The California law fits into a growing international consensus concerning force-feeding for foie gras, which Israel, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Austria, Germany and other countries have passed laws to ban. It also reflects a broad movement.

It is one of the great biological and epistemological conundrums of all time, so, for the record, let’s pose the question once more. Which came first?  The chicken or the egg?  For me, it was the egg, but that’s only because I started my tour at the egg end of the operation at Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs.

In the continuing struggle between your socially conscience brain and your gourmet palate, there’s now a way to please both.

Apologists for the meat industry say they’re merely giving people what they want — lots of meat at low prices. Adele Douglass of Humane Farm Animal Care believes it is up to American consumers to demand something more.

Murray’s Chickens will add the “Certified Humane Raised and Handled” label to its packages starting in July, after the South Fallsburg, N.Y.-based company received approval from Humane Farm Animal Care, a national nonprofit organization based in Herndon, Va.