Egg Industry Still Scrambled on Animal Welfare

Last week the Humane Society of the United States released an undercover report of inhumane conditions at a large egg farm in Pennsylvania. Kreider Farms, which owns 7 million hens and produces 4.5 million eggs per day, was the focus of the report. After seeing the video which clearly shows the conditions at the farm, most of us would like to believe that the environment there is the exception and not the rule. As a sustainable farmer raising free-range eggs, I’d like to tell you not only that those conditions are prevalent in the industry but also tell you why.

Decades ago, when the U.S. food system started to become centralized, chickens were being bred for the single trait of maximum egg production. Other heritable traits, such as temperament, longevity, and conformation, were ignored in the quest to hybridize a chicken that can produce an astounding 280 eggs per year. The battery cage system of egg production, the most prevalent system on U.S. factory farms, was developed because it allowed for the automated handling of inputs (food and water) and outputs (eggs and manure) which lowered production costs. If you ignore the animal welfare issues, conventionally farmed eggs from the grocery store are one of the best values for dietary protein. One dozen large eggs contains 1 ½ lbs. of edible protein and on sale can cost less than $2.00. Compared to any other source of quality protein it’s an outright steal.

At a glance, the solution seems to be for the industry to retool to cage free systems where the chickens run free on the floor of the chicken house. If only it could be that simple. The legacy of breeding for only high egg production changed a few things about the nature of chickens as farm animals and also magnified some less desirable traits, such as cannibalistic, light bodied, and requiring a high protein diet. The battery cage system solved these problems for the industry.

Cannibalism is a natural trait in all chickens, but it is more prevalent in high strung breeds. In conventional systems, cannibalism is controlled by placing chickens in cages and also creating low light conditions. Chickens that are floor raised will at some point peck at each other. This is driven by two things: They are flock animals and they are compelled to peck at things that look like food. Chickens naturally want to establish a pecking order and then settle into their day to day activities. A barn housing two thousand plus birds doesn’t allow them to form a cohesive group. In a flock that size, the chickens are constantly engaged in pecking order activity. Combine that with the fact that after a chicken lays an egg, their vent tissue will be exposed. For the chicken at the bottom of the pecking order, that tissue looks edible to the other chickens. Under crowded conditions that can result in many chickens pecking at the soft, red, tissue of a single bird, often leading to shock and then death.

High producing egg layers are light bodied animals and don’t maintain body temperature well, so chicken houses must be heated. Stacking chickens in cages on top of each other lowers the cost of heating because there are more chickens per square foot of building.

The protein requirement of the modern egg laying breeds was solved by keeping finely ground food on a conveyor belt in front of them 24/7.  It keeps them eating because they don’t have to look for their food and they don’t have to compete for it. Take away the cages and there is lower feed consumption and more feed waste.

I think it's true that the egg industry was ingenious in developing a system that overcame many hurdles so that they can produce vast quantities of inexpensive eggs. The problem lies in the fact that farm animals, be it hogs, cattle or chickens, are not well suited to being housed by the thousands in tiny spaces however convenient and inexpensive it is for us to raise them that way.

Our food system by design is not transparent, so many of us didn’t know about typical conditions at egg farms. Thanks to the Humane Society, now we do. If we are fortunate to have enough food for our families to eat, we also have the privilege of voting three times a day with our forks for the kind of food we want from the kind of farms we want. Know your food, know your farmer.