Cage-free eggs on the midterm ballot for Californians

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California proposition draws eyes from farmers across nation

Voters to decide on proposal that would ban the sale of eggs, meat from animals raised in confined spaces; Douglas Kennedy reports on the implications for farmers across the country.

Ken Klippen lives in Philadelphia, but he's trying to save egg farmers in the Midwest from a ballot measure in California.

As the president of the National Association of Egg Farmers, Klippen says that Proposition 12 on the ballot in California this November, will cause "some major changes in the way eggs are produced."

The measure, which Klippen calls "precedent setting," is titled the Farm Animal Confinement Initiative. It would ban the sale of eggs in California that come from hens raised in small cages. It would do the same for pigs and calves.

That means most farmers who sell their produce in the state of California will either have to change their farming practices or lose one of the biggest markets in the country. The Association of California Egg Farmers and National Pork Producers Council both oppose the measure.

Fox News spoke with a third-generation egg farmer, Chris Nichols of Chino Valley Ranchers, who also opposes Prop 12.

"I would say the people who do suffer in the end are the consumer," Nichols explained, "because your price is going up."

Cage-free eggs can cost as much as twice as regular eggs. Some worry that this measure will take away consumer choice, if it passes.

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Josh Balk of the Humane Society of the United States, the group that supports the proposition, disagrees. Balk said that "everyone from Walmart to McDonald's to Safeway to Denny's to IHOP are all switching to cage-free eggs."

Klippen said that although the Humane Society pretends to be a shelter organization, it is simply pushing a secret national agenda: getting people to stop eating meat altogether.

"Not only meat," Klippen added, "but stop [drinking] milk and stop eating eggs. So, meat, milk and eggs, that's their agenda."

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When asked about this assertion, Balk replied that "everyone from vegans to meat eaters can completely agree, that animals should not be confined in cages."

Cages that are often too small to move an inch.