Following secret negotiations, farm leaders have agreed to ban the new construction of egg farms that pack birds in cages, and to phase out the tight caging of pregnant sows within 15 years and of veal calves by 2017, reports The New York Times.
With farmers facing a potentially divisive referendum in November, Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland helped bring his state’s farmers together with the Humane Society of the United States, leading to a landmark agreement that could influence other states in the Midwest.
Unfortunately, the new agreement isn’t legally binding. It only makes recommendations to a state livestock standards board, but according to the Times, getting opponents to recognize the authority of that board was an important achievement.
The American Veal Association, under pressure from consumers, agreed in 2007 to phase out the close confinement of calves by 2017. The requirement in the California law and the Ohio agreement to phase out the use of “gestation crates” on hog farms will have much wider effects.
It’s all part of growing trend to limit inhumane and environmentally harmful factory farming. Environmentalists and animal rights activists have been putting the spotlight on the damaging effects of large-scale farming, and gaining consumer support in the process. Consumers are increasingly seeking out local, natural products. Awareness of the potentially harmful effects of hormones and antibiotics is also driving the change.
Ohio is not the only state to impose such limits. In 2008, California voters cast their support for imposing limits on extreme caging methods, with a complete ban by 2015. Also in California, a law even bans the import of eggs produced in crowded cages from other states. Similar limits have been approved in Michigan and to a lesser extent in Florida and Arizona.
Opponents argue that if all eggs were produced by uncaged hens, egg prices could increase by as much as 25 percent, but if large-scale subsidies for factory farms were re-allocated, that might not be the case. Only time will tell.
Photo by woodleywonderworks via Flickr.