California voters support more humane farm animal practices

Prop. 2 probably won't hike egg prices

By Carla Hall, LA Times

With the passage of Proposition 2 last week, California voters decided to forbid the caging of farm animals in enclosures that do not allow them to stand, turn around, lie down and fully extend their limbs.

Farmers will have to remove hens from so-called battery cages and raise them in hen houses or outside yards.

Confining crates for veal calves and pregnant sows also are outlawed under Proposition 2. But because there are few veal producers in the state and the largest California pork producer plans to eliminate small crates voluntarily, the law will mostly affect the state's 20 million hens that produce roughly 5 billion eggs a year.

(More here.)