WASHINGTON -- Consumers would spend $2.66 billion more for eggs each year if U.S. egg farmers could no longer produce eggs in modern cage systems, according to a recent study.
Federal spending on food assistance programs for children and the needy would also increase by $169 million annually if the government could only purchase cage-free eggs, the study said.
The 36-page study, "Impacts of Banning Cage Egg Production in the United States," was commissioned by the United Egg Producers and conducted by Promar International, an economic consulting company in Washington, D.C.
The study comes at a time when animal activists are seeking to ban cage housing systems in several states. Activists have already been successful in passing legislation to phase out cage systems in California by 2015.
A California ballot initiative, known as Proposition 2 and backed by the Humane Society of the United States, resulted in a November 2008 vote to effectively ban cages for layer hens in that state.
UEP President Gene Gregory, speaking at UEP area meetings held this past August, noted that HSUS already has said it plans to introduce legislation to ban layer cages in the states of Colorado, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Vermont, Arizona, Delaware, Illinois, Maine and Massachusetts.
Cage-free eggs cost more to produce since they require more land, labor, energy and food per hen. Higher production costs equate to higher retail prices.
An Oct. 16, 2009, report from USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service listed the average retail price for a dozen white Grade A eggs at 99 cents. At the same time, the average retail price for a dozen white cage-free eggs was listed at $1.88.
Gregory, writing in UEP's newsletter, reported recently visiting a fairly new cage-free layer complex of several houses.
"The owner reported of having reduced his flock by 20 percent because consumers are just not buying all the eggs," Gregory wrote. "This is interesting in the fact that animal activists would like for us to believe that consumers would buy and pay more for cage-free eggs if the industry would just produce them."
The Promar study noted the following:
Cage-free hens require 15 percent to 25 percent more feed than hens in modern cage systems to produce the same number of eggs. This means an additional 7 billion pounds of corn and soybean meal would be needed to feed cage-free hens, requiring an additional 580,000 acres of cropland to be tilled for farmland, with resulting potential for habitat losses and other increased environmental impacts.
Labor cost will increase because non-cage egg production systems require four times more farm employees than cage systems.
There would be a 400 percent increase in land needed to convert current modern cage systems to non-cage.
The cost to farmers converting their cage housing to cage-free housing would be $7.5 billion. The availability of credit and local permits could be a major obstacle for many farmers.
The study also reported that the U.S. is currently self-sufficient in supplying eggs for domestic consumption, but if cages were eliminated the U.S. would become a net importer of 7 billion eggs, or 10 percent of current domestic consumption.
This represents approximately 25 eggs per person from countries that could have far lower food safety and animal welfare standards than U.S. egg farms, the study said. The surge of imports, according to the study, could seriously strain the ability of the U.S. government to inspect those additional imports for salmonella or other food safety contaminants.
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