Suddenly, the Hunt Is On for Cage-Free Eggs

TNYTimes
By KIM SEVERSON
Published: August 12, 2007

The toy industry had its Tickle Me Elmo, the automakers the Prius and technology its iPhone. Now, the food world has its latest have-to-have-it product: the cage-free egg.

The eggs, from chickens raised in large, open barns instead of stacks of small wire cages, have become the latest addition to menus at universities, hotel chains like Omni and cafeterias at companies like Google. The Whole Foods supermarket chain sells nothing else, and even Burger King is getting in on the trend.

(...)Growing consumer concern with farm animal welfare and interest in local and sustainable agriculture have driven some of the popularity, but campaigns by animal rights activists have had a lot to do with it. The Humane Society of the United States began a campaign against battery cages in 2005, pressuring egg producers to improve conditions and companies to change their policies. Last week, the group took on Wendy’s with a series of print and radio advertisements urging the company to follow Burger King’s lead on eggs.

(...)Officials at Notre Dame turned down a request by a campus animal rights group to switch to cage-free eggs after investigating the issue for six months.

The university, which serves 16,000 meals a day in its dining halls, visited both cage and cage-free operations, examining animal welfare, food safety, environmental impact, taste and other issues. Both operations they toured appeared to take equally good care of their chickens, said Jocie Antonelli, nutrition and safety manager.

The university decided that its current source of eggs, which uses a cage system, had the edge in food safety.

“There are pros and cons to each system,” Ms. Antonelli said. “Either way, these are not free-roaming chickens living out in a pasture.”But to people pushing for change, getting rid of battery cages is a start.“

While cage-free certainly does not mean cruelty-free, it’s a significant step in the right direction,” said Paul Shapiro of the Humane Society.