Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear joined with five other egg-producing states today in asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a lower court’s decision upholding California’s “Shell Egg Laws.”
The 2010 bill requires out-of-state egg producers to meet certain environmental standards for chickens before they can be sold in California, which is the country’s largest egg market. Kentucky Poultry Federation Executive Director Jamie Guffy said the law requires egg producers decrease the number of birds per cage.
“You have to reduce the amount of income you have from your farm. We have two operations that are currently in Kentucky that meet that requirement without an issue and another one that had to make modifications to their facility to meet the California egg law,” Guffy said.
Guffy said the four largest egg suppliers in Kentucky export the majority of their eggs out of state. Andy Beshear said the law also places Kentucky agriculture at a disadvantage by increasing farming cost and driving up the cost of food for Kentuckians.The other states are Alabama, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma.
