Arizona throws egg in the face of lawsuit
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Arizona agriculture officials are fighting a lawsuit filed by a Tucson restaurateur over a new mandate that will require eggs sold in stores to come from cage-free hens starting in 2025 and would raise the cost of doing business, according to the Arizona Daily Star.
Arizona Department of Agriculture rules will require that all eggs sold in Arizona must come from hens in cages no smaller than one square foot of floor space — 144 square inches — per hen, nearly doubling the space and resulting in additional costs that amount to somewhere between a penny and 3.25 cents per egg, the state’s lawyers claim.
And that’s the state’s argument: compliance will be cheap and, therefore, the lawsuit filed by Grant Krueger, owner of Union Hospitality Group, is based on unsubstantiated “speculative” arguments that the company will pay higher costs for eggs.
A judge is expected to rule soon on whether to allow the lawsuit to proceed, according to the article.
