Posted on 03/08/2014 11:22:49 AM PST by SeekAndFind
In 2008, California voters endorsed Proposition 2 which banned the confinement of animals. California egg producers had to ensure that chickens had enough room to move around which negated so-called “factory farming” and would end up raising the price of eggs by 20%.
Obviously this was a problem for California agriculture which would have trouble competing on price with free agriculture. And there’s only so much of a market for fair-trade free-range organic chickens lovingly raised in a Quaker school by social justice experts on a strict diet of granola and NPR broadcasts.
And so California’s reds decided to instead raise the price of eggs across America. Sounds fair, right?
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster (D) said Tuesday morning he has filed a federal lawsuit against the state of California over the Golden State’s new regulations on enclosures that house egg-laying hens. The regulations, Koster alleges, violate the constitution’s Commerce Clause.
California voters in 2008 passed a ballot initiative that require larger enclosures for egg-laying hens. Farmers in California worried the new rules, which would increase their costs, would put them at a competitive disadvantage with egg farms in other states, so the state legislature passed a measure in 2010 to require out-of-state producers to comply with California rules.
That, Koster says, is unfair to his state’s egg producers.
“If California legislators are permitted to mandate the size of chicken coops on Missouri farms, they may just as easily demand that Missouri soybeans be harvested by hand or that Missouri corn be transported by solar-powered trucks,” Koster said in a statement.
California farmers must begin complying with the cage law beginning in 2015, under the terms of Proposition 2. The legislature requires out-of-state farmers to begin complying with the same rules by the end of that year.
Koster’s office estimated that Missouri egg producers would have to pay $120 million to expand the size of their coops, and that production costs would rise 20 percent.”
That’s the whole point. The left can’t compete on product or price, but it can kneecap everyone else as long as it has control over populous states. Businesses and individuals can flee California, but they can’t escape its regulatory creep.
The country is awash in ballot initiatives and legislative efforts to increase regulation of agriculture. Maine and Connecticut have passed GMO labeling laws, although they won’t go into effect until other states in the Northeast have passed labeling laws as well. Florida has laws outlawing the most common method of pork production. Several states have outlawed small chicken coops, and states have also banned the sale of foie gras and shark fins. Only California has had the chutzpah to impose the preferences of that state’s voters on the rest of the country.
Make no mistake about it, if egg prices increase by 20 percent, people who face tight budgets at the grocery store will suffer.
But the people who make these laws won’t and California voters have become mindless stooges of the left. And if you buy your eggs with EBT cards, you don’t tend to care how much they cost because you aren’t paying for them anyway.
“As someone who actually LIVED on a farm and knows what “go out back and get a chicken for dinner” actually meant, I’d bet no one else on this thread would have the guts to truly “make their own dinner” from killing it, gutting and cleaning it and getting it ready for the frying pan.”
You might be surprised. A few years ago, I had occasion to talk for a while on the phone to an old farmer friend in Nebraska. The conversation came around to his grandson who had married a big city girl from the Chicago area. For some reason they lived in the boonies in Peru for some time.
What did they eat? Mostly chicken. Who caught and fixed them? The wife. The old farmer was impressed.
I bet those California legislators have never seen a rooster d*ck.
At least our legislators used to spend a lot of time out at the “chicken ranch”, I’m told.
Sorry, couldn’t resist...
“What do you think the “Fatted Calf” was? You pen up a calf and feed it milk, lots of milk. It gets fat and is then slaughtered for veal.”
When I want a sermon, I go to church.
Amen brother.......
Outstanding and correct use of the Commerce Clause. As ugly as the (D) behind his name looks, this guy gets it.
Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster (D) is spot on with this suit.
I know, I get them all the time from the neighbor's chickens.
Now where did I indicate that I was exercising any control over anyone except myself? Each of us gets to decide how we feel about life. I happen to have become, as I have aged (maybe because I'm getting ever closer to my own end) much more observant of life of all kinds. That's just how I see things. I was not suggesting that my beliefs be forced upon you or anyone else. Despite having been in business my entire life, I have seen that making a profit has become the overarching reason for a lot of business leaders, and face it, farming is no longer a mom and pop operation. Here in California farming is THE biggest business in the state, and it has gravitated to a small, arrogant bunch of super wealthy individuals who have succeeded in having their way in our legislature, oftentimes to the detriment of the rest of us who live here. Now we're in a drought situation again, and in large measure, the population will suffer because corporate farmers have had their way. So yes, I think it's entirely possible for ranchers to abuse animals if it will increase their yields and consequent profits.
Just look at how business interests have corralled the GOPe. Do you think that the Chamber of Commerce really gives a rats a$$ about immigrants except to the extent that they can get cheap labor and foist the ancillary costs off on the taxpayer? It's a lousy deal. the RATs get cradle to grave voters and the GOPe gets cheap labor. Wished that today's big businessman had some ethics and morals, but in my experience, those qualities are mostly lacking. The only people that they can look down on are most politicians.
The “fatted calf” was also the very best of the lot. A feast a father would prepare upon the return of the prodigal son.
Assuming you're over ten years old, and that was a serious attempt at adult education, can you please explain the connection between what chickens are fed, and the level of allergens in peanuts?
You lost me.
A sermon! that wasn’t a sermon! I was just showing that veal has been around for a long time! Along with butter, milk and eggs.
Maybe you should read the ODYSSEY to see how they prepared pork!
I think there should be a "Let them eat cake" category for posting in FR.
Of course it makes total sense that since you have 'no problem' paying twice as much for certain common foods as everyone else, those insensitive losers should be forced to conform to your standards of 'social responsibility.'
< /sarc >
Only mentally sick people abuse animals. Most serial killers have a record of animal abuse at an early age.
Treat your animals well and they will serve you well.
BTW, is “cow tipping” considered abuse...
You missed the point in all your moral indignation and preening. Abusing the stock does not increase the yields. This has been understood in animal husbandry for centuries and you act like it's some brand-new thing.
I am aware of the CoC sellout. I am aware the GOPe sucks. We all know that. This is off-topic. Do "free-range" chickens produce more and better eggs? No. Not according to the ranchers who have posted on this thread. Stop pretending intervention from your god-like government is going to change that. Nor will it change my impression of you: You are a closet liberal on the wrong forum. The moral preening was the dead giveaway, I only suspected it before.
No. It’s considered good, clean fun.
The sighting is confirmed: We have us a liberal. Make ready the Kraken.
Maximum production means an animals physiology is normal. Does the concept of bio security hold any meaning for you. I can tell by your statement you have never had to make a livin in production Ag.
LOL!
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