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comment by bioemerl
bioemerl  ·  2789 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: How eggs became a victory for the animal welfare movement

Why can't this mean that cage free eggs became more economic than caged ones?

Nowadays they put a bunch of chickens in a too small area, shave their beaks off so they don't fight, and probably use automated systems to collect the eggs that don't need to be in a limited range. Now, without iron bars, you can fit more chickens in a smaller area, and the chickens are overall healthier and produce more thanks to being able to walk around.





user-inactivated  ·  2789 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I think in terms of space and efficiency, battery cages win out because you can squeeze significantly more chickens in a given area. Eggs from caged birds were probably cheapest just due to sheer volume of chickens in a given area.

Cage free still isn't perfect though. The chickens are still pretty crowded and practices like beak trimming and forced molting are still used on some farms. At the same time, free roaming chickens can easily get sick or injured from fighting each other (chickens are dicks who love to fight) or spreading disease through feces. So trying to balance out health and efficiency is still an issue. I think we're taking a step in the right direction and while I'm not a fan of raising food prices, I think the majority of people can swallow an extra nickel or two per egg if it means they come from a better source.

Wired has another good article about the transition to cage free, listing some of the difficulties the food industry is facing.

Another shout out to kantos here, because the Wired article is also informative in a different way.