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Michigan Senate passes cage-free egg bill

Michigan’s poultry industry could soon join a select number of states enforcing animal housing requirements and meet national retailer standards for cage-free eggs by 2025.

Michigan Allied Poultry Industry executive director Allison Brink tells Brownfield egg producers wanted to be at the table setting cage-free requirements with policymakers.

“For our farms to convert over to cage-free housing, we estimate for our 15 million laying hens it will cost in excess of $600 million.”

More than half of Michigan’s egg production has moved toward cage-free housing over the past five years.

“Michigan is sixth in the nation for egg production and would be the largest egg-producing state to have a cage-free housing requirement.”

Brink is testifying before the Michigan House Ag Committee this week and remains hopeful the legislation could be signed in into law in the coming weeks.

Similar legislation was vetoed last year but Brink says this version is more in line with the reasons why former Governor Rick Snyder dismissed the measure.

California, Washington, Oregon, and Rhode Island are currently the only states to require cage-free housing.

The multi-bill legislation also updates biosecurity efforts, disease outbreak response, and livestock indemnification standards as part of the state’s Animal Industry Act, the first revisions in more than 20 years.