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Poultry Lobby Forcing Stores to Sell Their Eggs

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As consumers have awoken to the barbaric conditions of the egg industry, they have begun to turn toward incrementally more humane alternatives, such as cage-free eggs, as well as truly humane options, such as eggs from pasture-raised hens at places like Vital Farms.
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But in response, the powerful poultry industry -- which long invoked principles of the "free market" to justify their torture-derived products being available to consumers -- have now reversed course. With consumers choosing more humane egg products, lobbyists for the poultry industry are pushing laws that would force stores to carry their products even if doing so offends their moral sensibilities and ethical judgments.

In Iowa, the nation's biggest egg-producing state, lawmakers, at the behest of the poultry lobby, are making their most brazen attempt yet to fight the tides of change: simply making it a legal requirement for grocery stores to carry inhumanely produced eggs.

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The bill's supporters frame the measure as a consumer choice issue, arguing that the most economically destitute Iowans deserve access to lower priced eggs.

And if you weren't aware of the inhumane treatment of chickens...

The cages were about the size of a microwave, with seven to 10 hens crammed into each one. The floors were made of an abrasive wire mesh, so when birds died -- often from thirst or starvation after their confinement had debilitated their muscles and bones, rendering them paralyzed -- the live hens would stand on top of the decaying carcasses to give their feet some relief. Workers like Carlson were responsible for removing the trampled carcasses.

"We called it 'pulling carpets,'" he said.

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"It was common at the places I worked to find hens whose wings, legs, necks, and prolapsed ova became caught in the wires, condemning them to excruciating, prolonged deaths by dehydration or trampling by their cage-mates," Carlson told The Intercept in an email. The "ova" that he refers to is the chicken equivalent of a uterus, which commonly prolapses because they are bred to produce so many eggs. "When I pointed this out to my supervisor and offered to help untangle some of the hens, I was told this wasn't our job and should wait until they died to remove them," Carlson added.

By min | March 2, 2018, 1:36 PM | Liberal Outrage