28% of American hens are now in a cage-free environment and 10% are in Iowa

September 9, 2021 at 6:00 am, updated at 1:10 pm on September 9, 2021

Carolina-Every week, the Farmers Hen House near Carolina sends one-third of its free-range and ranch-raised eggs to California.

Ryan Miller, President of Farmers Hen House, said that although selling eggs to California consumers requires additional fees, inspections, reports and testing, it is worth it because of the large population base there.

“If we only sell eggs in Iowa, we will never succeed,” Miller said of the company’s establishment in 1997 by his grandfather, Amish farmer Eldon T. Miller (Eldon T. Miller). Said when it was founded.

Farmers Hen House now buys eggs from 50 producers and employs 67 employees in its egg processing plant. The factory processes 100,000 dozen eggs a day, five days a week, for retail and food service.

According to data from the national trade organization United Egg Producers, by the end of 2020, 28% of American laying hens are in a cage-free environment, up from 14% in 2016 and 4% in 2010. The Agricultural Marketing Service of the USDA stated that in order to meet the projected demand for cage-free eggs, 66% of American hens must be free of cages by 2026.

In order for the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service to certify that eggs are cage-free, inspectors must visit the farm twice a year to check whether the laying hens have unlimited access to food and water and free movement during the laying cycle.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, certified free-range eggs must come from hens. In addition to the cage-free requirement, they can continue to enter outdoor activities during the laying cycle.

According to data from the US Department of Agriculture, Iowa is the largest egg-producing state, with more than 58 million laying hens producing more than 17.1 billion eggs in 2019.

Kevin Steels, executive director of the Iowa Egg Commission, estimates that about 10% of laying hens in the state are cage-free. He said that adjusting the hen house system is expensive and time-consuming, and many farmers have not yet made this transition.

"There is no federal assistance to provide cage-free construction to egg farmers," Stiles said in an email. "The cost of retrofitting a barn or building a new barn is very high, and it is not feasible for many farmers without the support of buyers/customers."

In recent years, there have been less restrictive exercises for food animals (including chicken, veal, and pork). Like many trends in the United States, this trend comes from California.

California promulgated a law on January 1, 2015, requiring eggs sold in the state to come from hens, and the hens have enough space to stretch their wings and rotate freely. Miller said that although the law does not specifically define the size of cages, it does cause producers to add fences to many so-called "California cages."

Then in 2018, California voters approved Proposition 12, which requires all eggs sold in the state by 2022 to come from cageless hens. The measure also prohibits the sale of pork and veal from animals raised in cages that do not meet the requirements in California, according to the Associated Press, the minimum size standard. Voters in Massachusetts passed a similar referendum in 2016.

"I think this law is a positive thing," Kathy Eckhouse, co-owner of Norwalk-based artisan and cured pork product producer La Quercia, said of Proposition 12. Shi said. She and her husband and co-owner Herb Eckhouse visited Farmers Hen House on Wednesday with other retailers and reporters.

Kathy Eckhouse said that La Quercia buys pork from local producers who raise pigs without crates and “preferably get into the outdoors completely”.

She said the veal and chicken industries have changed their practices to continue to be sold in the California market. But the pork industry resisted these changes that will take effect on January 1.

There have been several federal lawsuits trying to block Proposition 12, the most recent of which was brought by a pork producer in Iowa and requested a preliminary injunction to stop the law. Pork producers said that compliance with the law would lead to soaring costs.

But according to Iowa Public Radio, U.S. District Judge CJ Williams pointed out that California’s law did not specifically target Iowa, the largest pork producer in the United States, which rejected the case last month.

According to Iowa Public Radio, Williams wrote: “The collateral effect of passing this law may be that farmers in Iowa have been harmed, but there is no indication that the harm was intentional.” Even if the plaintiff is satisfied with the intentional behavior, California's law is not the only or expressly directed against Iowa, and no harm has been felt there."

Niman Ranch is a network of 740 farmers and ranchers who produce antibiotic-free meat raised to strict animal welfare standards. He wrote a court brief in support of Proposition 12. Chris Oliviero, general manager of Niman Ranch, told the Gazette this week that he expects the pork industry to change like the egg industry has been doing.

"California buys about 15% of domestic pork, and the market is too big for the industry to ignore," he said. "The industry must continue to make changes to meet the requirements. This is not easy. I understand the heartache of doing so. But large companies are good at finding cost-effective solutions to the problems they want to solve."

The Iowa legislature passed a measure in 2018 that requires grocery stores participating in certain federal food subsidy programs to continue to sell traditional eggs if they also sell special options such as cage-free or free-range eggs.

Supporters of House File 2408 say this is necessary because animal welfare organizations humiliate retailers and let them sell a product that consumers don’t want-cage-free eggs. They also believe that consumers should have a low-cost option.

"As we saw in the Iowa store today, which type of eggs consumers want to buy will continue to be made by consumers," said Stiles of the Iowa Egg Commission.

Opponents of the law say it artificially supports traditional eggs — and agribusiness — rather than letting consumers decide.

Three years later, the effect of the law is hard to say. New Pioneer Cooperative has stores in Iowa City, Colleville, and Cedar Rapids and does not sell traditional eggs before the law, so there is no need to provide them after HF 2408 is approved.

"New Pioneer really values ​​food supply. We offer daily discounts for shoppers who need food assistance, but offering traditional eggs runs counter to other aspects of our mission, not the path we will pursue," said Linda Fritz-Murphy, the purchasing department leader cooperative.

"Eggs are a good seller for us, and more and more market share is shifting to free-range eggs, which shows me that consumer demand is moving away from tradition rather than tradition."

Comments: (319) 339-3157; erin.jordan@thegazette.com

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