LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Egg-laying hens in Michigan will have to be housed in cage-free systems before 2025 under a new law.
Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist signed the legislation Thursday because Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is on a trade trip in Israel.
The law will also prohibit non-cage-free eggs from being sold in Michigan starting in 2025.
Gilchrist says the measure will ensure Michigan’s standards for protecting animal welfare are among the strongest in the U.S. while ensuring egg producers can thrive.
Each hen was going to have to be confined in a 1-square-foot space by April under an old law. The new law will require each hen to be housed in a cage-free system by the end of 2024.
Michigan is the fifth state and the largest egg-producing state to adopt a cage-free requirement.
Earlier in the day Thursday, Gilchrist made state history by becoming the first black lieutenant governor to sign a bill into law.
Gilchrist, who is Michigan’s first African American lieutenant governor, enacted legislation Thursday to end a lifetime ban on felons becoming licensed insurance agents.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is on a trade trip in Israel.
Gilchrist says the bill signing symbolizes the opportunity that exists when diversity is embraced. Then-Secretary of State Richard Austin was the first black statewide officeholder to sign a bill in 1988.