14.01.2010

A year after Californians approved stricter rules on the treatment of farm animals, Idaho and other states are trying to lure away the Golden State's poultry and egg farmers with promises of friendlier regulations and lower costs.
In Idaho, Republican state Sen. Tim Corder said he would introduce legislation designed to attract California chicken farmers who might consider relocating. In Nevada, Pershing County is aggressively recruiting poultry farmers in California, the nation's fifth-largest producer of eggs. Georgia's poultry industry also has reached out to some California farmers in a bid to woo them eastward.
The movement comes after California voters in November 2008 passed a ballot initiative called Proposition 2 designed to prevent "cruel confinement" of farm animals in cramped conditions, like small "battery cages" for egg-laying chickens.
The California initiative prohibits confinement of hogs, veal calves and poultry "in a manner that does not allow them to turn around freely, lie down, stand up, and fully extend their limbs." The law doesn't take effect until Jan. 1, 2015, but farmers already are worried it will drive up costs, because many cages commonly used now probably will have to be scrapped for bigger cages or no cages at all.
Of course, moving to another state could be costly, too. Moreover, farmers who flee California may wind up facing tougher rules anyway, because more retailers are seeking food raised under strict animal-welfare standards.