Guest column: 'Cage-free' eggs not all they are cracked up to be
DEAN KLECKNER, FORMER HEAD OF THE AMERICAN FARM BUREAU, CHAIRS TRUTH ABOUT TRADE & TECHNOLOGY IN DES MOINES. CONTACT: DKLECKNER@ TRUTHABOUTTRADE. ORG • APRIL 7, 2010
Spring is here, but most people don't feel the season in their bones until the birds return and the trees bud. The clearest sign may be the arrival of Easter and its rituals. For many, it's all about the eggs. Eggs are universal symbols of rebirth and renewal.
The Humane Society of the United States , however, would like to turn eggs into emblems of cruelty and death.
The crusade against conventional eggs has made surprising advances in recent years. A growing number of restaurants now pledge to use only certain kinds of eggs. On March 22, Subway restaurants announced that they will begin phasing in the use of cage-free eggs as part of their new animal welfare policy. That announcement coincides with the national launch of their breakfast menu.
The issue is starting to show up on election ballots as well: Seven states have passed restrictions on egg production.
The assumption is that "cage-free" chickens are somehow superior to "caged" chickens - not from the standpoint of taste or nutrition, but ethics. It's more humane, goes the thinking, to let cooped-up chickens mill around freely.
The truth is more complicated. Arizona Republic columnist Linda Valdez visited an egg farm that uses cages. She confessed to thinking that she would see chickens treated "like cogs in an industrial machine." She discovered something different. She described a clean, efficient operation that produces good eggs at a reasonable price.
Then she visited a "cage-free" farm. "Layers of chicken excrement build up on the floor," she reported. This is what the eggs lay in until someone picks them up.
For consumers of eggs, it's a discomforting thought.
As it turns out, however, this "cage-free" environment is no poultry paradise for the chickens, either. When chickens are crowded together, rather than separated into cages, they peck each other incessantly. It's animal instinct - an avian attempt to establish a social hierarchy - a behavior we describe as a "pecking order."
The result isn't pretty. "The cage-free block has twice the mortality rate," wrote Valdez . "Broken bones are common among the cage-free birds. If the block gets spooked, they pile up on one another, crushing those at the bottom."
Maybe "cage-free" is best understood as a euphemism. Perhaps what we have here isn't a debate between "caged" and "cage-free" chickens, but between "protected" and "unprotected" chickens.
If you thought the Humane Society was a do-gooder group that looked after the welfare of cats and dogs, then you're thinking of an organization that existed a generation ago. Today, activists and ideologues run the show. They support a radical vision of animal rights that is far outside the mainstream.
We shouldn't play games with eggs. In Iowa , egg production is serious business. We are No. 1 in the nation with 60 million laying hens, producing 14 billion eggs a year. That's enough for two eggs for everyone on the globe.
Eggs are an important source of affordable nutrition, especially protein.
During a time of deep recession in the United States , as families struggle to put food on the table, we should make sure that egg production is not only humane, but also sustainable - in both an environmental and an economic sense.
It turns out that large-scale operations are far more sensible than other systems.
A tractor that hauls a refrigerated trailer and travels more than 1,000 miles is a much more fuel-efficient method of egg transportation than a small vehicle that drives between a local farm and consumers. This may sound counter-intuitive, but it's also true, as researchers from Washington State University , Elanco Animal Health, and Cornell University show in a recent paper titled "Demystifying the Environmental Sustainability of Food Production." The big rigs consume far less gas per egg, even though they travel much longer distances.
The moral to the story is simple: Don't count your cage-free chickens before they've hatched.
