Egg Lawsuits, Salmonella Deaths, and Dairy Delusions: Animal Ag’s Anxiety Spiral | Rising Anxieties

You know, we're always having a good time here at Our Hen House, but I do enjoy thinking about what's upsetting them, and a lot is. Our first story is from the AP, Trump administration sues California over egg prices and blames animal welfare laws.

So it turns out that bird fllu is apparently not the reason that egg prices went really up, even though now they're down, they're bringing the lawsuit anyway, it's because California has some animal welfare laws. Uh, not a lot. But you know, a little, uh, they're cage free.

You know, it's all a little complicated. And since I lived through it all, I kind of have it straight in my head, but not exactly. But, but when, you know, the whole Prop 12 thing, and Prop 2 and Prop 12, all of the ballot initiatives in California that ended up in the Supreme Court, where they decided that California was allowed to set limits for certain pork products that are sold in California. When that first all started, they also set limits for, uh, egg laying hens. They have to be cage free basically. Um, and that the eggs sold in California have to be cage free. And the egg industry just didn't go on this rampage the way the pork industry did.

So those laws, and there's a few differences and whatever, but you know, that's basically the story. But, uh, now the Trump administration wants to, um, stick up for the egg industry, which, you know, is, uh, it's hard to understand exactly what's going on here. Well, they, they just wanna pretend that they can keep the prices down.

And the reason the prices are going up is you. You are the reason. Um, alright, so this is by Steve Karnowski. It starts off by saying that the Trump administration is suing California. It wants to block these cage free laws, and it says that they unconstitutionally help send egg prices soaring.

That's the first line of this article, which, you know, they could have charted off a little bit more even handedly, though their second line is but a group that spearheaded the requirements pushed back, blaming bird flu for the hit to consumers' pocketbooks.

And you know, there was a group that spearheaded these requirements, but I don't think it should be forgotten that the people of California voted overwhelmingly for these requirements. They weren't imposed by animal rights activists, which they're always accusing us of doing, which I wish we had the power to impose things, but you know, we don't. Brooke Rollins is all over this. Here's a quote from her. It is one thing if California passes laws that affect its own state, it is another when the laws affect other states in violation of the US Constitution.

Lemme make clear that, that this law affects what eggs can be sold in California. That's it. Okay. Whatever you say Brooke, but you know, this is their usual line that because California's so big, you know, like apparently if it was a small state, it wouldn't matter. California's so big that when they put requirements in, that means that egg producers in other parts of the country have to follow them.

Well, they only have to follow them if they wanna sell eggs in California, but you know. Thankfully, she added, President Trump is standing up against this overreach. The overreach being California setting laws for California. The article does point out, not right in the beginning, but, uh, egg prices soared last year and earlier this year, due in large part, to bird flu.

I mean, no shit. This doesn't have anything to do with the welfare laws of California. Um. And which has forced producers to destroy nearly 175 million birds. You know, they were forced into it. Uh, they just got born and they ended up like having this job, and then they had to, uh, I don't know how it all happened, but it wasn't their fault.

Prices have come down sharply. I mean, I think I've heard that. I don't do a lot of shopping for eggs. But, you know, that's, that's my understanding and, and they are worried that they're gonna go up again because apparently bird flu really is really affected seasonally. But, you know, apparently, according to the Trump administration, it's basically over, and the, they claim credit for its being over, even though it tends to spike during spring and fall, and drop in the summer. But, um, you know, it doesn't really matter when it's gonna spike because the reason egg prices are so high is apparently because California has animal welfare laws, cage-free laws. These people are unbelievable.

Alright, our second story is from Newsweek, also about eggs. Some more interesting news about eggs. Egg recall update, one death linked, map shows sickness spread to 10 states. I mean, I don't pay a lot of attention to news about eggs. So I wasn't really on top of this, but apparently it's pretty bad.

So, 'cause one person has died, there have been 134, um, infections, and 20 million eggs recalled. And the number of infections is obviously very low because not everybody gets really sick from salmonella. You know, you get like the, what you think is the flu and it goes away. And, and so it's only certain people who have it seriously enough that they end up being tested and then, you know, certain people actually die. This is from eggs from the August Egg Company. They've recalled more than 1.7 million dozen egg cartons. That's 20.4 million eggs. Think of how many birds suffered in the production of those eggs.

You know, but we'll just, we'll just toss 'em. Well, I mean, that's what they should do with them, obviously, but, you know, it just makes me insane. They are worried that this is not over at all and, uh, that it is going to spread to further states. It's already in a bunch of states. Um, further tests found predicted resistance to antibiotics, such as nalidixic acid, and reduced susceptibility to ciprofloxacin.

So it's not only that this infection is spreading, it's that the resistance to antibiotics that could treat it is, is also spreading. Some samples also showed resistance to ampicillin, streptomycin, and azithromycin. Um, and the CDC has noted that, quote, most salmonella illnesses resolve without antibiotic treatment, but antibiotic resistance can complicate severe cases.

Okay. Um, you know, good luck. At least this is one of those illnesses that if you're vegan, you're not gonna get it because I think you do have to actually eat the eggs. It's not like, you know, bird flu, where we're all just gonna die. Um, all right, so another, well, egg and chicken, um, story very related.

