Prop. 2 lays no egg, wins convincingly

Valley counties oppose it, but not most of the rest of state.

Published online on Thursday, Nov. 06, 2008

Animal-rights advocates Wednesday savored a win over California agriculture after 63% of the state's voters backed Proposition 2, which will free egg-laying hens from their cages.

But agricultural leaders say the proposition will devastate California's $648 million egg industry and raise prices for consumers even before it goes into effect in 2015. California is the fifth-largest egg-producing state, with 3,600 jobs.

Fresno County produced $18.85 million in eggs last year and Kings County produced about $2.6 million worth. Merced, Stanislaus and San Joaquin counties are California's largest producers.

Prop. 2 was opposed in six Central Valley counties and six rural counties north of Sacramento, but was backed in the state's 46 other counties.

Under the new law, hens must live in a "cage-free" environment, allowing them to exhibit more natural behavior, such as walking around, spreading their wings and laying eggs in nests.

"We were confident going in that Californians would codify the basic notion that farm animals should not be confined in tiny cages where they can barely move an inch their entire lives," said Paul Shapiro, a Fresno spokesman for the Humane Society of the United States.

Prop. 2 also requires that calves raised for veal and pregnant pigs be confined in enough space to allow them to lie down, stand up, extend their limbs and turn around freely.

But that requirement may be moot, because veal calves are not being raised in crates in California, and pregnant pig confinement has been phased out in the state, agricultural leaders say.

Rich Matteis, California Farm Bureau Federation administrator, said Prop. 2's effect on the egg industry will be significant.

"It will require a retooling of all production facilities, and the expense will be enormous," said Matteis, the former executive director of the Pacific Egg & Poultry Association, an egg industry trade group. "Over time, a substantial amount of the production will move out of state, and we will import from Mexico and other states."

He said the new law could harm California's egg-safety record. While all other states have reported 118,000 egg-related Salmonella cases in the past decade, California has had none.

Shapiro said his group would have preferred to introduce a bill in the Legislature and then reach a compromise with the agricultural industry. He cited a Colorado bill negotiated with agriculture that led to a new state law governing farm-animal confinement of pigs and calves.

"The [California] livestock industry vehemently opposed us every inch, which is how Proposition 2 came into being," he said. "It was a last option."

The proposition's proponents and opponents each raised about $9 million for their campaigns, which represented the most expensive animal-welfare measure ever undertaken by the Humane Society, Shapiro said.

The Humane Society spent only one-sixth as much on a similar measure approved by Arizona voters last year, he said.

With the win in California, Matteis said he expects the Humane Society will raise money and prepare for additional measures in other states. But Shapiro said he is not aware of any such plans.

Even with a big campaign bankroll, Matteis said it's hard for agriculture to get its message across in a mostly urban state.

There was one other problem, he added: "We have science and we have a database, but they have emotion, and it's very tough to beat that."