Conscious Choices

Wayne Pacelle (pictured, on the right)—president of the Humane Society of the United States, the original sponsor of Proposition 2—says the legislation is not one of whether eating meat is right or wrong. "This is just about basic decency," he says. "It's about, if animals are going to be raised for food—and that's certainly the case in this country—then the least we can do for them is allow them to move. I mean, what's more basic than allowing animals with legs and wings to move around?"

"Are we so uncharitable that we cannot let these animals, who make the ultimate sacrifice for us, move around a little bit?" Wayne says. "If you were immobilized for your entire life, wouldn't that be a form of torment?"

Ryan Armstrong (left), a third-generation egg farmer from California, is strongly opposed to Proposition 2. He says that if Proposition 2 passes, it will make eggs produced in California too expensive for most consumers, creating the possibility that eggs will be imported from places without these animal housing laws.

This, he says, would put his farm out of business and hurt every consumer in the state. "At a time when everybody's looking at every penny they spend, pennies an egg equal dollars a dozen. By the time it gets to the grocery store, we're spending more on eggs now than we ever have because of the rising corn prices," he says. "We have to feed our chickens the highest quality grains we can get, and those are scarce in the United States these days."