California egg law under attack

Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley announced Dec. 4 that he and his office will take the issue of California’s egg law to the Supreme Court. In 2008, California voters passed Proposition 2, which set requirements for how much space laying hens, gestating sows, and veal calves must have. At the time, there were very few hog operations and almost no veal operations in the state. In 2010, the state passed another law that added to the 2008 Prop 2 law. The 2010 law required that all eggs sold in California be produced by hens living in the same conditions required in California. Twelve other states—Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin—join Missouri in pursuing this matter to the Supreme Court. Hawley and the other states argue that California’s regulations violate both a federal law prohibiting states from imposing their own standards on other states, and the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The AP notes that California’s egg-related regulations are estimated to have cost consumers nationwide up to $350 million annually in higher egg prices since 2015 when the laws took effect. California’s egg production dropped from 5 billion in 2012 to 3.5 billion in 2015. In 2012, the state imported 4 billion eggs with Iowa and Missouri being the first- and second-largest sources of imported eggs respectively. “These regulations are unconstitutional and a clear attempt by big-government proponents to impose job-killing regulations on Missouri,” Hawley said in a prepared statement. “This discrimination against Missouri farmers will not stand. I will continue to defend our farmers and protect the interests of Missouri consumers.”