25 Oct '14 22:57>2 edits
6 states appeal California egg law ruling
By Bob Egelko
Updated 3:02 pm, Friday, October 24, 2014
Six states filed an appeal Friday of a federal judge’s ruling upholding California’s ban on sales of eggs laid by hens that are kept in cramped cages.
The law, scheduled to take effect in January, requires out-of-state egg sellers to comply with the in-state standards California voters set for confinement of hens and other farm animals in 2008. It mandates that the animals have enough room to lie down, stand up, extend their limbs and turn freely, and prohibits confining hens in the small quarters known as battery cages.
The states of Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kentucky and Iowa challenged the law in court as a protectionist measure that interferes with interstate commerce. They said compliance would cost their egg farmers hundreds of millions of dollars.
In a ruling Oct. 2, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller of Sacramento said the states lacked legal standing — the right to sue on behalf of their residents — because they were representing only the economic interests of egg farmers rather than “a substantial segment of their populations.” She said the only foreseeable impact on the states’ residents is a fluctuation in egg prices, which may actually decline.
Lawyers for the states are asking the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to overturn Mueller’s ruling.
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
Back story:
The California law came from a 2008 ballot initiative that required animals, not just chickens, to be treated humanely. Proposition 2, which passed with 63 percent of the vote, mandated healthier treatment for calves, hens and pigs.
[Ballot initiatives are placed on the ballot by getting signatures. They are not referenda.]
California egg producers worried that the law meant they would be at a disadvantage when competing with out-of-state producers that weren’t subject to the same rules. The state legislature passed a companion bill in 2010, signed into law by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), that required those out-of-state producers to uphold the same standards.
[This is inartfully stated. It requires eggs brought in from out of state to be compliant. The producers do not have to produce all their eggs that way.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/10/07/chickens-come-before-eggs-in-california-case/
Another good site for true wonks:
http://civileats.com/2014/09/03/what-a-difference-a-cage-makes-the-battle-over-humane-egg-production-in-california-heats-up/
By Bob Egelko
Updated 3:02 pm, Friday, October 24, 2014
Six states filed an appeal Friday of a federal judge’s ruling upholding California’s ban on sales of eggs laid by hens that are kept in cramped cages.
The law, scheduled to take effect in January, requires out-of-state egg sellers to comply with the in-state standards California voters set for confinement of hens and other farm animals in 2008. It mandates that the animals have enough room to lie down, stand up, extend their limbs and turn freely, and prohibits confining hens in the small quarters known as battery cages.
The states of Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Alabama, Kentucky and Iowa challenged the law in court as a protectionist measure that interferes with interstate commerce. They said compliance would cost their egg farmers hundreds of millions of dollars.
In a ruling Oct. 2, U.S. District Judge Kimberly Mueller of Sacramento said the states lacked legal standing — the right to sue on behalf of their residents — because they were representing only the economic interests of egg farmers rather than “a substantial segment of their populations.” She said the only foreseeable impact on the states’ residents is a fluctuation in egg prices, which may actually decline.
Lawyers for the states are asking the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to overturn Mueller’s ruling.
Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.
Back story:
The California law came from a 2008 ballot initiative that required animals, not just chickens, to be treated humanely. Proposition 2, which passed with 63 percent of the vote, mandated healthier treatment for calves, hens and pigs.
[Ballot initiatives are placed on the ballot by getting signatures. They are not referenda.]
California egg producers worried that the law meant they would be at a disadvantage when competing with out-of-state producers that weren’t subject to the same rules. The state legislature passed a companion bill in 2010, signed into law by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R), that required those out-of-state producers to uphold the same standards.
[This is inartfully stated. It requires eggs brought in from out of state to be compliant. The producers do not have to produce all their eggs that way.]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/govbeat/wp/2014/10/07/chickens-come-before-eggs-in-california-case/
Another good site for true wonks:
http://civileats.com/2014/09/03/what-a-difference-a-cage-makes-the-battle-over-humane-egg-production-in-california-heats-up/