"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal
Activists in California are trying to get an inititative on the ballot that would provide laying hens with more space and better conditions. As the story points out, this follows on the heels of similar measures in Arizona, Oregon, and Florida. One hopes this is a trend. My hunch has always been that people will want to improve the conditions of animals raised for food if they are informed about them, even if it means paying a bit more.
(HT)
I usually don’t chime in on your animal rights posts, but this post seemed more accessible than some of your other, rather detailed, posts on the topic.
Your hunch could be tested in the marketplace. The free market surely allows farmers to provide as much space as they like for their laying hens, and allows them to sell their eggs at a higher price. Would/do such eggs sell?
The question is this: if the free market has no or little interest in eggs laid in more spacious and humane conditions, is this an effort worthy of government regulation?
Inaccessible? Moi? (ahem)
Good question, though. Obviously a limited market for more humanely raised animal prouducts exists (free range beef, cage free eggs, etc.) and seems to be expanding. So that’s a good sign. Although as a caveat I think it needs to be mentioned that it’s pretty difficult for consumers to get accurate information about the way in which the animals they consume are raised. Maybe some sort of labeling scheme where it is made clear what conditions the meat, etc. was raised under for all animal products would rectify this. Historically big ag has been extremely resistant to publicizing the way their products are raised – shedding a little light on this to make consumers more informed strikes me as a sound policy consonant with the values of a free market.
Regarding your final question, though – it seems to me that you could turn it around. Isn’t it precisely where markets fail to deliver a certain social good that gov’t intervention is most needed? In principle this is no different from, say, better labor or environmental standards. Operating outside of a regulatory framework of some sort, each producer has an incentive to skimp on these things in order to remain competitive. Hence the (generally accepted) need for the gummint to set some kind of minimum standards in these areas.
A Thinking Reed 
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