News
Study finds pricier eggs post-law in California
A new analysis shows California’s animal confinement standards – which require increased space for egg-laying hens – have raised the price of eggs in that state, higher than what they would have been without the law. Professor Jayson Lusk, head of Purdue University’s Department of Animal Economics, was involved in analyzing the data, “What we found is they caused a pretty dramatic increase in prices, almost immediately after the law went in place. So, about a 30% increase in egg prices.”
Lusk tells Brownfield Ag News the voter-approved law has also affected egg production in California, “You can imagine the impacts on egg producers. They have fewer eggs to sell and while they might be getting a slightly higher price, they’re selling fewer eggs. So, the impacts on producers are almost certainly negative and at least for the consumers, they’re paying higher prices.”
By the fall of 2016, Lusk says, prices were about nine-percent higher for eggs in California than they would have been without the new law. Lusk says lower prices by the end of the study might be from a boost in supply following the avian flu outbreak of 2015.
Lusk says, initially, California made up for the shortfall in egg production by importing eggs from out-of-state. But, many of those imports stopped because other states were not following California’s confinement rules, as the law requires.
Lusk conducted the analysis with University of Florida assistant professor Conner Mullally.
AUDIO: Interview with Jayson Lusk~
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The issue – in the end- is to increase wages so that consumers can afford the humane farming products at fair market prices.
This is the ugly truth about “humane” farming practises; the added expense of it. Everyone deserves to be able to access affordable and nutritious foods. This shifts the cruelty from animals onto those most vulnerable in our communities and the least responsible for the cruelty of factory farming. This is not the answer.