California's Chickens Go to Court
California's progressives complain about the state's high cost of living even as they enact policies that are the cause. A classic example is the state's farm animal-welfare regulations, which animal-rights groups deceptively sold to voters as protecting consumer health and safety even though they don't.
First came a 2008 voter initiative (Prop. 2) followed by a 2010 law that taken together barred the sale of eggs from hens kept in housing that prevented them from 'fully extending his or her limbs' or 'turning around freely' for the majority of the day. In 2018 voters enacted Prop. 12, which imposed onerous minimum-floor spacing prescriptions for egg-laying hens.
Farmers have either had to retrofit their facilities to comply with chickens' right to cage-free living or forgo selling eggs in California. Many have done the latter. Constricted supply and higher production costs for cage-free hens have increased egg prices in the state.
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