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Harvest Public Media is a reporting collaboration focused on issues of food, fuel and field. Based at KCUR in Kansas City, Harvest covers these agriculture-related topics through an expanding network of reporters and partner stations throughout the Midwest.Most Harvest Public Media stories begin with radio- regular reports are aired on member stations in the Midwest. But Harvest also explores issues through online analyses, television documentaries and features, podcasts, photography, video, blogs and social networking. They are committed to the highest journalistic standards. Click here to read their ethics standards.Harvest Public Media was launched in 2010 with the support of a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Today, the collaboration is supported by CPB, the partner stations, and contributions from underwriters and individuals.Tri States Public Radio is an associate partner of Harvest Public Media. You can play an important role in helping Harvest Public Media and Tri States Public Radio improve our coverage of food, field and fuel issues by joining the Harvest Network.

Court Dismisses Lawsuit Challenging California Egg-Producing Standards

Will Curran/Flickr

A federal district court upheld a California law that requires all eggs sold in the state to come from hens housed in more spacious cages.

Attorneys general of six states – Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Kentucky, Oklahoma and Alabama – sued to challenge the constitutionality of a California law requiring that all eggs sold in California be raised under standards laid out for California egg producers in a 2008 state ballot measure.

California is a huge market and the rule, set to take effect Jan. 1, will block exports from other egg-producing states, notably big producers Missouri and Iowa, if farmers in those states didn’t comply with the California cage requirements. California maintains that happier chickens produce healthier eggs, so it had a right to make the restrictions.

The federal court dismissed the suit, saying that the state attorneys general had no grounds to sue.

“States have a right to protect the health and welfare of their citizens,” said Joe Maxwell, a vice president of the Humane Society of the United States, which opposed the suit. “That’s a U.S. constitutional right.”

The Missouri Farm Bureau called the California law a “lose-lose proposition” for California egg producers who must comply with the new standards as well as egg producers in other states who will be blocked from supplying eggs to the California market.

“We look forward to further action on this matter,” Missouri Farm Bureau President Blake Hurst said in a statement.

The next farm animal welfare battle could come over tight cages for sows, called gestation crates. Maxwell says the New Jersey legislature is close to passing a law banning pork produced using that type of cage.

Frank Morris has supervised the reporters in KCUR's newsroom since 1999. In addition to his managerial duties, Morris files regularly with National Public Radio. He’s covered everything from tornadoes to tax law for the network, in stories spanning eight states. His work has won dozens of awards, including four national Public Radio News Directors awards (PRNDIs) and several regional Edward R. Murrow awards. In 2012 he was honored to be named "Journalist of the Year" by the Heart of America Press Club.