voters to enact housing legislation in various states (the most devastating being California with Proposition 2), the UEP was pushed into a corner. As Bob Krouse, chairman of the UEP and an Indiana egg farmer, stated in a UEP release, the UEP is “committed to working together for the good of the hens in our care and believes a national standard is far superior to a patchwork of state laws and regulations that would be cumbersome for our customers and confusing to consumers.”

The benefit to the UEP is that the agreement, if passed by Congress, will supersede state laws including those that have been passed in Arizona, California, Michigan and Ohio. Both the HSUS and the UEP will ask Congress to require California egg producers to eliminate conventional cages by 2015 – the year Proposition 2 is to go into effect – and provide all hens with the space and enrichments that the rest of the U.S. egg industry will be phasing in over the next 15 to 18 years.

Also, planned ballots in Oregon and Washington by the HSUS will now be on hold.  Washington’s ballot would have dealt a more devastating blow to the U.S. egg industry than California’s Proposition 2, as it would have made both the rearing and sale of eggs in conventional systems illegal if passed.

While the agreement should prevent further ballot initiatives, the pork and cattle organizations in the U.S. feel that the agreement has set a “dangerous precedent” of government intervention for on-farm standards, which they feel should be based on the latest scientific-based evidence on what is best for both animal and human health. The trouble is that livestock organizations, while having increased welfare research in recent years, have largely ignored educating both government and consumers about rearing practices out of the fear that some of these practices will be scrutinized.

It is this neglect, in part, that has set the stage for such an agreement to occur.