“Crunch time for cage-free” by LewisBollard

<p> Note: This post was crossposted from the Open Philanthropy Farm Animal Welfare Research Newsletter by the Forum team, with the author's permission. The author may not see or respond to comments on this post.</p><p> Despite setbacks, battery cages are on the retreat</p><p> My colleague Emma Buckland contributed (excellent) research to this piece. All opinions and errors are mine alone.</p><p> It's deadline time. Over the last decade, many of the world's largest food companies — from McDonald's to Walmart — pledged to stop sourcing eggs from caged hens in at least their biggest markets. All in, over 2,700 companies globally have now pledged to go cage-free.</p><p> Good things take time, and companies insisted they needed a lot of it to transition their egg supply chains — most set 2025 deadlines to do so. Over the years, companies reassured anxious advocates that their transitions were on track. But now, with just [...]</p> <p>---</p> <p><b>First published:</b><br/> June 20th, 2025 </p> <p><b>Source:</b><br/> <a href="https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/crunch-time-for-cage-free?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Source+URL+in+episode+description&utm_campaign=ai_narration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/crunch-time-for-cage-free</a> </p> <p>---</p> <p>Narrated by <a href="https://type3.audio/?utm_source=TYPE_III_AUDIO&utm_medium=Podcast&utm_content=Narrated+by+TYPE+III+AUDIO&utm_term=ea_forum&utm_campaign=ai_narration" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">TYPE III AUDIO</a>.</p> <p>---</p><div style="max-width: 100%";><p><strong>Images from the article:</strong></p><a href="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/varpxidng5umtxmfn6fm" target="_blank"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/varpxidng5umtxmfn6fm" alt="The number of US cage-free hens and the share of hens that are cage-free is way up. Source: USDA data (Egg Markets Overview and Monthly Reports). Note: data is for the end of each year, except 2025 which is for May." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/vmokolxizj3cqkectpez" target="_blank"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/vmokolxizj3cqkectpez" alt="The top 3 retailers in the largest European markets are now mostly selling cage-free shell (whole) eggs. Source: company websites and EggTrack.com. We (conservatively) assume 0% cage-free sales when companies don’t report publicly (relevant in Poland, Australia and Brazil). We take the average of own-brand and branded eggs percentages when overall progress is unavailable." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/k28ke8mm4ylpvmkxxpof" target="_blank"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/k28ke8mm4ylpvmkxxpof" alt="A dozen caged eggs for sale at a Giant Eagle (a brand of Ahold-Delhaize) in New York. The hens are permanently confined to battery cages, but they’re surely happy to be raised locally on a vegetarian diet, without artificial hormones (as are all US hens — hormones are illegal in poultry feed). Source: personal photo." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><hr style="margin-top: 24px; margin-bottom: 24px;" /><a href="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/g9aunermqujy3l5floqi" target="_blank"><img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/cea/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/mirroredImages/5DTrsKCSYhp9gnpAi/g9aunermqujy3l5floqi" alt="US egg producers didn’t get the memo about the supply crisis. Source: Top Egg Company survey of the 40 largest US egg producers, who collectively account for 283.51 million hens (i.e. almost the entire US flock). Results published January, 2025, though it doesn’t say when the survey was sent out." style="max-width: 100%;" /></a><p><em>Apple Podcasts and Spotify do not show images in the episode description. Try <a href="https://pocketcasts.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">Pocket Casts</a>, or another podcast app.</em></p></div>