Eggs for breakfast

Good morning, everyone! I am going to try updating the Potted Goose from the front side of the day. I have reached the point in my pregnany where too much of anything - including sleeping - begins to get uncomfortable. So, I thought I would get up, log on, enjoy a cup of hot chocolate, and make the kids some eggs for breakfast.

Speaking of eggs, I want to shed a little light on a recent California ballot issue. In case you haven't heard...and you probably haven't because the media does not seem to be able to take their eyes off our president-elect...but the State of California recently passed a piece of legislation referred to as Proposition 2.

Prop 2 is a bill that will now "phase out the use of modern housing methods in the production of eggs, pork and veal," according to American Farm Bureau. Still uncertain? Here's the way this Goose sees it...

You and I, for the most part, go to the grocery store to buy the food we need to feed our families, with little thought given to where that food came from or how it got to the grocery store. And that's okay, for the most part.

You see, you and I have made a choice to be a part of a modern society. We have chosen careers, and suburban or town living, over living on a farm and working to grow the food we need to feed our families. We have left that task behind...to American farmers. But here's where I take issue.

There is such a great chasm that exists in our country between those who produce the food and those who consume it. Even in the more rural State of Kansas, population 2.7 million, there are only about 64,000 farms in this state. That means each farm feeds about about 42 people.

And in California, where there happens to be a large concentration of egg production, an even larger disconnect exists. A majority of the people in that state, with little to no connection or understanding of production agriculture, voted to approve Prop 2 and essentially put the egg farmers out of business.

Egg farmers, over the course of the last century, have raised chickens in small, housing units. They have achieved great levels of efficiency while maintaining ethical treatment of the animal, and all the while producing eggs for all of us who don't want chickens in our back yard.

This legislation will drive egg farmers out of business and shift egg production to places outside of the US. Places where we have little control over the safety and quality of those eggs.

So, enjoy your eggs while you can, and in the meantime, I encourage you to watch this on Monday night...

http://www.kfb.org/news/animaldoc.htm

It will air Monday evening, 9:30 pm, on your local PBS station.

Have a great day!!

Comments

And it doesn't stop there! Disconnected Kansas will become a lot more connected if this Prop 2 happens to spill out of the egg and pork production and run into cattle production. It's an interesting time in Agriculture, where I think we have to look beyond competing with these protein products and transcend the boundaries of the beef industry, pork industry, etc. to educate American on where there food really comes from and that we are the reason that we have a safe, reliable, affordable food source.

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