Grocers flocking to cage-free eggs

Companies from McDonald’s to Walmart have recently flocked to cage-free eggs, fueling a national sales boom for a product many believe is more humane.

But in Iowa, the country’s largest egg-producing state, there are fears that the trend has gone too far. And this week, lawmakers there passed an unusual bill that would require many stores to stock eggs from caged chickens — a move designed to stop retailers from phasing them out.

Although the law would only apply to stores’ Iowa locations, it’s intended to address a growing national dilemma. The country’s largest grocery chains have committed to cage-free eggs, sending shock waves through the industry — but consumers aren’t buying like they were expected.

Supporters of the bill argue animal welfare groups have shamed grocery stores into offering a product consumers don’t want. They have framed the legislation as a needed counterweight to welfare groups’ growing influence.

Those groups, meanwhile, have accused lawmakers of shilling for Iowa’s agribusiness interests.

“This is definitely one of the most bizarre things I’ve seen in my years monitoring these sorts of bills,” said Cody Carlson, a staff attorney with the animal welfare group Mercy for Animals. “The idea of forcing private businesses to sell a specific product is pretty unprecedented.”

The new legislation would not literally force stores to sell conventional eggs –though people involved in drafting the bill say it could eventually have that effect. As written, the legislation requires that stores carry conventional eggs if they participate in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, better known as WIC.

That won’t have much immediate impact on retailers, said Michelle Hurd, the president of the Iowa Grocery Industry Association. Under current rules in Iowa and other states including California, Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois, WIC recipients can only use their benefits on conventional eggs. That means WIC retailers such as Walmart, Target and CVS are required to stock them already.

But in recent years, those chains and dozens of others have promised to go cage-free within the next decade, following calls by consumers and animal welfare advocates. To fulfill those promises, stores will have to withdraw from the WIC program or persuade state agencies to change the rules for their WIC food packages.

That raises the possibility that, in many stores, conventional eggs will soon no longer be available.