Egg industry to fight ballot initiative

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/09/30/ballot/tZiiMb7XlipKfBTq9k5x5N/story.html

Egg industry to fight ballot initiative
By Joshua Miller Globe Staff September 30, 2015

The head of the country’s biggest egg industry group is pledging a creative campaign to counter a proposed 2016 Massachusetts ballot initiative that would mandate Massachusetts farms and businesses produce and sell only eggs from cage-free hens.

Chad Gregory, president and chief executive of United Egg Producers, said he came to Massachusetts recently to huddle with other opponents of the measure, which would also prohibit the sale of pork from pigs raised in or born of a sow raised in a small crate and veal from calves raised in a very tight enclosure. And, he said, they are considering all their options.

First up, he said, the informal coalition of groups opposed to the ballot push will commission an independent economic impact study of what the referendum, if successful, might do to consumers in the state — especially the lowest-income residents, such as those using food stamps.

~snip~

The ballot measure is backed by several prominent animal welfare groups, including the Humane Society of the United States, the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and the Animal Rescue League of Boston. They say it would only impose modest standards, beginning in 2022, to protect farm animals from cruelty. It would, they emphasize, simply mean animals have enough room to stand up, lie down, turn around, and extend their limbs.