Maine lawmakers are proposing a bill that would add the state to the growing list of those requiring cage-free eggs. The bill prohibits selling shell eggs in the state by December 31, 2024, that are not sourced from cage-free laying hens. According to an article in Watt Ag, Hillandale Egg Farms, the largest egg producer in the state, is “agreeable to the bill,” but President Stephen Vendemia stated the timeline is not feasible.

Representative Timothy Dunn, chair of the House Land and Agriculture Committee, recently introduced a cage-free bill in Arizona.  The proposed legislation prohibits confining hens to any area smaller than one square foot per hen effective December 31, 2020.

Effective December 31, 2024, farmers will need to provide cage-free housing giving each hen at least one square foot of “usable floor space” in a multilevel aviary, or one and a half square feet of such space in a single-level system. Also, all eggs sold in the state would need to come from hens meeting these housing requirements by this date. Read more in “Arizona introduces cage-free egg legislation,” from Feedstuffs.