Inquirer Editorial: State has a stake in chicken, egg debate

The congressional legislation that has resulted from this unusual alliance shows a good balance between real-world egg-production practices and the idealistic goal of free-range chicken farming. It calls for replacing conventional cages, but only over a lengthy phase-in period stretching out 15-18 years, and with financial protections that allow farmers to fully depreciate existing equipment.

Along with other food-safety standards being imposed, consumers would be armed with new information on production methods used for the eggs they're buying. Cartons would specify such things as whether the eggs came from "caged hens," "hens in enriched cages," "cage-free hens" or "free-range hens."

This is not just a feel-good initiative, since the Humane Society notes that egg-industry scientists assert that "enriched colony cages are the best all-around solution for hen welfare, industry economics, and an affordable egg supply for consumers."

For reasons that reportedly stem from antiregulatory fears, pork- and beef-industry trade groups have joined a farmers' trade association (that also happens to pooh-pooh climate change) in opposing the measure.

Congress, though, has a clear mandate to act from the farmers who know best how they want their eggs done.