Last night, the Governator signed the death warrant for battery egg sales in California. Since the industry now knows that battery eggs have no future in California starting in 2015, they’re looking for ways to circumvent the impending upgrades in welfare standards.
The effort is being led by JS West, who is now pretending that their new “colony cages” satisfy the requirements imposed by Prop 2. The California Farm Bureau Federation has just published what amounts to a press release touting the new colony cages. Tellingly, the Farm Bureau’s piece offers no quotes from HSUS or any other proponents of Prop 2.
HSUS has published a thoroughly footnoted article addressing the welfare standards associated with colony cages (the document uses the word “furnished,” which is synonymous with colony cages.) You can also check out HSUS’ response from last September, when JS West announced that they’d be developing colony cages.
One key point from HSUS’ response: during the Prop 2 campaign, egg producers repeatedly told the public that passing Prop 2 would put an end to caging hens in California. They even made that claim in the state’s voters’ guide.
And it gets even better: back in September, 2008, an egg industry employee named Jill Benson wrote an op-ed claiming that Prop 2 wouldn’t just ban cages, it would even force cage-free farmers out of business because of its space requirements. And who was Jill Benson’s employer? None other than JS West. In fact, the article indicates she is the company’s Vice President, and her LinkedIn profile currently lists her as the company’s owner.
You must read Benson’s piece: it’s one of the slimiest pieces of writing I’ve ever seen from egg industry interests, and it goes so far as to claim that, “Prop. 2 is not about the treatment of animals…”
See, the problem is that when you have total contempt for consumers and the truth, and will say anything that serves your industry at any particular moment, your words will invariably come back to haunt you.
My bet here is that JS West just wasted $3.2 million developing a system that will never be allowed to produce eggs in California, or for the California market. But it will probably take a court battle to crush the colony cage initiative. HSUS deserves a lot of credit for being on top of this situation, and for using its resources to prevent egg producers from subverting Prop 2. (Thanks, Bea.)
