An Urban's Rural View

One day the news is sunny, the next day it's sad. That's the way it goes for the nation's egg producers. In the last week, two more restaurant chains announced they're switching to cage-free eggs. And in that same week yet another study emerged showing that eggs are, contrary to what passed for decades as medical wisdom, good for us.

Is there a restaurant chain left that hasn't joined the cage-free stampede? It's hard to think of one. Producers insist cages aren't cruel, but the customer apparently thinks otherwise. And while the customer may not always be right, she is in the driver's seat. The restaurants can't ignore her.

Neither can state legislators, which is why the United Egg Producers swallowed hard and agreed with the Humane Society to seek a national standard giving layers more room. If there have to be rules, better Congress makes everyone play by the same ones.

Even as cages keep producing bad news for producers, cholesterol keeps going their way. The New York Times trumpeted the latest "incredible, edible egg" study in a blog post titled "Eggs Regain Reputation." The post said researchers reviewing eight studies involving 263,938 subjects found no evidence that eating an egg a day increased the risk of heart attack or stroke.

One of the researchers said eating two or three every day might be bad for you, but he said there are no data demonstrating that.

As gratifying as news like that must be for the egg guys, they must be anguishing over the possibility that years from now, after they've invested hundreds of millions in new facilities, the news trend changes, trumpeting new scientific studies demonstrating that cages are actually good for hens.