The Rhode Island legislature recently passed a bill which extends its cage-free housing period from July 2026 to January 2030.
The bill, originally passed in 2018, requires the state’s egg producers to comply with the 2016 United Egg Producers (UEP) certified cage-free housing requirements. However, unlike other states’ housing laws , does not affect eggs or egg products sold in the state that were produced outside the state.
According to media company Rhode Island Current, only one The state’s commercial egg producer still produces conventional eggs: Little Rhody Farms.
Media outlet The Providence Journal reported that the owner of Little Rhody Farms has not yet converted because he will have to modernize the entire operation to comply with the cage-free law and cannot obtain a loan to cover the costs, which would range from $1 million to $1.6 . million.
“This is not a man who is an evil monster trying to make life miserable for chickens. He is a farmer,” said Michael Chippendale, a member of the Rhode Island House of Representatives, at Little Rhody Farms. “We have seen our farms disappear at a rapid rate and we cannot lose any more farms.
According to Chippendale, Little Rhody Farms currently has 20 employees, making it Foster’s largest employer.
The ongoing debate over cage-free housing conversions
Many egg producers have found themselves in similar situations in recent years. For example, Hamilton Eggs , located in Hamilton, Michigan, was forced to decide whether it would spend millions to move to cage-free production or close after the state passed its housing law.
Additionally, and unsurprisingly, animal welfare groups have written letters to state senates that have delayed implementation of cage-free housing laws, such as Michigan in 2018 and Utah in 2024, and expressed disagreement with the extensions.
However, the reasoning behind the extensions is not due to a lack of care for animal welfare, but rather the fact that egg producers are currently working to make the conversion or decide if they can invest millions of dollars to make the conversions.
Producers are making these conversions because of state housing laws, like Rhode Island’s, and to meet cage-free promises made by customers who may not even keep them.
That situation alone can, and already has, put egg producers out of business.
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