Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like an area now perfect, excellent, there we go.
Speaker 2: That was a lot.
Speaker 1: But I'm in Puerto Rico and Representative Ryan Gonzalez is
Speaker 1: in Denver because the legislature's in session and he is
Speaker 1: trying to do something to restore our most affordable source
Speaker 1: of protein in the grocery store, and that is eggs.
Speaker 1: First of all, Representative Gonzales, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2: Maddy.
Speaker 4: It's good to be here with you and happy to
Speaker 4: talk about what we're working on here for the people
Speaker 4: at calro.
Speaker 2: So. Tell me about this.
Speaker 1: Obviously, we've had significant egg shortages. There was like a
Speaker 1: month where I would go to the grocery store a
Speaker 1: couple times a week and there would literally be nothing
Speaker 1: on the grocery store shelves. I know we have bird flu,
Speaker 1: but it seems like it's way worse here. In my
Speaker 1: informal polling across Facebook, where I have friends all over
Speaker 1: the country, none of them are seeing the prices that
Speaker 1: we saw here. None of them are seeing the ongoing
Speaker 1: shortages that we've seen here. So what are you trying
Speaker 1: to do with this?
Speaker 2: Help?
Speaker 3: Yeah, So thank you for your question.
Speaker 4: And this basically is due in part because of a
Speaker 4: twenty twenty law that they passed, HB twenty thirteen forty three,
Speaker 4: which was sponsored by former Senator Carrie Donovan, mandating cage
Speaker 4: free eggs.
Speaker 3: Now, this law has been phased in. It took full
Speaker 3: effect the beginning of.
Speaker 4: This year, and so basically what we're seeing is an
Speaker 4: increase in prices of eggs that is also exacerbating the
Speaker 4: supply chain where we're not having enough of the eggs
Speaker 4: that we need, which also add a contribute to the
Speaker 4: high prices of eggs. And it also limits basically that
Speaker 4: we can't have eggs that are not cage free coming
Speaker 4: to Colorado. So when you have excess demand, like you
Speaker 4: just said, people.
Speaker 3: Rely on those source of protein eggs.
Speaker 4: Big thing families, especially lo income families who are hurting
Speaker 4: are feeling the pinch at the grocery store because of
Speaker 4: some of this policy that has been implemented.
Speaker 3: So my bill would do away with them.
Speaker 4: So we basically get back to more of a free
Speaker 4: market perspective, and there's consumer choice.
Speaker 1: And see I'm glad you said free market because I
Speaker 1: buy I buy pasture raise eggs like I can fit
Speaker 1: that in my budget and eggs make up such a
Speaker 1: huge portion of my diet that I buy the stupid, expensive,
Speaker 1: fancy pasture raised eggs.
Speaker 2: But that's my choice. I go to the.
Speaker 1: Grocery store and I'm sure you've had this. You look
Speaker 1: like a young guy. I don't know if you have
Speaker 1: a family, but you go to the grocery store now
Speaker 1: and you get two little dinky bags and it's one
Speaker 1: hundred bucks.
Speaker 2: I always think of like, how are young families dealing
Speaker 2: with that kind of stuff?
Speaker 1: So this is the first in a step. You know,
Speaker 1: you're in committee, right, So what committee is going to
Speaker 1: hear this?
Speaker 4: So it got assigned to the Agriculture Committee, and the
Speaker 4: hearing furthest bill will be Monday at one thirty.
Speaker 1: Now, what kind of response have you gotten, either from
Speaker 1: your colleagues or from.
Speaker 2: Across the aisle. Are you hopeful that.
Speaker 1: This is going to pass or is it going to
Speaker 1: be dead in the water because it's got to have Democrats.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I'm hopeful that we can get at least
Speaker 4: some Democrats support some of the people who sit on
Speaker 4: the Agriculture Committee. Some of them who are Democrats live
Speaker 4: in competitive districts, so I think they're more inclined to
Speaker 4: listen to reason as far as hearing the concerns of
Speaker 4: people of Colorado, especially low income people who are hurting
Speaker 4: from the policy. Again going back to the consumer choice
Speaker 4: of if they want k tree or not, he used
Speaker 4: to let the because of the consumers decide.
Speaker 3: And you know, we want to make it all about affordability, right.
