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Idaho is among several states watching to see if a new California law on hen housing drives big egg farms to fly the coop. California voters in 2008 approved Proposition 2, pushed by groups claiming that hens suffered from being kept in small cages. It takes effect in 2015. Neither Idaho nor Nevada, where officials are aggressively courting the Golden State egg industry, have such restrictions on cages.
In the chill of winter, while much of Stanislaus County's farmland rests, its tree nurseries are hard at work.