The Justice Department is suing the state of California over egg price increases it claims are partially fueled by the state’s animal welfare standards.
A new lawsuit filed in federal court for the Central District of California argues California’s Proposition 12 has prevented farmers across the U.S. from using previously widespread agricultural production methods, which has helped drive up the price of eggs “by imposing unnecessary red tape" on their production. It also takes aim at two other state laws.
The Justice Department is asking the court to invalidate and permanently enjoin California's enforcement of its laws, claiming they diverge from federal egg standards and, as a result, violate the Constitution's Supremacy Clause.
“Americans across the country have suffered the consequences of liberal policies causing massive inflation for everyday items like eggs,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a press release. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we will use the full extent of federal law to ensure that American families are free from oppressive regulatory burdens and restore American prosperity.”
Proposition 12, which was passed in 2018, requires producers to use a cage-free housing system and give hens enough space to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs or turn around freely. It codified United Egg Producers’ Animal Husbandry Guidelines to require a minimum of one square foot of usable floorspace per hen in multitiered aviaries and partially slatted systems and 1.5 square foot of usable floorspace per hen in single-level floor systems.
Proposition 12 “alone has ‘caused a significant increase’ in egg prices, ‘and therefore led to a sizable reduction in consumer surplus,’” the lawsuit says, referencing a 2023 Purdue University study that found a dozen eggs cost California consumers from 25 cents to 73 cents more after the regulation went into effect. That study estimated a state-level annual loss in consumer surplus of between $223 million and $664 million.
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In addition to Proposition 12, the lawsuit also takes aim at Proposition 2, a ballot measure mandating housing requirements for egg-laying hens, and AB1437, which prohibits the sale of eggs produced in violation of animal welfare standards. The lawsuit cites a 2018 study by two agricultural economists that found that within a year and a half of the laws' implementation, egg production and egg-laying hen numbers decreased by 35%, and in less than two years the average price paid for a dozen eggs was approximately 20% higher than it would have been without those laws.
Proposition 2 was enacted in 2008, while AB1437 was enacted in 2010.
In response to the lawsuit, the X account for California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office posted, “Trump’s back to his favorite hobby: blaming California for literally everything.”
In a press release, Animal Wellness Action and Center for a Humane Economy president Wayne Pacelle called the lawsuit “absurd” and said it would “put American egg farmers on the chopping block.”
"Eliminating animal welfare and food safety standards in the states will open the floodgates to allow cheap eggs from factory farms in Mexico to flood the U.S. market,” Pacelle said. "Nearly half of all eggs produced in the United States are cage-free, and where are they supposed to go if all state laws requiring cage-free housing standards are eliminated? This is a headline-hunting action that is anti-farmer, anti-consumer, and anti-animal welfare."
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