Colorado House Bill 1343: It Ain't About Eggs

An Out of State Lobbying Firm Forced the Colorado Legislature to Pass A Law

Paotie

Imagine a state legislature so afraid of an out-of-state special interest lobbying firm that legislators panic and pass a law the firm wants. That's what happened with Colorado House Bill 1343, which requires egg producers to provide hens with cage-free spaces, among other regulations for buying and selling cage-free eggs.

Nobody is denying the law will raise the price of cage-free eggs. A few question how much prices will rise and also when prices will stabilize, but by and large, the main fuss about the egg law, which won’t fully go into effect until 2025, has been centered around an increase in prices. 

And it is a fussy point: Prices for just about everything continues to rise, from housing to energy prices to foods, including eggs. Those in the lowest economic rungs will be most negatively impacted by inflationary pressures; worrying about the rising prices of eggs is especially important when you're struggling paycheck-to-paycheck.

A few people have focused on the humane treatment of hens as reason to support the law. It sounds fine and good until one realizes that prior to the law being enacted, Colorado's egg producers and suppliers were already beginning to transition towards cage-free environments for their hens. Meanwhile, a Colorado Department of Agriculture employee claims HB 1343 mainly focuses on three farms which “represents more than 90% of egg production in Colorado.”

But these issues pale in comparison to how Colorado House Bill 1343 was passed.

You can read up more on the specifics of the history of HB 1343 being passed here. Note both Colorado Republican and Democrat legislators decry how the bill was created and ultimately passed. A Democrat basically says the legislature was "forced" to pass this legislation, and a Republican called it "an assault on Colorado".

So ... I read Denver Post columnist Krista Kafer's Substack about HB 1343 in which she simply and casually sneers at "conservative commentators grousing" about the law and its unintended consequences. In her short post, she focuses on abuse of hens as a singular reason to support the law. Nothing else was mentioned, no concern for struggling working families to feed their children, or inflation and rising costs, let alone the precedents of terrible legislation which includes both Democrat and Republican critics.

Nada. Only concern for hens.

Well, it’ll be great that hens will soon have their own cubicles to sit and cluck to their heart’s delight but for working families, HB 1343 will make it much more difficult for them to feed their children. Businesses dependent on eggs will be hurt and likely find alternatives to eggs. The bigger problem, and the much bigger fuss, is the fact this law will add to a long list of increasing cost of living expenses caused by the government and legislation.

Colorado House Bill 1343 should have never been drafted, passed, and signed into law by the governor. It is a law drafted by virtue signalers, passed by virtue signalers, and signed into law by a governor who uses virtue signaling in lieu of a political philosophy. It is a law forced onto state legislators by an out-of-state lobbying firm.

That’s eggsactly what happened. Pardon the pun.