Over the past decade, California’s voters and legislature have supported several measures mandating changes in common meat and egg production practices with consequences that extend far beyond the state’s borders. It began in 2008, when voters approved Proposition 2, a ballot initiative that prohibited California farmers from using gestation crates for hogs, confining veal calves in traditional hutches and keeping egg-laying hens in battery cages.
The passage of Proposition 2 put California’s pork, egg and veal producers at a competitive disadvantage with out-of-state and foreign producers; however, this was temporary. In 2010, the California legislature enacted Assembly Bill 1437, which protected California’s egg farmers by prohibiting the sale of shelled eggs from hens reared in out-of-state housing that did not meet Proposition 2’s standards. In November 2018, voters approved Proposition 12, a ballot initiative that prohibits the sale of fresh cuts of pork and veal in California that do not meet the animal-housing requirements imposed on California’s farmers in Proposition 2. The law is anticipated to go into effect by mid- to late 2020.