It has never been the primary responsibility of retailers and restaurant chains to explain and defend animal husbandry practices, says Terrence O’Keefe, editor of Egg Industry and content director of agri-business at WATT Global Media. Egg producers and their lenders aren’t happy because they now face what could be a cumulative $6 billion to $10 billion capital outlay to convert to cage-free an industry that still has around 90 percent of its birds in cages with no guarantees for cost recovery.
Source: Watt AgNet, April 22, 2016.
Egg producers need to accept that the desire for cage-free eggs is emotional and that science and logic didn’t have anything to do with it. We don’t have to be happy about this, but we need to accept it and start looking at cage-free systems the way consumers will, meaning we need to fix the shortcomings and make sure we learn how to manage these systems and keep improving them. Like it or not, a lot of hens are coming out of cages and it is up to egg producers to make it work. If egg producers aren’t proactive, the alternative to aviaries isn’t going to be keeping birds in cages, the alternative will be free-range.
Also see: Cage-free hen housing: How far will the pendulum swing? Poultry Health Today sponsored by Zoetis.
Egg quality hasn’t been found to differ much between eggs from cage-free and caged systems, but eggs laid by hens on the floor instead of in nesting boxes are at increased risk for bacterial contamination, which could adversely affect food safety.
INSIGHTS: A recent AHD post exposes the differences in egg cost based on production method. Will consumers pay the cost of cage-free or range-free eggs in this dietary staple? For more information on the US egg business see the American Egg Board website.