Dive Brief:
- Chris Koster, Missouri's attorney general, has filed a lawsuit in federal court to block a California law requiring that eggs sold in that state come from birds raised in cages large enough to allow them to spread their wings.
- Koster believes the law imposes an unreasonable burden on Missouri farmers, who sell 540 million eggs a year in California.
- A similar attempt to roll back the California law was pulled from the recent federal Farm Bill.
Dive Insight:
We're not attorneys. But the interstate-commerce clause, as well as decades of case law, would suggest that Koster has a strong case.
Rolling back the law, however, hardly solves Missouri's problems. Retailers are growing increasingly reluctant to stock products associated with animal cruelty. Consumers have grown uncomfortable with the harsh truths of food production. Everyone on the buying side of the food business wants change.
Telling Missouri's farmers that the best way to address such change is to file lawsuits seems like a losing proposition over the long-term.