Georgia Joins Suit Against New WOTUS Rule and Cage-Free Egg Challenges
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**On February 16, Georgia joined 23 other states in filing a lawsuit in U.S. District Court, challenging the EPA’s newly published Waters of the U.S. rule.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, co-lead in the suit, is joined by 23 other attorneys general in asking a federal court to vacate the WOTUS rule and declare it unlawful.
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The states involved include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.
www.gfb.org/media-and-publications/news.cms/2023/1434/georgia-among-states-suing-epa-over-wotus-rule
**The annual production of milk in the U.S. during 2022 was 226 billion pounds, 0.1 percent above 2021.
Revisions to 2021 production increased the annual total to 35 million pounds.
Revised 2022 production was down 158 million pounds from the previous USDA publication.
Annual total milk production has increased 12.5 percent since 2013.
The average number of milk cows on U.S. farms in 2022 was 9.4 million head, a half-percent lower than last year.
**A new study by United Egg Producers and the United Egg Association shows the transition to cage-free eggs will increase costs and reduce profits … and producers may not be able to meet the 2026 deadline.
The study says, “Conversion from conventional to cage-free housing is costly for both egg producers and final consumers.”
There remains a lot of uncertainty about the extent to which egg producers will be willing or able to continue transitioning to cage-free housing and meet retailers’ cage-free pledges.
