Be kind to the hens if you want healthy eggs.

It is so often that doing the right thing for another living thing helps us all. Or-good deeds can produce their own rewards.

Effective January 2015 it will be a misdemeanor to sell eggs in California that are the product of inhumanely confined hens. In other words, the hen must be able to move around, extend her wings, and lie down without touching another hen or the sides of the cage.(AB 1437) This is a derivative consequence of the Prevention of the Farm Cruelty Act (Proposition 2), passed by us in 2008 which goes into effect at the same time. It is interesting to note that the reasons stated in the bill relate to the protection of people! The language states:     "Egg-laying hens subjected to stress are more likely to have higher levels of pathogens in their intestines, and the   conditions increase the likelihood that consumers will be exposed to higher levels of food-borne pathogens. Salmonella is the most commonly diagnosed food-borne illness in the United States."     This is a well known fact which has come up time and again regarding the sale of Easter chicks and duck plague where the release of chicks into our ecosystem, affect the water, where ducks and migratory birds bathe and drink.

This chant of interconnectedness is not one that is illusory, the ravings of a Henny-Penny, or those of a single-minded activist. It is real. So - if you don't care about the humane treatment of animals - care about contracting salmonella - and be kind to them for that reason.