Withholding of Egg Data Challenged in Rare FOIA Trial

By Nicholas Iovino, Courthouse News Serv., Apr. 19, 2018

Revealing details about the living conditions of hens would give business rivals an edge and irreparably harm small egg producers in Texas, an egg company executive testified Thursday on the first day of a rare Freedom of Information Act bench trial.

“That information will give a competitor a pretty good indication of what our cost of production is and also what our capacity is,” said David Elbel, president of Feather Crest Farms, based in Bryan, Texas.

Elbel was the first witness in a rare bench trial over whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can exclude details from Texas egg farm inspection reports on the number of hens and hen houses along with cage rows, tiers and floors per hen house.

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