Cage-free eggs: What does the label really mean?
What is the true meaning behind the label “cage-free eggs”?
The term “cage-free” refers to farms and environments where the chickens in charge of producing eggs, also well known as laying hens, live in large outdoor spaces and get the sense of being free instead of being held in cages forced to lay eggs to survive. Caged eggs are the complete opposite of cage-free eggs.
Most caged hens worldwide live in factory farms, imprisoned in small, wired cages, also known as battery cages. These cages are stacked one on top of the other like a battery, where the term battery cages comes from.
Hundreds of companies have committed to selling only cage-free eggs by 2025 due to many complaints from consumers in grocery stores and restaurants worldwide. So much so that in Oregon, Washington and Nevada, selling/producing eggs from caged hens is now illegal. Some examples that you might see of cage-free eggs in real life are in grocery store isles or even your school cafeteria, as buying cage-free eggs along with your breakfast set has recently become a new choice in RCHK.
Even though cage-free eggs are widely preferred, they could also be a not-so-appealing option to many of the targeted audiences who consume eggs daily, as they are proven to be more expensive than caged eggs, which is a huge part of why caged eggs aren’t entirely banned yet.
In conclusion, even though most brands of cage-free eggs are more costly than caged eggs, people worldwide are still fighting and starting campaigns to ban caged eggs completely. Caged egg systems are one of the cruellest procedures in egg production because when chickens are trapped in battery cages, they can’t walk around freely, or in some cases, cannot even stretch their wings.
Bibliography:
Good news to start 2024: These laws are now in place to help animals. (2024, January 8). The Humane Society of the United States. https://www.humanesociety.org/blog/good-news-start-2024-these-laws-are-now-place-help-animals
Shanker, D. (2019, March 9). Companies Are Rushing to Meet Cage-Free Egg Deadline. Bloomberg. Retrieved January 21, 2024, from
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-08/
Clock-is-ticking-as-companies-scramble-to-produce-cage-free-eggs
Waxman, A. (2022, April 4). WHAT ARE CAGE-FREE EGGS? THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
CAGE-FREE AND FREE RANGE. The Humane League. Retrieved January 21, 2024,
