Opinion: Inflation And Avian Flu, Not Prop. 12, Are Raising The Cost Of Eggs

By Jenny Berg, Times of San Diego

March 22, 2023

There is no one among us who would wish to jeopardize the well-being and food sources of vulnerable Californians— no one —and that’s what makes the recent campaign by business interests to blame Proposition 12 for the high cost of eggs in California both irresponsible and misleading. Food prices are rising because inflation is a nationwide problem, and we should do something about that as a state and as a nation.

Prop. 12 on the other hand, is a California law that addresses the worst forms of animal confinement in American agriculture. It came into effect only a year ago, and there is just no way it could have had the price impacts assigned to it by California grocery and retail interests. They never liked Prop. 12, and now want to use whatever arguments come their way to overturn it.

The campaign also serves as a ruse to distract consumers from a simple truth. It is the destruction of bird flocks in response to the spread of avian flu that has caused the unusual spike in egg prices, not the humanitarian law that eliminates our state’s complicity in such cruelties as the use of cage confinement for laying hens. According to one agribusiness industry source, Prop. 12 has produced less than a penny’s increase in price per egg.

A large segment of the agribusiness sector has accepted the will of the voters and discovered that Prop. 12 opens up new pathways for better business, greater profits and a stronger brand reputation with a consumer base that wants healthier food that does not come at the expense of animals’ most basic needs and interests. Californians aren’t alone in caring about these issues: a recent poll found that 80% of Americans (including three-quarters of Republicans) would like a law like Prop. 12 in their state.

Why did so many Californians support Prop. 12? Because hens caged by the egg industry have too little space to even extend their wings, let alone walk around. Because giant pork companies routinely lock mother pigs in cages barely larger than their bodies, preventing these smart, social animals from interacting with other pigs or even turning around.

Animal cruelty is reason enough for voters to have banned these confinement systems and products in California, but there were also significant public health benefits to Prop. 12. For years experts have been sounding the alarm about research showing that confining farm animals in tight, filthy conditions causes them to become stressed and sick. Within these animals, bacteria and viruses grow, multiply and mutate, which can then sicken humans.

Extensive research has linked the caging of hens to Salmonella, a bacteria that can be fatal in children and the elderly. And public health groups have denounced the cage confinement of mother pigs as a dual threat, some recently writing that the practice increases the risk of contaminated pork, and that a virus from such facilities could potentially cause a future pandemic.

The problem of rising food costs demands a comprehensive solution that targets the real drivers of inflation at the present time. But it doesn’t have to come at the expense of animals or the health of California families, and it shouldn’t.

Jenny Berg is the California state director for the Humane Society of the United States.

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