"cage free eggs" news and stories

Egg producers are having a tough month. Not only has the latest salmonella outbreak led to bad press and recalls for dozens of different egg brands, but there's also been increasingly strong opposition to battery cages, which are the standard across the industry. The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) decries them; California has moved to ban them. Even the Dalai Lama has spoken out against the 67-square-inch cages in which many hens are destined to spend their lives.

Paul Shapiro, a senior director at HSUS's End Factory Farming campaign, told the Washington Post, "The cage-free movement is not only about providing a humane environment for animals. There is also a strong food-safety component as well." In fact, the HSUS makes the case that battery cages lead to unsanitary conditions, which in turn lead to a tainted food supply. The fact that 550 million tainted eggs involved in the last outbreak appear to have originated in battery cages adds fuel to that fire.

Egg producers are now pushing back a bit, though. United Egg Producers, the industry's top lobbying group, is speaking up about what it calls the myths and facts about battery cages, asserting that free-range hens are no healthier than caged, and that other industry practices, such as beak-trimming, are not as cruel as they sound.

The New York Times's blog Green, Inc. recently exposed McDonald's U.S. board's reaction to a modest proposal suggested by the Humane Society: Switch out a mere 5 percent of their regular eggs to the cage-free variety. (Right now, McDonald's egg-laying hens are restricted in what are called "battery cages," which offer each hen smaller space than a piece of letter-sized paper -- for almost their entire lives.) This would not appear to be a radical suggestion; fast-food joints such as Burger King, Wendy's, Hardee's, and Quiznos all use cage-free eggs. And actually, so does McDonald's -- but only overseas. Its European and UK restaurants use cage-free eggs exclusively, and Australia seems to be moving toward that policy as well.

To add weight to the argument, in a proxy statement that outlines McDonald's board recommendations to its U.S. shareholders, the board concedes that eggs produced in the current McDonald's conditions have a 250% higher likelihood of containing Salmonella. "The Center for Food Safety, Consumer Federation of America and Center for Science in the Public Interest have all opposed battery cages and the Pew Commission recommendations were also based on food safety concerns," the statement admits. Furthermore, the legislative trend in the U.S. is moving away from battery cages -- California and Michigan are in the process of phasing them out, and more states are expected to follow.