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Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Sunday, December 22, 2024
Consumers can expect higher egg prices, egg producers will see lower profits, and retailers won't meet their promised timelines for transitioning to 100% cage-free, according to new research funded by the FMI Foundation, United Egg Producers and United Egg Association.
A months-long outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza is adding to the shock waves roiling grocery prices, but different food items are experiencing disparate impacts.
Now that all eggs sold in California must come from hens living in cage-free barns, the industry is watching to see when, or whether, the investment required to meet the requirements pays off. California shoppers, meanwhile, are paying higher prices for eggs.
The California departments of food and agriculture and public health accepted oral public comments regarding their proposed actions for the implementation of Proposition 12 last week, following a request to hold such a hearing after the 45-day window for written comments closed on July 12.
Free-range poultry and cage-free eggs may command higher prices in the supermarket but they offer consumers little or no demonstrable benefit in food safety or quality, animal health and welfare or healthful food, a panel of scientists concluded after a review of a battery of research papers they called "inconclusive and often contradictory."
A coalition of animal welfare groups has gathered enough signatures to place a measure on the November ballot in California that would require all egg-laying hens be cage-free by 2022.
