Ag Policy Blog

Members of the United Egg Producers are confident the farm bill, at least in the Senate, will include language based on the egg producers' agreement on cages struck with the Humane Society of the United States.

Brownfield radio had an interview with Joe Miller, general counsel for Rose Acre Farms, indicated there is a lot of confusion and uncertainty about cage sizes and differences from state to state. "This legislation says there is a standard size for cages that HSUS has accepted," Miller told Brownfield at the Animal Agriculture Alliance annual meeting. http://brownfieldagnews.com/…

Keith Good of farmpolicy.com quoted Chad Gregory, president of UEP saying that, "Without this egg bill, interstate commerce in eggs will collapse, driving many egg farmers out of business and leaving our industry in chaos with a patchwork of conflicting and contradictory state laws on egg production and sales." www.farmpolicy.com

Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, is a co-sponsor on the bill, along with Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Susan Collins, R-Maine. A House bill has co-sponsors from both parties, but mostly in California and Oregon.

United Egg Producers and the Humane Society reached their agreement in 2011 after HSUS began working on ballot measures in Oregon and Washington. The bill would supersede some laws already passed on other states. http://www.eggbill.com/…

Other livestock and poultry groups are upset over the agreement, not wanting to go down the path of working with HSUS on such issues. They also oppose further expansion of federal standards for treatment of animals.

I can be found on Twitter @ChrisClaytonDTN

© Copyright 2013 DTN/The Progressive Farmer. All rights reserved.