Dive Brief:
- California's new law banning the sale of eggs from farms where chickens live in cramped conditions is legal, a federal judge has ruled.
- Missouri's Attorneys General filed a lawsuit in February seeking to block the law. Attorneys general from five other states later joined the suit.
- The judge dismissed the lawsuit and ruled the plaintiffs did not have legal standing because they failed to show California had inflicted actual harm to any of their citizens.
Dive Insight:
The legal issues here are interesting. Missouri's AG was making a commerce-clause claim. And although the court rejected that reasoning, it would seem quite possible that Missouri will sue again after California's law takes effect in January and an actual farmer, not a hypothetical one, can try to prove damage.
Missouri has passed constitutional amendments aimed at making it difficult to regulate the industry, considering ag-gag laws that would make it illegal to expose animal cruelty.
But many buyers of agricultural products, and the consumers they serve, have already made it clear they are on the side of California in debates like this. It seems that retailers are growing increasingly reluctant to stock products associated with animal hardship. And with increasing transparency, some consumers have grown uncomfortable with the harsh truths of food production.