Activists Cracking Down on Egg Industry Profits

According to a recent article in Minneapolis’ Star Tribune, Land O’Lakes, the third largest egg-producer in the US, released an annual report that revealed that the company was looking to exit the egg business. This recent move is due in part to animal-welfare legislation: “During the next five years, regulations regarding the welfare of chickens are expected to tighten, causing more companies to exit the industry,” reads an October report from the Australian research firm IBISWorld. One of these regulations is increased living space for hens—a law was recently passed in California that requires farms to allocate 116 square inches of space (up from 67 square inches) per hen, and any farm that plans to sell their eggs in the Golden Sate must conform to the law. Land O’Lakes reports that it will sell its US operations in the West and the Midwest in 2014.