This is from Watt AgNet, which, you know, writes about poultry mostly. This is by Mark Clements. Might coccidiosis control programs lose ionophores? You know, we get to read such fascinating articles with such catchy titles, but in spite of the fact that the titles of this article could make you brain dead, this is really important. 'Cause we've been talking about antibiotic resistance since the beginning of time, as far as I can recall. And, and the industry always claims that they don't use human antibiotics. They use ionophores. Doesn't even sound like it's antibiotics.

Uh, and that doesn't produce a risk to, uh, humans. So it's really not a problem. Well, it turns out ionophores is just the name of a type of antibiotic. And it turns out that, you know, after all this time of using it, well actually, actually it does create a risk to humans. And now they're really worried because they use a lot of these things.

This is the subtitle, Risks to Humans From Ionophore Use in Animals Remain Unclear. Remain unclear. They, it used to be clear, as far as I know, that they said there was no risk at all. But new study highlights potential threat. Yeah, no shit. This is about, uh, an illness in chickens, coccidiosis. I have no idea what it is.

So, you know. My knowledge of the industry only goes so far. And these drugs are a central element of controlling coccidiosis, which is apparently really important if you're gonna have chickens. And apparently there is this new study out that raised the possibility of co selection between agriculturally used ionophores and medically important antibiotics.

And by medically important, they mean medically important to you and to me. Um, and this guy, Alex Wong, who's one of the researchers, commented that while ionophores have long been considered safe for use in poultry, the study suggested that their use could fuel the growth of antibiotic resistance in medically relevant drugs.

So yeah, that's great news 'cause that is one of the ones that, uh, you know, if we lose antibiotics, that's gonna affect us as much as anybody, um, who eats eggs or chickens.

Alright, now I have an, an article that'll totally drive you insane. Oh, that's my job here. What can I say? All right. This is from Ag Daily. It's uh, by Heidi Krinkovich. It has this picture of this veterinarian, and I'm sorry I'm not, I know you're not supposed to comment at all on people's appearance, but she looks insane. I have to say. The Dairy Doc Is In- Meet the Vet Tackling Dairy Myths Online.

Alright, so this is this, um, woman, Dr. Michelle Shack. She's a dairy veterinarian that's, you know, she got a job in the dairy industry. She's very ambitious, clearly, and the worry here is that the dairy industry is often misunderstood. Uh, no shit, but apparently they think the misunderstandings are different than the misunderstandings that I think, uh, are out there.

And it involves how long cows lived, claims about them being mistreated, how they're maintained, if they're milked to death. Um. Misinformation has run rampant on social media, and it's fueled by buzzwords such as factory farm. Oh yeah. That's a buzzword. All right. That's what you call 'em, honey or big dairy.

What's wrong with big dairy? Um, because most people have never stepped foot on a farm, it's little wonder so many of these misguided perspectives exist. That's my favorite argument. Like if you're not in animal agriculture, you can't talk about animal agriculture 'cause it means you don't know anything about animal agriculture.

So, unless you have a vested interest in maintaining animal agriculture, you're not allowed to talk about it 'cause you're too stupid. Alright. She, uh, she has started this business, uh, Dairy Kind. And apparently it's to train it, it's like an online platform to train people who work in dairies.

'cause you know, there's a lot of turnover as you can imagine. And uh probably, a lot of 'em don't know what they're doing. Um, so she addresses sensitive animal welfare topics with a veterinarian's precision and a communicator's tact. We all know that veterinarians who work in the ag industry are really your go-to source for animal welfare.

There's a lot of stuff in here about her, and who cares? Um, but myths. She's asked a lot of times about what myths she hears. That's like what, what you're saying, what I'm saying. Um, people are concerned that cows are kept indoors, that they don't have pasture, or that they're living in muddy environments.

They want cows to be kept well as they should be. But what does that mean? And apparently it depends. There are, there are loads of right ways. If you have a dry lot system in Arizona, that's fine ' cause it dries fast. But if it's in a muddy place, well that's bad. What? Like, what kind of an answer is that?

All right. Lifespan. It's another hot topic. People think dairy cows. I, I'm just gonna read this whole paragraph. People think dairy cows only live five or six years because they're dying of exhaustion, she said. Actually, I don't think they die of exhaustion. I think they're sent to slaughter when they stop producing so much milk.

I think that's what most people think. But um, but the truth is, most beef in the grocery store is from animals slaughtered at 18 to 24 months. Dairy cows live longer than that. Like what? Because they live longer than animals who are slaughtered. That, that, that means things are okay? But we also use them for beef, and you don't want a 20-year-old cow full of cancer and arthritis going into your food supply. Oh my God. Oh my God. We could just not eat them. Alright. Another thing is their stalls. People are fine with horses living in 12 by 12 stalls and being turned out for an hour a day. But if I said that's how cows are housed, people would light into me.

Well, I don't know whether people are fine with that, but 12 by 12, um, I'm not sure that's what's happening to cows. And uh, and maybe we should treat all of them a little better. Like they would like to go out for more than that, and some of them, plenty of them, loads of them aren't going out at all.

