California is a big state, not just in landmass but in population, and the changes that it makes can cause a ripple effect around the U.S. 13 states have been fighting a law California made that has become known as the California egg law, which requires all eggs sold in the state to be produced by hens who have space to stretch out in their cages.
The law was proposed in 2008 and took effect in 2015 and has cost consumers millions of dollars because of the rise in egg prices. For farms that service other states, producing cage-free eggs is going to be standard by 2025, not because of a law but because many large grocery stores and chain restaurants have pledged that they will only sell eggs that have been produced by hens that are not caged.
According to the Los Angeles Times, more than 40 percent of the state’s eggs were imported in 2012, with 30 percent of those eggs coming from Iowa. The attorneys representing the 13 states fighting the egg law argue that the imposed regulations are killing jobs.
Missouri is the most recent to join the fight against the California egg law, alongside Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin.
So far, the law has sustained with a federal appeals court panel siding with California claims filed by six of the opposing states. The ruling stated that the California law would only affect individual farmers and that does not warrant the removal of the law. The most recent lawsuit was filed by Missouri asks that the Supreme Court take the case directly and seeks to address that the law effects more than individual farmers by reviewing the economics impacted by the egg law.