Speaker 4: You know, Jared Poulus in the state of the state
Speaker 4: has said he wants to make Colorado more affordable, and
Speaker 4: this is the way that we can do so by
Speaker 4: leviating some of the cost burdens that we have imposed
Speaker 4: in Colorado's because they need relief, whether it's fees, whether
Speaker 4: it's you know, for driving down.
Speaker 3: The prices of goods like eggs.
Speaker 4: This is something that all Colorados have cared about, and
Speaker 4: so I have heard. I've gotten a lot of support
Speaker 4: from my Republican caucus as well as the Republican senators.
Speaker 3: There are some.
Speaker 4: Democrats who have reached out to me who will have
Speaker 4: expressed interest in listening to the arguments for it.
Speaker 3: Obviously they're not committing to one way or the other,
Speaker 3: but I can.
Speaker 4: Tell you I have spoken to some stakeholders, one of
Speaker 4: them being the egg producers now, the egg producers have
Speaker 4: pushed back basically by saying that it's the bird flu
Speaker 4: the burchlues what's contributed to the high prices of eggs,
Speaker 4: and that the markets were basically training in that direction anyway,
Speaker 4: towards K free. But do that if the market was
Speaker 4: training towards K free, why do you need a lot
Speaker 4: to make it so? Let the markets do it on
Speaker 4: their own right now, Compared to bird flu, if you
Speaker 4: look at across the country right because it doesn't just
Speaker 4: end when Cowork Colorado wins, other states are dealing with
Speaker 4: the bird flue, their prices are not as high.
Speaker 3: If you look at those states that have K three.
Speaker 4: Versus non policies implemented, you will see that these states
Speaker 4: have lower prices of eggs in the states that do
Speaker 4: not have K tree loss. The usda A also came
Speaker 4: out with the report last month, saying that while the
Speaker 4: bird flu did a tribute in increasing prices of eggs,
Speaker 4: the cage free laws disproportionately impacted states who had such
Speaker 4: laws that were a factor in driving the prices up.
Speaker 3: For that as well well.
Speaker 1: I mean it prevents us from being able to go
Speaker 1: to a different egg producer in a different state that
Speaker 1: didn't have a bird flu outbreak. I mean, these outbreaks
Speaker 1: are happening all over the country, but we've limited the
Speaker 1: number of people that we can even try and buy
Speaker 1: eggs from.
Speaker 2: So this is one of those.
Speaker 1: Things that and don't get me wrong, I know it's
Speaker 1: well intentioned.
Speaker 2: I'm probably one of the few talk show hosts.
Speaker 1: In this country that have actually been to an egg farm,
Speaker 1: so I know exactly what goes on there.
Speaker 2: And it's gross. I mean, it's.
Speaker 1: Chickens are just, you know, kind of gross. So I
Speaker 1: understand this, But are the animal rights activists who've got
Speaker 1: this going in the first place. Have they indicated that
Speaker 1: they are going to resist the change?
Speaker 4: So I have heard the ASPCA is remaining neutral. Now
Speaker 4: I have heard the Humane Society did in fact hire a.
Speaker 3: Lobbyist to lobby against this bill.
Speaker 4: But it's not about animal welfare, Mandy, It's about chicken welfare.
Speaker 4: You know, we're prioritizing chicken welfare over the welfare of
Speaker 4: our own citizens and residents of Colorado, people who are
Speaker 4: low income children, you know, our restaurant owners, schools, anything
Speaker 4: that's made with eggs.
Speaker 3: We're prioritizing the welfare of chickens over.
Speaker 4: That of our own people, and that has negative implementations,
Speaker 4: And like what you just said, I understand the humanitarian
Speaker 4: part of it, but we shouldn't be prioritizing chicken welfare
Speaker 4: over the needs of our people, many of who are
Speaker 4: struggling to get by.
Speaker 1: Is this part of a group of bills that Republicans
Speaker 1: are trying to get through to take away some of
Speaker 1: the taxes and the fees that have been levied on
Speaker 1: us over the.
Speaker 2: Years that are just like they're death by a thousand
Speaker 2: cuts because none of them are that big.
Speaker 1: When you just say, oh, we're going to make you
Speaker 1: pay a little bit more for eggs, or oh, we're
Speaker 1: going to make you pay a bag fee when you
Speaker 1: get a bag.
