Government Regulations and Legislation
BC’s Farm Industry Review Board
The BC Farm Industry Review Board is an appeal body, who supervises the marketing boards and commission in the agriculture and aquaculture sectors. Recently they have reviewed specialty and new entrant programs in BC. It was conducted to develop and update programs and marketing that assist specialty production, which includes organic products. This came about because there has been an increase of demand in BC for specialty products (mainly organic).
However, we have heard from some cage-free farmers wanting to obtain cage-free egg quota licenses that FIRB is not granting enough licenses to meet demand, nor granting them fast enough. Some farmers have been on a waiting list for over 2 years. Others have said that FIRB does not have enough power and control over governing the activities of the Egg Marketing Board and that the Board is not even implementing the policies and practices that FIRB requests of them.
What do you think? If you would like to pass on your views, visit the BC FIRB website for contact information, or tell VHS what you think. Contact us at info@chickenout.ca.
Canada: Federal Government
The Chicken Out! project has launched a petition asking the Canadian Government to label all eggs from battery caged hens as “eggs from caged hens”. This type of labelling would allow consumers to make educated choices, and it would be consistent with current European Union legislation.
Click here to download a copy of the petition, send us an email or call 604-266-9744 to have a copy sent directly to you.
Please ask your friends to take one too and collect signatures. Ask your local library, grocery store, fitness centre, launderette or any other place you visit frequently, to display one on their counter or on their message board. Our goal is to get 100,000 signatures before the end of the year. It is a huge goal, but we can do it, with your help.
USA - California and Proposition 2 to Ban Cages and Crates
In the November 2008 US election, California voters by an overwhelming majority (63.5%) passed the Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act (Proposition 2), which makes it a criminal offense to confine hens in cages and sows and veal calves in crates. Specifically the Act states that farm animals should be able to stand up, turn around and extend their limbs - activities of which they are denied in battery cages, gestation crates and veal crates.
Prop 2 received more votes than any citizen initiative in the history of California. It received a majority of support from Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, both younger and older voters, and Caucasians, African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians.
Prop 2 even won majorities in some of the largest agricultural counties, including Kern, Tuolumne, Mariposa, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego.
The use of cages for laying hens and crates for sows and veal calves will be slowly phased out with a complete ban coming into effect in 2015.
EU Ban on Battery Cages
The European Union has agreed to ban the use of conventional, barren battery cages by 2012. No newly built battery cages will be allowed from 2003, and from that date the space allowance in existing conventional cages was increased from 450 cm2 to 550 cm2 per bird.
While conventional battery cages will be banned, the use of "enriched" cages will still be allowed after 2012. Proponents claimed that these enriched cages will be better for the hen's welfare than battery cages. However, scientific and practical evidence shows that, in welfare terms, a cage is still a cage, enriched or not, and that the birds will continue to suffer. The space and facilities provided in enriched cages are so inadequate that they deprive the birds of the ability to fulfil natural behaviours, leading to abnormal behaviours, frustration, suffering and body degeneration.
In 2004, a new labelling program was introduced in the European Union that identifies the method of production:
- Battery eggs will be labelled as "Eggs from caged hens"
- Free-run and other barn eggs will be labelled as "Barn" eggs
- Free-range eggs will be labelled as "Free Range" eggs
- Organic eggs will be labelled as "Organic" eggs
Some countries in the European Union have gone beyond these measures. Switzerland banned the use of battery cages in 1992, and Germany banned conventional battery cages in 2007 and will ban enriched cages in 2012.
