Authors: David Robinson Simon
Increasingly, voters and lawmakers around the world are questioning the egg industry's confinement practices. The European Union banned battery cages in 2012, requiring that laying hens live either cage-free or in enriched cages, which provide more space per bird as well as enrichment devices such as perches, nest boxes, and scratching areas. California's Proposition 2 requires that from 2015, laying hens must be housed in cages large enough to let them fully extend their wings in all directions without touching a cage wall or another hen.
53
And in the wake of an agreement to support enriched cages between the United Egg Producers and the Humane Society of the United States, it seems that Congress may soon adopt legislation requiring enriched cages for hens in the United States.
54
However, some critics of the egg industry argue that enriched cages are not enough, and the only solution is to eliminate cages altogether. One commentator is veterinarian and University of California Professor Emeritus Nedim C. Buyukmihci, who writes:
The increase in cage size dictated by [proposed enriched cage legislation], unfortunately, will have no meaningful positive impact. . . . Hens will still not be able to get proper exercise, they still will be too crowded to even properly stretch their wings, perches will be at an ineffectual height, and nest boxes will not be conducive to the needs for laying eggs.
55
Such debate is not unusual among those concerned for farm animals' welfare. Many believe, with good reason, that so-called humane farming measures do little to protect animals, and they'd rather see
the abolition, not the amelioration, of the cruel practices found in factory farms. As we've seen, when implemented by industrial methods, even farming practices labeled
organic, cage-free
, and
free-range
are routinely little better for the animals than the more blatantly inhumane alternatives. For that reason, while I believe that eating less animal foods—or giving them up altogether—is a good way for an individual to address the problems described in this appendix, I don't advocate merely switching to purportedly humane animal products as a solution.
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. The loss per animal of $20 to $90 is for larger and more efficient producers—that is, those raising 100 or more head of cattle. Smaller producers' losses are even higher, ranging from $184 to $305 per animal. Sara D. Short, “Characteristics and Production Costs of U.S. Cow-Calf Operations,”
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. The 2013 farm bill (not yet passed as of this writing) seeks to discontinue such direct payments. Michael Grunwald, “Why Our Farm Policy is Failing,”
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.
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. Ibid., 560–61.
11
. In 2001, the US Supreme Court refused to compel dissenting mushroom farmers to support the majority message of the mushroom checkoff program. The court held the mushroom checkoff violated the First Amendment because it merely imposed marketing requirements with little other regulation and hence was “not part of a comprehensive statutory agricultural marketing program.”
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16
. The dairy category, for which no data are given, is assumed to have the same return on invested funds as fluid milk. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, “Benefits of Research & Promotion Boards (Checkoffs)” (2011); Geoffrey S. Becker, “Federal Farm Promotion (‘Check-Off’) Programs.
17
. Because the United States does not publish child-related cholesterol guidelines, the EFSA guidelines are used for this purpose. USDA Agricultural Research Service, “Nutrient Intakes from Food: Mean Amounts Consumed per Individual, One Day, 2005–2006” (2008), accessed January 26, 2012,
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