“The egg industry can be more enthusiastic about features that don’t appear in the final 2008 farm bill than anything that became law,” writes James Webster in the July issue of Egg Industry.
The big victory for egg producers and others in animal agriculture—the bill has none of the “animal welfare” regulations that activist groups had been pushing, says Webster.
Another plus is that the final conference committee deleted language from the Senate bill that might have complicated grower-processor contract relationships.
Egg producers would have preferred that the farm bill offer some relief from high feed costs but considered small victories a small reduction in the tax subsidy to ethanol blenders and a promise of investment in cellulosic ethanol to relieve the pressure on corn prices.
“The thing that is hurting us is not the farm bill but the energy bill last year that stepped up the mandate for corn-based ethanol,” said Howard Magwire, Washington representative of United Egg Producers.
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