by The Oklahoma Editorial Board

December 10,2017

IT’S undisputed that poorly designed laws can have wide-ranging, negative ripple effects. Yet some people insist a government program is the best answer to every problem. The impact of a California law regulating chicken cages highlights why citizens should be skeptical of such government “solutions.”

In 2008, Californians approved Proposition 2, requiring egg producers to house hens in cages larger than the industry standard. This forced California egg producers to spend as much as $430 million on new cages and facilities, raising their cost of business by up to 20 percent more than competitors not subject to the regulation.

California’s egg producers sensibly argued this put them at a competitive disadvantage with producers from other states who could sell eggs in the California market. Lawmakers responded by passing a law requiring that any egg sold in California must come from a producer whose cage practices comply with Proposition 2. Because of the size of the California market, that effectively imposed California regulations on producers nationwide.

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