Paying for Eggs
When it comes to buying your eggs at Vons or Ralphs or at any local grocer, which way do you lean? Are you paying the extra $1 a crate or $0.25 an egg for the free range or organic dozen?
Did you vote yes on Proposition 2 back in 2008 stating that farmers must increase cage sizes for chickens, veal calves and pigs by 2015. If you did, you'd be helping a great deal by off setting this cost by spending the extra dollars. In theory, everything proves to be a great idea, but with an economy such as ours, counting every nickel becomes priority.
But when people vote one way, then vote a different way with their fork, they unintentionally undermine the very agricultural changes they’re rooting for.
Because of the dichotomy between what voters say they want, versus the reality of how they shop, the California egg industry faces ruin. The situation was recognized as being so serious, in fact, that state legislators passed another law, AB1437, requiring that all eggs sold in California must comply with bigger cage standards.