DES MOINES, IOWA (AP) – Without much fuss and even less public attention, the nation’s egg producers are in the midst of a multibillion-dollar shift to cage-free eggs that is dramatically changing the lives of millions of hens in response to new laws and demands from restaurant chains.
In a decade, the percentage of hens in cage-free housing has soared from four per cent in 2010 to 28 per cent in 2020, and that figure is expected to more than double to about 70 per cent in the next four years.
The change marks one of the animal welfare movement’s biggest successes after years of battles with the food industry. The transition has cost billions of dollars for producers who initially resisted calls for more humane treatment of chickens but have since fully embraced the new reality. Pushed by voter initiatives in California and other states as well as pressure from fast food restaurant chains and major grocers, egg producers are freeing chickens from cages and letting them move throughout hen houses.
“What we producers failed to realise early on was that the people funding all the animal rights activist groups, they were our customers. And at the end of the day, we have to listen to our customers,” said Marcus Rust, the CEO of Indiana-based Rose Acre Farms, the nation’s second-largest egg producer.
Vice president for farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the United States Josh Balk noted the abruptness of the about face. This is “an entire industry that at one point fought tooth and nail not to make any changes,” he said.
To a great extent, the industry concluded it didn’t have another choice.
Beginning in about 2015, McDonald’s, Burger King and other national restaurant chains as well as dozens of grocers and food manufacturers responded to pressure from animal welfare groups by announcing their commitment to cage-free eggs. That was followed by laws requiring cage-free housing in California and similar rules in at least seven other states – Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.
McDonald’s, which buys about two billion eggs annually, said it gradually shifted to cage-free after concluding it was desired by customers. Many companies widely promoted their move to cage-free as good for their brand’s image.
Earlier, animal welfare groups, especially the Humane Society, had organised shareholder campaigns, conducted undercover investigations of chicken farms and filed federal complaints. A Gallup poll from 2015 found that nearly two-thirds of Americans thought animals deserved protection from harm and exploitation.