Um, she continues, when people ask, why don't cows live longer? They're really asking, are cows dying early because of how we treat them? And we need to answer that honestly. Yes. Cows are dying early because you slit their throats. Like, like is that the honest answer that you're giving? Uh And when people say, why don't cows live longer, they're really asking, why don't cows live longer? That's what they're really asking. So this article concludes with another quote from her. I, I, I know you, you really wanna hear more from her. I think we're not loud enough about how much we care. Everyone wants the cows to have a good life. We're just... until we kill them, or not even that, but let's face it... we're just not always good at talking about it.

Yeah. Well, you haven't convinced me. I'll give you that. All right. Our final story, I'm not gonna dwell on this a lot. I just wanted to highlight a couple of talking points about methane that the industry is putting out there. This is from the, uh, article on Drovers, which is a beef publication, Breaking down methane in the beef industry.

This is by Andrea Stump Denton, and it, you know, there's, I'm not gonna go into a lot of this. Does start out by saying methane research has been a hot topic in the beef industry. Is, uh, do, do you think she meant that as a play on words since it's a whole climate change issue?

All right. I'm just gonna get a few highlights here. There's one thing that I thought was interesting. She says it's about a 50 50 split for methane production between ag versus non-AG related sources. Um. And in the beef industry, it involves both enteric fermentation, digestive process, mostly belching, and manure management systems. Though manure management systems aren't as, uh, I would assume, I mean on the feedlots there's gotta be a lot of manure management, but it, it's even more so in the pig industry and the dairy industry where they're all confined.

Talking about the non-agricultural, um, sources, like swamps produce methane. Like, what are we gonna do? Get rid of all the swamps and, and, and like, we gonna redo the earth to get rid of all the other methane? Maybe we should focus on the beef industry folks.

Um, and here, uh, media it says, has placed a lot of blame of the changing climate on cattle. God, I wish I read that media, you're reading different media than I am. Um, scientific evidence does not support this claim in the US. Uh, yeah, it does. Like in the, like they divide it up in the US it's like, because our greenhouse gas emissions from all sources are so high, the percentage from cattle isn't as high 'cause we're bad on everything.

They leave that part out. Um, but this is my in, in the tough questions about beef sustainability. Are US cattle causing an increase in global warming, which is apparently a fact sheet that they put out. It reports that methane has a relatively short atmospheric lifespan, unlike carbon dioxide, which can remain in the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years.

They don't bother to point out that yeah, that's really true. Methane, I think it's maybe a 10 year lifespan and then it's gone. However, it's incredibly more intense than carbon dioxide. So after those 10 years pass and we wake up and the, the, the methane is now all gone, assuming we stop producing cattle tomorrow, like, we're gonna be in a lot of trouble because during those 10 years, it's warming the climate.

Like, what are we talking about here? They're so full of shit. Well see. Um, I can't believe I, I honestly didn't mean to say that. Um. Alright, so this characteristic, the fact that, you know, it's short term, make it an attractive target for rapid climate change mitigation, especially since it's producing enormous amounts of greenhouse gases.

The methane, this is another argument, the methane produced by cattle is part of a natural carbon cycle where plants absorb carbon dioxide and animals release it. Unlike fossil fuel emissions that introduce new carbon into the system.

A alright, we could get rid of fossil fuel. Uh, the fact that it's like not as bad as, in your minds, as fossil fuels is really not a, not a winning argument. And also, what do you mean that part of a natural carbon cycle? It means like it's gonna do over and over and over again and we'll never stop it. Whereas fossil fuels, at some point, you know, we'll run out of them. I mean, we'll all be dead by then, but you know what I mean.

Anyway. I'm not gonna go into this whole article, but those were what I thought were some of the highlights. I know you always liked to hear. Um, and I think that's pretty much it for this week's Rising Anxieties. Thank you for joining me. Uh, it's always a pleasure to have you here and don't forget to tune into our other podcasts, the Hen Report, uh, and the Our Hen House interview.

And this week I'm really looking forward to the interview. I am so excited. We're going to have a mycologist on, which is, uh, maybe you don't know because I didn't really know, , a scientist who studies fungi and mushroom, obviously mushrooms are fungi. Fungi ,fungi, or fungi, all of which are permissible pronunciations.

I say that every time, I know. Ashwarya Veerabahu. And I, I think that if, if we've got a chance to save the world, we're gonna do it with mushrooms. Mushrooms are miraculous and none of us really know all, well, maybe you do, but I, I don't know nearly enough about them. They're so mysterious. We have these three kingdoms of life on the planet, plants, animals, and fungi. And, and I never heard about fungi!

Anyway, i'm excited about that interview. I hope you are too. Thank you so much for tuning in, and don't forget to subscribe on your favorite pod catcher, or please, if you're on YouTube, please hit that subscribe button and the like button because it really helps us out if you hit those buttons. Every time you do, we get more listeners and some of 'em stick around and some of them actually, you know, learn a little bit more about animals, and what's going on with them. You know, none if it's good news, but some people listen.

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