In recent years, public attention to eggs and the chickens that make them has grown beyond logical expectations. In fact, nearly 200 companies that include every major grocery and fast food chain have pledged to use only cage-free eggs by 2025. This doesn’t mean life for hens is getting better. In fact, the opposite may be true.
Source: Washington Post, August 6, 2016.
The group began a decade ago, pressuring college dining halls to switch their eggs, getting student governments to pass resolutions and student newspapers to write editorials, knocking on dorm rooms for petition signatures and asking graduates to withhold donations. It has since taken those tactics to corporations, targeting them with protests, shaming website and systematic outreach to clients and investors.
INSIGHTS: We covered this topic in AHD in April. The article linked above goes into detail about the supposed benefits, as well as deficiencies, of cage-free egg production. It also uses graphics to explain the definitions of caged, cage-free and free-range that may dispel notions of idyllic pasture settings. As importantly, it details the determination and long-term thinking animal welfare group members possess that can result in detrimental effects on animals, producers and consumers. In addition, activists have another precedent for their next effort.