California Plays “Chicken” With the Rest of the Nation – IOTW Report

California Plays “Chicken” With the Rest of the Nation

For generations, California has used its size to dictate product standards to the rest of the country. The threat is to comply with their loony laws or lose access to the biggest market in the country.

Case in point, California passed an initiative about 10 years ago,  forcing chicken farms to give their egg laying flocks a minimum of 116 inches of floor space per bird. The measure forced Golden State farmers to reduce the size of their flocks rather than spend their resources on building and maintaining larger chicken houses.  To protect their own farmers from out of state competition, the state passed a law in 2010 making the standard apply to all chickens whose eggs are sold in California.

Now, California has to import about half of its eggs from other states. After trying individual lawsuits to put a stop to the $350 million annual additional cost to all Americans to satisfy CA’s chicken advocates, 12 states have banned together to sue California. To speed up the legal maneuvering, they are seeking the Supreme Court to take up their challenge.

More

25 Comments on California Plays “Chicken” With the Rest of the Nation

  1. Look at your electronics labels and your dishes, as an example. They all say ‘The state of California has determined this to be cancer causing…” Only THEM, though. Everyone else is stupid, apparently. They drive product prices up for added extra warning labels and recycling instructions just for them.

  2. Well, the mystery of the high price of eggs has been solved. I noticed Oregon was suspiciously absent from the list of States suing california. No doubt we have copied this idiotic law here too.

  3. You should see what California has done to, and cost, CNC Machine Manufacturers. It’s so bad you need to short circuit all the safety bull shit to even run the machines. And in this case California has effected the entire world. I know Federal Government Agencies were involved in legislating the safety of these machines, but I’ll guarantee you California pushed it over the edge.

  4. Went to the store yesterday. Some organic, free range eggs were $7 a doz! I get the cage free for $3. The gas tax is showing up with higher prices already too. Everything I picked up was $5 or more. Doesn’t take much to make a $300 checkout. I feel sorry for young families struggling to make ends meet.
    And still we don’t revolt.

  5. Curious to know where they came up with 116 inches of floor space. That is probably just a random number some liberal nut came up with. No one knows if a chickens life is improved with that much space or if they don’t mind crowded quarters. Farmers are going to keep their money making hens safe and cared for so they keep producing. They don’t need some clueless do-gooder coming in and dictating via legislation how to do it.

  6. While I’m sure the egg farmers hate this it is California’s right to set standards on items coming into the state for sale and I’ll bet the SCOTUS will agree with that. If you’re an egg farmer you have to make the decision whether to sell in California or not. If you decide to to sell then price your eggs accordingly. If enough egg farmers decide it’s just not economically feasible then California has a decision to make on their standards. It’s supply and demand economics with a touch of lefty thrown in as is so much in California. Too be honest I won’t buy eggs from so-called factory farms. I’ll pay the extra but that’s my decision that I made after having seen the conditions at some of these places.

  7. is it too late to give these lunatics back to Mexico?

    maybe we can make a two-fer deal w/ Puerto Rico … within 20 years Kaliphornia will be Spanglish, like PR, anyway

  8. Actually, 11″ x 11″ doesn’t sound like a heck of a lot of space. Eggs around here cost as low as 63 cents a dozen and are still around a buck a dozen. Of course if I want to buy happy free range bird eggs I would expect to spend quite a bit more.

  9. MJA – Oh hell, those signs are everywhere…even on the buildings you walk into, but it doesn’t keep anybody from walking into them! It’s the most ridiculous farce I’ve ever seen!! I’m surprised inhaling is still even legal there! Common Sense was hog-tied, tortured, murdered and tossed out the court room window straight into the dumpster decades ago!

  10. I must admit I’m ambivalent on this one, I truly believe the creator gave us dominion over the animals and we should be good guardians and abuse our food. It is also a health issue with how we treat our foods.

  11. Someone asked who came up with the cage size and it was the HSUS because chickens as they said should be able to stand up turn around and spread their wings. Their goal was to have no cages. Force that on farmers and you’ll be paying three times the cost for eggs. Which is the ultimate goal of these leftist animal rights activists. Make eggs, milk and meat so expensive people can’t afford to buy it, farms and ranches go out of business, no more animals. It cracks me up that people still think they care about animals. They care about this warped utopia they dream of, too damn stupid to know their utopia means death for all of mankind as well as animals.

  12. I live in farm country and we buy fresh everything, even meat. By fresh, I mean hours not days, and the cost is very low. We belong to a food co-op where hundreds of farms across the entire state pool together and a person need only go to their local farmer and say, “I need this and this and that and that.” You pay for it right then, and it’s delivered from all the various farms to that farm, often same-day. People love it because the food is fresh and top-notch and the farmers love it because it’s guaranteed money at fair prices and they don’t have to try to hawk stuff at local farmers’ markets.

    Incidentally, did you know you don’t have to refrigerate eggs as long as you don’t wash off the natural coating (which commercial egg producers always do)? They’re fine for quite a long time just sitting on the counter. Wash them just before you use them.

Comments are closed.