Egg farms' dilemma: To comply, close or move?

Issue Date: March 24, 2010

By Steve Adler

Eric Benson, Jill Benson and Mike West, left to right, of JS West Co. in Modesto look over plans for their new state-of-the-art egg-laying facility that is currently under construction.

When California voters passed Proposition 2 affecting animal agriculture operations in November 2008, egg producers were faced with three choices—comply, close up shop or move out of state.

In fact, recruiters from other states began encouraging California egg farms to move almost as soon as the Proposition 2 results were announced, a recruitment process that continues.

The owners of one of the state's leading egg producers, family-owned JS West in Modesto, said the company is determined to stay in business in California and is taking steps to follow the directives of Proposition 2.

"People like us are vacillating. We very much want to stay in California. We've been here for 100 years. We'd hate to leave all of the infrastructure in place. We are pretty committed to being here, but without that level playing field it is tough," said Eric Benson, JS West president and grandson of the company's founder, James Stewart West.

Proposition 2, sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States and other groups, prohibits specific farm animals from being confined in a way that prevents them from being able to turn around, lie down, stand up and fully extend their limbs.

The measure targets housing systems used for veal calves and pregnant sows as well as for egg-laying hens. Because there is virtually no veal production and a relatively small pork sector in California, the bulk of the impact will be felt by egg farmers.

Although the proposition won't take effect for four more years, JS West has already begun the conversion with the phasing in of state-of-the-art housing units on one of its ranches.

The new housing units, which provide more room for the hens, are similar to ones used in Europe.

Construction is well under way on the first of the new units. It is projected to go online in mid-June and will house 150,000 laying hens.

"The chicks have arrived and we are on a tight time line. We have to move them at 17 weeks or so," Benson said. "We've got the walls up and the equipment is being set up inside.

"I am hoping that the house we are building now will satisfy Prop. 2. I know that scientifically it will. We just need to get the rules clearly defined. I am certain that in practice it satisfies Prop. 2 standards; it is now just a matter of getting it written down in regulations," he said.

Building new egg-laying facilities is a costly undertaking, and there is a possibility that some California producers may opt instead to move to another state that has less stringent rules.

Debbie Murdock, executive director of the Association of California Egg Farmers, said representatives of at least two states—Georgia and Nevada—have already approached some producers in an attempt to entice them to close up operations in California and relocate.

Agricultural representatives and elected officials in Idaho have also done some recruiting in California.

"Idaho called us immediately after the election a year and a half ago," Benson said, "but Iowa is where the corn is and there are opportunities there and in South Dakota. And of course, Nevada would be the closest from a transportation perspective. Iowa is probably the biggest possibility for California egg farms relocating because Iowa is where the corn is produced."

Iowa is the nation's leading egg-producing state, with more than 14 billion eggs annually. California, with 5 billion eggs annually, ranks fifth.

Murdock said she has been contacted by an economic development group from Pershing County, Nev. They sent a group to one of her board meetings, where they promoted the lower cost of land and available transportation by both a rail line and Interstate 80. The Nevada group acknowledged that it did not have the infrastructure in place that egg farmers would need, but they may build what is needed if farms expressed the desire to relocate, she said.

For JS West, which plans to stay, the question revolves around creating housing for hens that satisfies Proposition 2.

"We know through scientific research and experience that hens that are housed and kept indoors are protected, they are healthy and as a result they produce a very clean egg," said Jill Benson, JS West vice president and Eric Benson's sister.

"As farmers, we really take our jobs seriously," she said. "Consumers want and deserve economical, safe, locally produced and nutritious food and that is what we strive to bring them. We also work to retain consumer choice. We don't feel society is ready to have the 'how' and 'what' of what they eat dictated to them by activist groups."

Eric Benson added, "We talked with some urban consumers, especially younger ones, who really don't have a good idea yet about food production. They'll say that eggs come from the back of the store rather than from a chicken. To me, that is one of the challenges in society today."

(Steve Adler is associate editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at sadler@cfbf.com. Ag Alert reporter Ron Miller contributed to this story.)

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top