The Trump administration is suing the state of California to block animal welfare laws that it says unconstitutionally helped send egg prices soaring. But a group that spearheaded the requirements pushed back, blaming bird flu for the hit to consumers\u2019 pocketbooks.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit, filed in federal court<\/a> in California on Wednesday, challenges voter initiatives that passed in 2018 and 2008. They require that all eggs sold in California come from cage-free hens.<\/a><\/p>\n The Trump administration says the law imposes burdensome red tape on the production of eggs and egg products across the country because of the state\u2019s outsize role in the national economy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is one thing if California passes laws that affects its own State, it is another when those laws affect other States in violation of the U.S. Constitution,\u201d U.S. Agriculture Brooke Rollins said in a statement<\/a> Thursday. \u201cThankfully, President Trump is standing up against this overreach.\u201d<\/p>\n Egg prices soared last year and earlier this year due in large part to bird flu, which has forced producers to destroy nearly 175 million<\/a> birds since early 2022. But prices have come down<\/a> sharply recently. While the Trump administration claims credit<\/a> for that, seasonal factors are also important. Avian influenza, which is spread by wild birds, tends to spike during the spring and fall migrations and drop in summer.<\/p>\n \u201cPointing fingers won\u2019t change the fact that it is the President\u2019s economic policies that have been destructive,\u201d the California Department of Justice said in a statement Friday. \u201cWe\u2019ll see him in court.\u201d<\/p>\n The average national price for a dozen Grade A eggs declined to $5.12 in April and $4.55 in May<\/a> after reaching a record $6.23 in March, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics<\/a>. But the May price was still 68.5% higher than a year earlier.<\/p>\n \u201cTrump\u2019s back to his favorite hobby: blaming California for literally everything,\u201d Gov. Gavin Newsom\u2019s office said in a social media post.<\/a><\/p>\n The federal complaint alleges that California contributed to the rise in egg prices with regulations that forced farmers across the country to adopt more expensive production practices. The lawsuit also asserts that it is the federal government\u2019s legal prerogative to regulate egg production. So it seeks to permanently block enforcement of the California regulations that flowed from the two ballot measures.<\/p>\n \u201cAmericans across the country have suffered the consequences of liberal policies causing massive inflation for everyday items like eggs,\u201d Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement.<\/a> \u201cUnder President Trump\u2019s 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.\u201d <\/p>\n While 2018\u2019s Proposition 12 also banned the sale of pork and veal in California from animals raised in cages that don\u2019t meet minimum size requirements, the lawsuit only focuses on the state\u2019s egg rules.<\/p>\n Humane World for Animals, which was named the Humane Society of the United States when it spearheaded the passage of Proposition 12, says avian influenza and other factors drove up egg prices, not animal welfare laws. And it says much of the U.S. egg industry went cage-free anyway because of demand from consumers who don\u2019t want eggs from hens confined to tiny spaces.<\/p>\n \u201cCalifornia has prohibited the sale of cruelly produced eggs for more than a decade \u2014 law that has been upheld by courts at every level, including the Supreme Court. Blaming 2025 egg prices on these established animal welfare standards shows that this case is about pure politics, not constitutional law,\u201d Sara Amundson, president of the Humane World Action Fund, said in a statement.<\/a><\/p>\n The American Egg Board, which represents the industry, said Friday that it will monitor the progress of the lawsuit while continuing to comply with California\u2019s laws, and that it appreciates Rollins\u2019 efforts to support farmers in their fight against bird flu and to stabilize the egg supply.<\/p>\n \u201cEgg farmers have been both responsive and responsible in meeting changing demand for cage-free eggs, while supporting all types of egg production, and continuing to provide options in the egg case for consumers,\u201d the board said in a statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Trump administration is suing the state of California to block animal welfare laws that it says unconstitutionally…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":58022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[42339,42340,64,2059,276,26300,69,1854,57,2055,328,210,336,362,1165,50,11335,80,42341,61,67,370,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-58021","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-animal-rights","10":"tag-bird-flu","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-ca-state-wire","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-california-state-government","15":"tag-donald-trump","16":"tag-gavin-newsom","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-government-and-politics","19":"tag-government-regulations","20":"tag-health","21":"tag-lawsuits","22":"tag-legal-proceedings","23":"tag-lifestyle","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-pam-bondi","26":"tag-politics","27":"tag-sara-amundson","28":"tag-u-s-news","29":"tag-united-states","30":"tag-united-states-government","31":"tag-unitedstates","32":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114837042146834821","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}