Out-of-state producers who sell in state must use same standards

By WES SANDER

Capital Press

SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed into law on July 6 a bill extending California's animal-confinement law to out-of-state egg producers.

The bill, AB1437, applies the rules created by Proposition 2 to producers whose eggs are sold in California. Prop 2, enacted by voters in 2008, mandates that food-animal enclosures allow freedom of movement. It applies mostly to the state's egg production.

The bill, by Assemblyman Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, applies the standard to shelled eggs produced in other states and sold in California.

California's egg industry has taken a neutral stance on Huffman's bill. It is divided among members who produce in California only, those who produce in and out of state and those who purchase outside eggs to supplement deliveries.

The state's producers saw the bill as an opportunity to define the cage sizes permissible under Prop. 2. But the Humane Society of the United States, the initiative's main proponent, has argued that there exists no commercially viable cages that could satisfy the law.

That means only a cage-free environment will do, HSUS argues. The industry has protested, saying cage-free systems create unhealthy and unsafe conditions.

Producers have therefore argued that they need acceptable cage sizes determined in order to plan construction of new barns and approach banks for financing in advance of 2015, when Prop. 2 takes effect.