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By now, most people have heard about the E.U. legislation due to come into force in 2012 that requires larger ‘enriched' cages for caged laying hens. The problem that remains though is that unless the consumer is educated enough and opts to buy higher welfare eggs then the efforts that are being made within Europe might just shift the problem elsewhere.
I was first alerted to this when the Battery Hen Welfare Trust (now called the British Hen Welfare Trust) mentioned in their Freshly Laid newsletter that they had received enquiries from the Far East from companies looking to buy up old cages from UK farmers who were changing over to Free Range or Barn systems.
The prospects for the battery hen under the 2012 legislation don't sound so appealing to me now. What if the British egg farmer becomes legislated out of existence and we simply move the hens from Europe to elsewhere? The very same systems could be used and operated to much lower standards than we currently have in the UK. I realise that currently there is only one sure way forward: For the consumer to want to buy higher welfare eggs and products that contain higher welfare eggs. The supermarkets will follow of course by stocking what they can sell to their customers.
It is worth looking at Denmark as an example as to what could possibly happen in the UK. In 1950 Denmark passed a Protection of Animals Act that was interpreted by producers as not allowing battery cages. Danish companies built farms in Germany, just over the Danish border and imported the eggs into Denmark. Gradually, by the 70's, the law started to be broken with battery farms being built in Denmark itself. In 1979, a law was passed that allowed 600cm2 cages per bird which typically meant 4 birds per cage rather than 5 but still Denmark remains a net importer of eggs. Their egg industry thrives, although undoubtedly it is a little smaller than it could potentially be.
The good news is that in the UK, slowly the market is shifting to higher welfare food. The latest figures that have come out from Compassion in World Farming show that despite the recession, the time when we are most likely to be cutting back on higher priced food, sales of higher welfare eggs and fresh chicken meat have both continued to increase, so we are at least moving in the right direction.
Ultimately, it is up to us to decide. Each and every one of us has a choice as to what we buy and the more often we buy higher welfare egg products, the more steps we are taking in the right direction to a better future for caged hens now and after the enriched battery cages come into British farms in 2012.
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Ex-Battery Hens