WASHINGTON — Last summer, the United Egg Producers and the Humane Society of the United States agreed on legislation that would set national standards for the treatment of laying hens, setting aside years of enmity over the issue.
But the development did not sit well with Amon Baer, an egg farmer and pork producer in Minnesota who says he decided to set up his own Washington lobbying group in response.
The group, dubbed Egg Farmers of America, has joined with much larger agribusiness organizations in mounting strong opposition to the proposed egg legislation, which is part of the broader debate over a farm bill now convulsing Congress. The debate has pitted the egg industry’s largest lobbying group against other agricultural interests, as well as producing a split within the egg industry itself.
Under the proposal, the average size of cages for laying hens would be doubled and new federal standards would be imposed for hygiene, cage-free labeling and other measures. Although the proposal appears stalled in the Senate, backers are hoping for approval in the House.
The Humane Society views the deal as an important move forward in the treatment of poultry, while the egg producers group favors the legislation in part because it would do away with a confusing patchwork of state-by-state standards.
But Baer said his organization has dozens of members, primarily in the upper Midwest, who would be financially devastated by new requirements in the legislation. Large agribusiness groups such as the Farm Bureau and the National Pork Producers Council also oppose the bill because they fear it could set a precedent for tougher federal regulation of their industries.
“We just feel we’re not represented by UEP,” said Baer, who is a UEP board member. “They’re not representing the interests of mid-size and smaller producers.”
Animal-welfare advocates, meanwhile, accuse Baer’s Egg Farmers of America of acting as a Trojan horse for the pork industry and other agribusiness interests firmly opposed to tougher federal regulations.
Paul Shapiro, vice president for farm animal protection at the Humane Society, said the new egg group has helped provide cover for the meat industry and other lobbying groups with little direct interest in the egg business.
“They had to fabricate this organization in order to make it appear that there is egg industry opposition, when in reality the majority of egg producers support this legislation,” Shapiro said. “Because the bill doesn’t affect cattle or pigs, they’ve had a hard time finding sympathy for their arguments.”
The lobbying firm hired by the Egg Farmers of America, the Russell Group of Arlington, also represents the National Pork Producers Council, the International Dairy Foods Association, Hormel and many other large agribusiness interests, according to lobbying records. Baer’s group has paid Russell $70,000 for lobbying since the fourth quarter of last year, the records show.
Tyson Redpath, a lobbyist at Russell, said there was “absolutely no connection” between the Egg Farmers of America and his firm’s other clients. He said Baer approached the firm after deciding to form his organization.
“It’s an ad-hoc coalition of small- and medium-sized egg farmers who don’t feel that the [United] Egg Producers represent their interests,” Redpath said. “They are using their right to advocate before Congress their opposition to this agreement, and opposition to federally legislating hen housing standards nationwide.”
Dave Warner, a spokesman for the pork producers lobby, said the council played no role in forming the egg farmers group but has joined sides to oppose the hen treatment legislation.
United Egg Producers, based in Alpharetta, Ga., is a cooperative lobbying group that says its members account for 88 percent of the 80 million eggs produced in the United States each year. The group had long opposed mandated cage sizes and other limits, and has spent years attempting to fend off state-level regulations around the country.
Fed up with fighting, and sometimes losing, those state-by-state battles, the group decided to team up with the Humane Society on a national compromise last year. The resulting agreement has put the group at odds with much of the rest of the agribusiness industry, which is firmly opposed to additional federal regulations.
Mitch Head, a spokesman for the United Egg Producers, dismissed the Egg Farmers of America as “a handful of farmers somewhere” who don’t represent the interests of most of the industry.
“We had never heard of them until this year,” he said. “They just sort of came out of nowhere.”