Speaker 2: Is this part of that group of bills that Republicans
Speaker 2: are bringing forward. Yeah.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 4: So you know, I won't speak for my entire caucus,
Speaker 4: but what I can say is we are very focused
Speaker 4: on making sure that we prioritize affordability, we protect tabor,
Speaker 4: we make sure we try to repeal some of these fees.
Speaker 4: We know, when you're minority, we understand that there's only
Speaker 4: so much we can pass. But with the policies we're
Speaker 4: proposing with some of these bills, I feel our sensible, realistic, practical, achievable.
Speaker 4: We're not asking for much. We're asking to, you know,
Speaker 4: think of the little guy, the small business people, the
Speaker 4: mom and pop shops, the low income people who are
Speaker 4: hurting and getting penny pinched, you know, day and day
Speaker 4: out from these fees. You know, the wealthy people, they
Speaker 4: don't care about ten cents a bag, they don't care
Speaker 4: about a twenty nine cent delivery fee.
Speaker 3: They don't care about the prices of eggs because they
Speaker 3: can afford it.
Speaker 4: It's the people who are struggling to get by the
Speaker 4: middle class, the low income people who are choosing between
Speaker 4: filling up their gas tanks or putting food on the table.
Speaker 4: And they feel that the eggs, of all things, is
Speaker 4: just something that shouldn't be a discussion for.
Speaker 3: You know, providing relief for it. It's something that we should
Speaker 3: add on.
Speaker 4: And we know what we're proposing should get some Democrat
Speaker 4: support to get it passed. We're not asking for much.
Speaker 4: We're asking to provide immediate relief.
Speaker 3: For some of our well all of our residents across Colorado.
Speaker 4: When it comes to energy and it comes to food,
Speaker 4: and it comes to housing, and it comes to fees.
Speaker 3: This is stuff that the people want. You know, Rome wasn't.
Speaker 4: Built in a day, and if we start getting rid
Speaker 4: of some of these fees and regulations like that cage
Speaker 4: free thing, it could definitely get us more towards a
Speaker 4: free market approach and.
Speaker 3: Provide overall affordability. Slowly but surely we can get there.
Speaker 1: Have you heard that egg producers in Colorado who've already
Speaker 1: gone cage free, You're like, look, we're not going back
Speaker 1: because it did cost too much to go back to
Speaker 1: what we were doing before.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, And that's an argument that they have.
Speaker 4: This isn't mandating that they go back to how they
Speaker 4: were before that. If they want to stay to K three's,
Speaker 4: that's their discretion, that's their choice.
Speaker 3: I'm all about free markets.
Speaker 4: If they want to make the decision to be K
Speaker 4: three or not, we should leave it up to the producers.
Speaker 4: We shouldn't have government mandated for everybody, especially the smaller,
Speaker 4: you know scale egg producers who can afford to basically
Speaker 4: have these implementations overnight. The regulations, the costs, the resources,
Speaker 4: the time, the effort. You've seen some of these places
Speaker 4: shut down because.
Speaker 3: Of this law because they can't comply with it.
Speaker 4: They don't have the money, they don't have the resources,
Speaker 4: and that basically just puts those people out of business.
Speaker 3: And we should be thinking about the little guy, you know.
Speaker 4: And that also adds to the constraint and supply that
Speaker 4: we have, and that's why we have a shortage of
Speaker 4: eggs in part because they can't comply with this policy.
Speaker 1: Representative Ryan Gonzalez, I really appreciate your time today, and
Speaker 1: you're trying to make it more affordable for people who
Speaker 1: are struggling.
Speaker 2: To pay for their groceries. We'll follow this bill and
Speaker 2: have you back on hopefully it'll be successful.
Speaker 1: I know you do have an uphill battle, simply, the
Speaker 1: numbers are so not in your favor in terms of
Speaker 1: the political divide legislature. But I'm going to follow up
Speaker 1: and we'll touch back and see what happens at the
Speaker 1: end of all this. I appreciate your time today.
Speaker 4: Well, hey, I appreciate you. Thank you so much for
Speaker 4: reaching out and happy to help you and happy to
Speaker 4: talk about my bills and what we can do to
Speaker 4: make Colorado affordable.
Speaker 3: So absolutely all right.
Speaker 2: That's Representative Ryan Gazalez. Thank you. So much,