BOSTON – Animal welfare activists have lobbied for years to stop farmers from confining their chickens, pigs and cows in tight cages and to ban the sale of eggs and meat they produce.

Now a coalition of groups wants to let voters decide.

Confining-cage practices are virtually non-existent in Massachusetts but supporters say a ban will prevent large factory farms that use those techniques from moving here.

Banning the sale of eggs, pork and beef shipped from those producers, in state or elsewhere, they argue, will cast Massachusetts as a leader in the cage-free food movement.

The effort is led by a coalition of animal welfare groups including the national and state chapters of the Humane Society and the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty of Animals. The groups are expected to launch their ballot campaign at a press conference at the Statehouse next Wednesday.

But the move is opposed by agricultural groups and the food industry who say a ban is costly and unnecessary, if not unconstitutional.

“This is being driven by mostly out-of-state animal activists who are trying to impose a national agenda on the state’s small, mostly family-owned agricultural industry,” said Rich Bonanno, a Methuen vegetable and plant farmer and president of the Massachusetts Farm Bureau.

“They want to take a victory at the ballot box here and go to other states where the practice is widespread and wave it in their faces,” he said.

For consumers, a ban could drive up costs of eggs and meat because there aren’t enough cage-free products on the market to meet the demands of the state’s 6.7 million people, according to retail representatives.

“It’s questionable as to whether this would even be allowed under interstate commerce laws,” said Chris Flynn, president of the Massachusetts Food Association. “We have serious concerns about it.”

Nationwide more than 300 million chickens — about 90 percent of the egg-laying hens — are raised in battery cages, the controversial confining pens assembled in long rows, according to the Humane Society.

In Massachusetts, only one farm, Diemand Farms in Wendell, uses battery cages for its 3,000 egg-laying hens, according to the Farm Bureau.

Bonanno said there are only about 150,000 egg-laying chickens in the state – while the average consumer eats at least one egg a day. A ban on retail sales by producers that pen animals in close quarters, he said, would strangle the market.

“Unless we get our own chickens, I don’t know where the eggs would come from,” said Michael Flaherty, a grocery buyer for Crosby’s Market in Salem, who said egg prices are already on the rise amid an outbreak of avian flu.

“We could get to the point where the supply of eggs is really small, if at all.”

Legislation banning the use of confinement cages and the sale of products from producers who use them has been filed for the past five years on Beacon Hill but failed to gain traction, despite support from dozens of lawmakers.

The coalition’s ban, if approved by voters, would go into effect in 2022 and prohibit farmers from using confinement “in a cruel manner.” It would also ban retailers from selling shelled eggs, veal or pork from out-of-state suppliers if the animals were confined in tight spaces.

The law would allow the confinement of farm animals for medical research, at state and county fairs, and during transportation to the slaughterhouse, among other exemptions.

Last week supporters filed language for the proposed referendum, which is now being reviewed by Attorney General Maura Healey. If she certifies the wording of the question, the groups must collect signatures of at least 64,750 registered voters to put the question to voters in the November 2016 elections.

The law seeks to “prevent animal cruelty by phasing out extreme methods of farm animal confinement, which also threaten the health and safety of Massachusetts consumers, increase the risk of food borne illness, and have negative fiscal impacts,” according to the draft filed with Healey’s office.

Anna West, a spokeswoman for the national Humane Society, declined to comment on the initiative, saying details will be released at next week’s press conference.

The Washington D.C.-based organization is at the forefront of a national movement to encourage consumers to seek out food from cafe-free animals.

To date, several states have passed laws restricting the confinement of farm animals, according to the nonprofit animal welfare group Farm Sanctuary.

Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Oregon, Ohio, and Rhode Island have banned pig gestation crates, while five other states have banned veal crates, and at least one state, Michigan, has banned battery cages for chickens. Connecticut lawmakers also are weighing a ban on battery cages.

After tightening restrictions on their use, the European Union banned battery cages three years ago. The new law cost egg producers in the United Kingdom an estimated $613 million, according to Food Safety News, a trade publication.

Advocacy efforts by animal welfare groups have been helped by growing consumer interest in cage-free products, as more health conscious shoppers are willing to dig deeper into their wallets to buy organic food.

California is the only state to prohibit retailers from selling eggs produced elsewhere in chicken houses that use battery cages. But its law, which was set to take effect this year, has been tied up in legal challenges by the food industry, which argues that the ban violates federal interstate commerce laws.

California’s new rules also appear to be contributing to record prices for eggs. The price of a dozen eggs increased to $3.03 in June – up from $1.77 in May – because of infrastructure upgrades and the reduction of flocks to provide animals more space, according to Urner Barry, a market research firm.

Even groups that oppose cage confinement for farm animals say retail bans aren’t the solution.

“This should be a consumer-driven process,” said Adele Douglass, executive director of the national group Certified Humane Farm Animal Care. “Banning the sale of eggs in a few states won’t end the practice.”

But convincing consumers to buy eggs produced by certified free-range chickens — which can run up to $7 a dozen — is a hard sell when they compete for space on supermarket shelves with less expensive brands, said Jack Kitterage, a chicken farmer and policy director for the Northeast Organic Farming Association.

Kitterage, who keeps about about 100 free-range, egg-laying hens at his Barre farm, said industrialized agricultural practices such as battery cages keep prices down, even if they reduce quality.

Producing top-notch eggs from free-range chickens comes with high costs, from labor to feed, he said.

“We have a system that is producing unhealthy foods cheaply,” he said. “If you want to raise chickens as they should be raised, you have raise the price.”

Animal welfare groups say profits are what drive cage-confinement practices – techniques that are cruel and unnecessary.

In the pork industry, breeding pigs are confined for years in the immobilizing gestation crates, the groups claim, while veal calves are treated similarly.

The Humane Society estimates more than 90 percent of egg-laying hens are kept in wire battery cages so restrictive that birds cannot extend their wings.

“These are extremely cruel practices that leave farm animals — chickens, pigs and calves — crammed into tight confinement cages and virtually unable to move for most of their lives,” said David Byer, a spokesman for the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which advocates for veganism. “It’s a terrible way to live.”

Christian Wade covers the Massachusetts Statehouse for CNHI’s newspapers and websites. Reach him at cwade@cnhi.com