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UEP head defends egg bill

The president and CEO of United Egg Producers (UEP), Gene Gregory, has  taken a lot of heat in recent months—mostly from other segments of animal agriculture—for UEP’s decision to compromise with the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) on the issue of cage size for egg-laying hens. 

But Gregory continues to defend the compromise—and the so-called “egg bill” now pending in Congress—saying that federal standards are necessary to ensure the future survivability of the U.S. egg industry.

Many livestock organizations are still not convinced that HSUS can be trusted–but Gregory says, to this point, it’s been a good partnership.

“Our dealings with them through this process have been surprising to me.  It’s been far better than we dreamed it would be—and they have been excellent partners,” Gregory says. “So hopefully—hopefully—that will carry on.”

Can the egg bill make it through Congress?  Gregory acknowledges that opposition to the egg bill by the beef and pork industries is going to make it more difficult.

“Were it not for their lobbying efforts against us, we would have lots more co-sponsors.  So if we don’t pass the legislation, it will be primarily because of that livestock—or other agricultural opposition—I think.”

Gregory says they had originally hoped to see a vote on the egg bill by this summer, but admits that is not likely to happen in this election year.

Gregory’s comments came in an interview with Brownfield at the National Institute for Animal Agriculture conference in Denver.

AUDIO: Gene Gregory (9:08 MP3)

 

  • You dance with the devil, and he takes your soul. There is NO acceptable compromise as that is just “moving the middle” towards reducing animal use for as many people as society will permit. The H$U$ is NOT a friend to animal industries, or even to animals in many cases, since “collateral damage” in humans AND animals is acceptable in furtherance of their agenda–and agenda that *uses animals* to fill their coffers and pay their high salaries/retirement/benefits. Critics say H$U$ wants to eliminate animal use, and that is the *true believer* animal rights agenda, to which H$U$ leadership deeply believes. However, even though the leadership at H$U$ would like to see that in their “vegan utopia”, they understand that not only will society not allow that, but also, H$U$ would be drying up their own “$cash cow$” if animal use was no more, as they could no longer be “moral entrepreneurs”—there would be no more animal users to *punish* or animal “moral panics” to use to get donations from clueless animal-loving people.

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