Many consumers gravitate to "cage-free" eggs or "natural" animal products at the grocery store. If shoppers wish to buy a higher quality product or want to support businesses that consider the welfare of animals, the options are available -- or so we think, says one law expert.
People can't taste or visibly notice the difference between a "free-range" egg and its cage-dwelling counterpart, so how can consumers really be sure of what they're buying?
Knowing the facts is key, as welfare claims for eggs produced in the United States are often misleading, says Shelia Rodriguez, a clinical associate professor at Rutgers, in an article in press for The Temple Journal of Science, Technology and Environmental Law.
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Laying hens slip through the cracks of existing welfare legislation, and the government lacks jurisdiction to standardize welfare claims made by egg producers, Rodriguez writes. Such loopholes result in inhumane conditions for hens. Female chicks in the industry are debeaked to prevent them from pecking at one another, and male chicks are outright killed. Laying hens are subjected to crowded battery cages and sent to slaughterhouses to be killed with little consideration for pain or suffering, she writes.
Rodriguez does not spare us of the hard-to-read details because she believes people have the right to know the facts and the power to change laws.
Because the three major animal welfare laws -- the Animal Welfare Act, the Twenty-Eight Hour Law that establishes feeding and watering requirements for livestock during transportation, and the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act -- do not cover laying hens, there's little enforcement for how the animals are raised, Rodriguez writes.
In general, the FDA and the Food Safety Inspection Services branch of the USDA oversee egg production, but neither has the authority to regulate living conditions. Instead, both focus on the quality and transport of the eggs themselves.
All these factors have created highly regulated industries from a production perspective, but not from an animal welfare view, which is why claiming products are "cage-free" and "free-range" can be misleading. Cage-free operations usually amount to raising hens in crowded warehouses under artificial light, she writes, and the term "free-range" isn't even applicable to laying hens, but is a trend for broiler chickens raised for consumption. Even if hens are given time outside, there are no standards for how long and what even counts as "outdoors."
Most concerning, Rodriguez notes, is companies' ability to self-report welfare claims.
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But what about organic products? Are they any better?
Organic labeling requires accredited producers to create living conditions that accommodate the health and natural behavior of animals, but Rodriguez argues that enforcing standards is difficult.
The United Egg Producers, the U.S. organization encompassing 90 percent of egg businesses, states that laying hens aren't restricted to cages too small for animals to spread their wings and beak trimming is only performed "when necessary."
Still, Rodriguez advises people to avoid the majority of egg carton claims and consider buying from businesses certified from third parties, such as Animal Welfare Approved, which aren't perfect, but do a better job at measuring welfare claims, she writes.
Photo by Alex Barth/Flickr.com
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