It is likely many will applaud the new Chapter 10 rules for California Title 3 “The Regulation on Animal Confinement”, but National Egg Farmers on June 2, 2021 submitted official comments to state officials demonstrating that implementing the new rule will have the opposite of its intended effect by jeopardizing human health, worker safety, climate change, and with less humane conditions for chickens. National Egg Farmers urged the California Department of Food and Agriculture to recognize its understanding of animal husbandry and its support of the California Health and Safety Code to correct this proposed action by urging the legislature to amend the law and allow the continued use of conventional cages for egg laying chickens. (http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/ahfss/
Below is a partial of National Egg Farmers’ comments [outlined (a) through (d)]:
(a) Human Health Concerns Jeopardized by CDFA Proposal:
The attention focused on cage-free eggs in the news has spawned a spate of backyard poultry flocks with concerns being expressed for years by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) of contamination with the pathogen Salmonella by this hobby or enterprise producing eggs.
In 2021 the CDC reported 163 people became ill in 43 states most likely from their backyard poultry. https://www.cdc.gov/
In 2020 over 1,700 people were sickened – https://www.cdc.gov/
In 2019 over 1,100 people were sickened – https://www.cdc.gov/
In 2018, over 340 people were sickened – https://www.cdc.gov/
In 2017 over 1100 people were sickened – https://www.cdc.gov/
(b) Food safety concerns resulting from CDFA proposal.
The US Animal Health Association October 17, 2017 Report stated: “Ascarids (round worms) are increasingly being found in cage-free operations with the concern being the possibility of a consumer finding an egg with a roundworm contained inside. Most all cage-free egg producers have had such an occurrence.” Chickens pick up roundworms when they come into contact with infected feces on the ground. In the Journal Food Control published a study June 17, 2014 entitled “Microbiological Contamination of Shell Eggs Produced in Conventional and Free-Range Housing Systems” The conclusions show why cages became the preferred method of producing safer eggs: “Battery caged hens (conventional cages) are standing on wire slats that allow feces to fall to a manure collection system beneath the hens. Conversely, free-range hens (cage-free) laid their eggs in nest boxes on shavings and the eggs remained in contact with hens, shavings and fecal material until they are collected. The longer contact time with free-range hens, shavings and feces would explain the higher enterobacteriaceae counts on free-range eggs as compared to battery caged eggs.”
(c) Worker Safety affected by the CDFA proposal.
The proposed action by the CDFA claims benefits to human health, worker safety, or the State’s environment. When CDFA says this proposal does not directly impact human health and welfare of California residents, worker safety, or the State’s environment, it is in error. A study conducted by the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply reported that the cage-free system had dust levels 8-10 times higher than other systems such as conventional cages. In addition, the cage-free system resulted in high worker exposure to endotoxin dust particles and reduced lung function by the end of a shift.
(d) CDFA Proposal Conflicts with Biden’s Efforts to Curb Climate Change
President Joe Biden recently released his full budget request for fiscal 2022, detailing his plans to ramp up spending at the US Department of Agriculture for climate research and agricultural adaptation while also increasing spending for environmental regulation at the Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department. The budget includes both President Biden’s annual spending requests for departments and agencies as well as the sweeping, longer-term proposals under his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan to address climate change, build roads and other infrastructure and reduce economic inequality. The $29.9 billion in budget authority that Biden is requesting for FY22 at USDA includes $914 million earmarked for climate research and resilience programs as well as clean energy.
The California Title 3 proposal reportedly does not conflict with any “Comparable Federal Regulations/Mandated by Federal Law or Regulations”. Will CDFA modify the enacted California Title 3 on animal confinement to be in alignment with the Biden Administration’s efforts on climate change with climate-smart agriculture? Producing eggs in conventional egg systems (cages) generates less ammonia and particulate matter (PM 2.5 and PM 10) than cage-free systems such as proposed by California Title 3. Manure belt conventional cages had a mean average for all the collections taken at 0.00012 lb./hen/day compared to aviary (cage-free) at 0.00049 lb./hen/day (4 times more ammonia in cage-free compared to conventional manure belt removal). PM2.5 for conventional manure belt systems was 2.8 mg/hen/day compared to cage-free aviary at 12.3 (again more than 4 times more in cage-free) and PM10 for conventional manure belt systems was 20.3 mg/hen/hen compared to 124.4 for cage-free (more than 6 times for cage-free).