While animal welfare isn't necessarily integral to sustainability, it certainly seems germane. What is green living if not respect for the planet and its creatures?
The humane society has long been on a campaign against the "battery cages" that it says are widely used in the industry. Hens are crammed into cages that give each bird about as much space as a piece of letter-sized paper. They don't have nests. They can't scratch in the dirt or spread their wings.
The industry group is a cooperative whose members own about 80 percent of the nation's egg-laying hens. They're interested in leveling the field so that growers who provide better - as in more expensive - conditions for hens aren't penalized in the marketplace.
And they feel a national standard would be better than the patchwork of regulations passed or proposed in six states. (None in Pennsylvania, which is third in the nation in egg production.)
They want legislation to require "enriched" cages that would provide double the space, have nest boxes and allow for natural behaviors.
"While it may not mean chicken utopia, it still ensures a much better life for hens," said society spokesman Josh Balk.
The two groups also want to require every carton to disclose what type of production practice was used. And they want, gulp, euthanasia standards for "spent hens," which have quit laying as often.
Like Patti, I might note. But every now and then she manages one - brown - and we're both happy to see it.
Naturally, the world of chickendom is not going to change overnight.
But since the industry and the society are in league, one hopes not even our contentious national legislators will have much to cluck over.
