The Egg Industry Center Issues Forum in Chicago April 20-21, brought together egg producers, trade association representatives, some researchers and even a few activists and representatives from McDonald’s, and, as expected, the hot topic was cage-free egg purchase pledges. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) representative at the forum was the only person who was smiling throughout the two days of presentations and discussions.
Egg producers aren’t happy because they are facing what could be a cumulative $6-10 billion capital outlay to convert an industry that still has around 90 percent of its birds in cages to cage-free. Lenders aren’t happy, according to Jeff Coit, vice presdient, Farm Credit Services of America, because of the uncertainty over what actual consumer acceptance will be of cage-free eggs and whether or not the price that egg producers receive will be consistent and high enough to pay off the loans for the new systems. Just to make the financing of cage-free a little more interesting, you have to consider that houses with cages aren’t as good for loan collateral as they once were since we don’t know how long their useful life will be, Coit reported.
Even activists groups, like World Wildlife Federation, represented by one of its vice presidents, Carlos Saviani, aren’t happy about the cage-free movement, because it puts a subjective evaluation of bird welfare in the driver’s seat ahead of environmental sustainability measures. Simply put, cage housing has a smaller environmental footprint than does cage-free, so more resources to produce eggs means less land for wildlife.