US farms gradually transition to cage-free chicken farming

With little fanfare and even less public attention, America’s big egg producers are spending millions of dollars to raise cage-free poultry, which is changing the lives of millions of hens in response to new laws and demands from restaurant chains.

In a decade, the percentage of hens kept out of cages has risen from 4% in 2010 to 28% in 2020, and the figure is expected to more than double — about 70% — in the next four years.

The change marks one of the biggest successes for the animal rights movement after years of battles with the food industry.

The transition has cost billions of dollars for producers who initially resisted calls for more considerate treatment of chickens, but have now fully embraced the new reality.

Pressured by voter initiatives in California and other states, as well as pressure from fast-food restaurant and supermarket chains, egg farmers are taking chickens out of their cages and letting them roam freely in their coops.

“What we producers didn’t initially understand is that the people who fund all the animal rights groups were our customers. And in the end, we have to listen to our customers,” said Marcus Rust, CEO of Indiana-based Rose Acre Farms, the second-largest producer of eggs in the country.

Josh Balk, vice president for farm animal protection at the Humane Society of the United States, highlighted the abrupt change in position. It is “an entire industry that at one point fought everything not to make changes,” he said.

In short, the sector concluded that it had no alternative.

Starting in 2015, McDonald’s, Burger King, and other national restaurant chains, along with dozens of supermarket chains and food producers responded to pressure from animal rights groups by announcing their commitment to selling farm-raised eggs. without cages.

This was followed by laws requiring cage-free pens in California and similar rules in at least seven other states: Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Washington.

McDonald’s, which buys about 2 billion eggs a year, said it gradually changed after concluding it was what consumers wanted. Many companies widely promote their switch to using cage-free eggs, seeing it as good for their image.

Before that, animal advocacy groups, notably the Humane Society, had organized shareholder drives, conducted undercover investigations of poultry farms and filed federal lawsuits. A 2015 Gallup poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans thought animals deserved protection from abuse and exploitation.

The groups have made it a priority in their campaigns to allow the animals to move freely in their enclosures, but have had mixed results. The pork industry is battling to block an initiative in California that calls for more space to raise hogs and calves, and a state judge recently delayed implementing new rules.

The egg industry also initially sought national standards that would have allowed cages, but eventually gave up, said JT Dean, president of Versova, a major Iowa-based producer.

Egg companies have about 325 million hens, so moving them out of cages to places where they could move was an expensive proposition, Dean said.

Aside from building structures with more space, the companies had to figure out how to feed mobile birds and how to collect the eggs. More workers and more feed were also needed because hens on the move had more appetite.

The key, he said, was getting long-term commitments from guaranteed buyers of eggs at a higher price.

“When you start talking about needing billions of dollars, you have to try every avenue available,” Dean said.

The exact cost of switching to egg producers is difficult to estimate, in part because some building and equipment upgrades take place periodically anyway. The cost to people in stores is clearer.

Jayson Clark, who heads the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue University, found that after California’s January 1 mandatory switch to cage-free eggs in California, the price of a dozen eggs in the state rose 72 cents over the price. average in the United States, although the gap could be reduced once the market adapts.

At the Gateway Market in Des Moines, Iowa, which sells organic and specialty foods, customers say it’s worth paying more for eggs if it improves the lives of chickens.

“I feel like I want the chicken to be happy,” said Mary Skinner of Des Moines. “How would we feel locked in a cage?”

Greg Fath, a Des Moines resident who eats three eggs for breakfast, thinks “people are learning to be more mindful.”

Looking ahead, egg company bosses say they think demand for cheaper caged eggs will remain around 25% or more of the market, but the Humane Society’s Balk says he expects it to become a tiny portion of total sales.

Balk points to the fact that hundreds of national retailers, restaurants, supermarkets and food producers have implemented cage-free egg requirements or plan to do so within a few years. “That’s the future in every state” of the country, he said.