Baer wants to complain ? Fine, let him. And when the next batch of salmonella-contaminated eggs get backtracked to his facility who does he think is gonna stand by him ? It sure isin’t going to be his insurance company or his purchasing vendor’s. Baer would be well advised to look at the clusterfXXk that Jack DeCoster got into over his ‘managing a state of the art facility’ and take the big hint. Producing ‘dirty egg’s’ and a $ 1.– will get you a cup of coffee and not much else. Keep your bird’s healthy and disease free and you make money. But be a cheapskate, cut corners on your bird’s health and sanitation condition’s and do not be suprised to start seeing both the USDA Inspector’s, the FDA Inspector’s, the CDC Public Health investigator’s and a very healthy number of US Marshal’s coming around with Search Warrant’s and Order’s of Inspection in ther hand’s. And where the FDA goes, well, so does the press. How’s Baer gonna sell 1 egg with that kind of ‘promotional’ going out on the health of his hen’s and their egg’s being publicly demonstrated ? Jack DeCoster right now is finding that out. So is Land ‘o Lakes and they are having to clean up after DeCoster. They know better.
Great non-sequitor comment about salmonella which has nothing to do with the size of hen housing that the removed amendment to the Farm Bill addressed. The HSUS-UEP agreement is 100% animal rights and 0% food safety.
Sir, the quality of the hen’s facility’s and condition’s are directly related to this egg contmination issue. The 2 are directly linked and even the most stubborn or deliberately ignorant of the lot cannot deny that the healthier the hen and her condition’s, the less likely it is that ‘dirty egg’s’ are going to enter the Country’s food supply. Bad condition’s lead to underweight hen’s, ‘dirty egg’s’ and disease’s, like the most dreaded of all, Newcastle’s Disease, that can literally, overnight, cause over 1/2 of any hen or egg-producing facility’s bird’s to die in less than a day. Now, you really want to go and argue the merit’s of animal right’s vs food safety ? Fine, go look at the PETA folk’s report’s, biased I’ll admit but a good 3rd person perspective, on these cramped and nasty egg producer facility’s. Cramped, nasty and dirty condition’s lead to ‘dirty egg’s’ and transmisison of bird disease from hen’s to human’s. Anyone remember SARS ? You can bet the CDC does. Where, and under what condition’s did it begin ? What did the Chinese have to do to stop it ? Do that in the USA and watch the public scream. No Sir, engage brain, think and THEN open mouth.
Cage size is the only item covered in the proposed legislation. That alone does not cause or cure contamination.
Cage size is directly related to both health and productivity. Even the trade folk’s who bother to read the numerous Cooperative Extension Service study’s acknowledge that. Check with the numerous college’s and cooperative extension service’s that do the research and long-term study’s. Free range hen’s produce, no question, but the space required for this is an almost prohibitive cost when factored into the economic’s side of the business. That’s why the compromise of cage spacei s being negotiated. A lot of people may not like it but that’s what’s required here, calm and reasonable study and negotiation, not hysteric’s and Chicken Little theatric’s.
This is why I have my own 6 hens, that get to free range in my own back yard. Its a joke, the labling of ‘cage-free’. How many people really know what that means? And ‘access to the outdoors’? Well, a 10 x 10 caged dirt area attached to a commercial hen house, to me, doesn’t mean squart. WHY would a chicken want to hang out in the hot sun, unless its to have a dust bath, when the food and water are inside? There is no grass or weeds to eat, no bugs to catch.
And now, they are trying to develope birds without eyes, so that they are ‘less stressed’ and can stuff more birds into less space.
Man’s greed for $$ at the exspence of the creatures of the world is sickening.
Good for you sir and keep going and don’t look back.
This outrageous legislation would establish egg factory CAGES as a national standard that could never be challenged or changed by state law or public vote. Instead of outlawing cages, this crazy measure would outlaw the BANNING of cages. That is why it is being pushed by the egg industry itself! The Stop the Rotten Egg Bill (http://www.StopTheRottenEggBill.org) campaign is getting it right. Check it out. This bill would stop cage-free laws dead in their tracks and take away our voting rights!
See a related column at the PPH: http://www.pressherald.com/opinion/all-animals-even-those-raised-for-food-deserve-protection-from-abuse_2012-06-21.html
There are only two types of eggs to eat and commercial eggs aren’t one of them. Do yourself a favor and buy fresh eggs from one of many locals or the Cadbury bunny, anything else is substandard.