From the editor: February-March 2016

The Egg Farmers of Canada (EFC) announced a landmark decision on Feb. 5 that the organization will commence a “coordinated, systematic, market-oriented transition from conventional egg production toward other methods of production for supplying eggs.”

The announcement is not unexpected and was inevitable, given the increasing pressure to ban conventional housing, as well as the number of foodservice  companies making cage-free announcements.

However, the timeline given to make such an industry-wide transition – EFC says it will be completed by 2036 – has been met with criticism.

The Monday following EFC’s announcement I received a Letter to the Editor from Stephanie Brown, director, Canadian Coalition for Farm Animals, and Liz White, director, Animal Alliance of Canada, in which they applaud EFC’s efforts, but lament on the timeframe:   

The February 5th announcement from egg farmers is focused on enriched cages for hens, not cage-free systems, as consumers are requesting.  Eggs produced in enriched cages won’t satisfy retailer requirements for cage-free eggs. Tim Hortons, Burger King, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Taco Bell, General Mills, Nestle and others have responded to public pressure and are calling for cage-free eggs.  It is regrettable egg farmers still promote cages for laying hens.  Whatever the alternative caging is called – ‘furnished’, ‘enriched’ or ‘colony’– it remains an unacceptable confinement system. About 95 per cent of laying hens in Canada are now confined to battery cages with each hen having less space than a standard sheet of paper. Even with growing public pressure against battery cages, the EFC wants until 2036 to change from small battery cages to larger confinement operations. Twenty years is too long for the Canadian egg industry to move hens out of battery cages. The European Union made its change in 12 years.

Twenty years is a long time, but it is realistic. I would point the authors and other critics to a fantastically written article “The Insanely Complicated Logistics of Cage-Free Eggs for All” on Wired.com.

As the manager of the nation’s egg supply, EFC must ensure that eggs produced on Canadian farms are meeting consumer and customer needs – and meeting this obligation may not mean that 100 per cent of production must be cage-free, even 20 years from now.  

Results from a commercial-scale study comparing enriched, conventional, and cage-free housing, commissioned by the Coalition for a Sustainable Egg Supply (CSES), show that both enriched and cage-free housing systems have welfare benefits, and that birds in enriched housing actually fared a little better.  Mortality was considerably higher in the cage-free aviary system, so why is this deemed the gold standard? I don’t understand how it is OK to accept more animals dying just to have them in more aesthetically pleasing surroundings.

EFC has, in my opinion, done the right thing by commissioning research and participating in initiatives such as the CSES to try to make the best decisions for its growers, purchasers and the birds. This is ongoing and it could very well be that in 20 years, the market deems all egg production be cage-free.   

However, at this time, it’s too premature to demand only one type of production and dismiss enriched housing based solely on its looks.