How free-range eggs became the norm in supermarkets, and sold customers a lie
Free-range eggs are perceived as safer by consumers and an easier ethical choice. However, free-range egg farms differ from the advertised scenes of chickens roaming free in open fields. In fact, free-range flocks can reach up to 16,000 hens a shed, with daytime access to the outside provided by holes in the perimeter.
JOEL MEAD: The UK is in the grip of its largest ever outbreak of bird flu. As its name suggests, avian influenza primarily affects birds, but it can also infect humans and other mammals… Though the UK government currently assesses the risk to the wider public as very low, some strains of bird flu can pass to humans after sustained close contact…
As a result of the outbreak, mandatory housing of chickens has been in place in England since November 2022. This means that no eggs produced in England are currently “free-range”. There is no defined end to this situation and as of February, all free-range eggs have been relabelled.
Some customers are unhappy with buying eggs from chickens without access to the outdoors. But exploring the history of free-range eggs in the UK reveals why their preferred purchases may never have been that safe or ethical in the first place…
The RSPCA defines free-range eggs as those coming “from birds that, during the daytime, enjoy unlimited access to outdoor pastures”. Before the mid-20th century, almost all eggs in the UK were free-range. Aside from some semi-intensive systems, where chickens were kept permanently in sheds, there were no alternatives.
The mass adoption of battery cages from the 1950s onwards transformed the egg industry. Battery farming sees hens packed into cages to control their environment and increase the number of eggs they lay. In the UK, free-range eggs accounted for 80% of all eggs produced in 1951. By 1980, the figure was 1%. The welfare of chickens kept in battery farms naturally suffered…
Free-range eggs are perceived as safer by consumers and an easier ethical choice. Supermarkets offer an abundance of free-range products and there is no great difference in price compared with eggs from caged hens.
However, free-range egg farms differ from the advertised scenes of chickens roaming free in open fields. In fact, free-range flocks can reach up to 16,000 hens a shed, with daytime access to the outside provided by holes in the perimeter.
Beaks are trimmed to prevent the fighting that arises as a result of stress in this unnatural environment. More expensive organic eggs, produced by much smaller flocks on farms where beak trimming is banned, are a minority of those eaten in the UK.
Free-range egg farming is seen as both safer and more ethical than other forms of production. Though free from the worst excesses of battery farming, eggs with the free-range label are still produced on densely packed farms. Large, intensive systems such as these are implicated in the spread of bird flu, devastating poultry and wildlife alike.
Along with salad shortages and “milkflation”, the disappearance of free-range eggs from English supermarkets is symptomatic of a food system responding to environmental stresses. The risks to animal welfare and the environment inherent in this system will remain without more radical changes to the scale and density of animal agriculture. SOURCE…
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