Egg factories

Regarding “Egg prices soaring as production falls” (Aug. 24): The egg industry has itself, not California voters, to blame for rising egg costs.

The overcrowded and filthy conditions for animals in tight cages on today’s factory farms create ideal breeding grounds for high-pathogenic illnesses like the bird flu that’s recently ravaged the hens trapped inside egg factories across our nation. The resulting massive decline in chickens has led to increased costs for eggs.

Fortunately, in California, voters passed a law in 2008 to ease this extreme confinement, but some egg producers chose to sit on their hands for the generous six-year phase-in period rather than use the time to convert to more humane and sanitary hen housing. Instead of shifting to cage-free systems, some sued in failed attempts to continue locking their birds in cages.

This is despite the fact that producers publicly stated they believed the law’s implementation would mean a de facto shift toward cage-free henhouses. Their own economic analysis shows that would only increase costs to producers by a penny an egg. Eggs are certainly getting more expensive. And it’s the industry’s own reckless behavior that is responsible. Paul Shapiro, vice president of Farm Animal Protection for the Humane Society of the United States,

Washington, D.C.