Gov extends chicken cage rule to imports

Egg prices will rise about 2 cents each at the farm gate when new laws go into effect in 2015 that require egg-laying hens be given more space to move around. California voters overwhelmingly passed Prop. 2 in 2008, requiring the state's producers to modify their egg production practices.

This week, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a law that requires the producers of all eggs sold in California - even if they are out of state - to follow the same guidelines.

In stories about the latest development, the media sought expert analysis from Dan Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, who co-wrote a report that said the California egg industry produces almost 5 billion eggs per year and was worth $337 million in 2007.

Sumner told the San Francisco Chronicle egg prices will rise across the board because of the new production practices.

"People will eat fewer eggs, but not a lot fewer eggs because they are still pretty cheap," Sumner said. He noted that about 40 percent of eggs consumed by Californians are in processed foods or are "liquid eggs" that are not in shells and that those that are imported are unaffected.

In a story yesterday on KGO-TV, a San Francisco news outlet, Sumner called consumer reaction to the new laws "a bit of a puzzle."

Currently consumers can choose to purchase the more-expensive cage-free eggs, but about 97 percent of consumers choose regular eggs.

"This is a product that just about everybody eats and almost everybody chooses to eat eggs raised with hens in cages; and we take that product and make it illegal," Sumner said.

Read more