I read with despair that California egg farmers are joining a lawsuit against the State of California and the Humane Society of the United States over Proposition 2. Contrary to what the Journal article and the plaintiffs suggest, as a Californian who spent many hours volunteering to collect signatures for Proposition 2, I know that voters supported a ban on confining birds in cages.
Before the law passed (by a landslide), JS West and the California egg industry were resolute that Prop 2 meant cage-free. It’s a shame that rather than investing in a system that allows hens to engage in the most modest and important behaviors like wing flapping, JS West is trying to rewrite history instead. JS West and the rest of the egg producers in California should start doing what they said the law would require in 2008: switch to cage-free production.— Michelle Setaro