October 2, 2006

 

Cage-free eggs catching on in the US

 

 

More farmers in the north-eastern part of the US are threading towards having more natural and humane egg products to cater to an increasingly sophisticated consumer market.

 

For Lamar Horst, a farmer in Pennsylvania, that meant building a cage-free chicken house, to tap into that market.

 

The chicken house, measuring 40-by-500-foot, would cost US$585,000 and house more than 19,000 brown hens when completed. 

 

Chickens are not kept in cages so they would have more room to walk around and flap their wings, said Albert Horst, son of the owner.

 

The eggs would be sold in cartons labeled "Certified Humane Raised and Handled" by Humane Farm Animal Care, a non-profit organization that imposes standards for humane food production.

 

To be certified thus, the building must allow at least 1.25 square feet for each hen, giving them room to move about the mesh floor.

 

Lights attract the hens to nests along the walls of the building, where eggs will be laid and picked up by an egg belt, Horst said.

 

The eggs would then be sold to Lehman's Egg Service Inc. of Greencastle, which has been selling cage-free eggs for the past five years.

 

There has been a consumer push for more natural and organic products and more focus on how the animals are treated, according to treasurer and secretary Greg Buckwalter.

 

Lehman's asked the Horst family to build the cage-free house to tap into the growing market for certified humane eggs in the Washington, D.C., and New York metropolitan areas.

 

The chickens were fed an all-vegetarian diet and inspections are conducted by the Humane Farm Animal Care yearly.

 

Cage-free eggs are more expensive than normal eggs due to the higher cost of production, Buckwalter said. However, it meant more pay for the farmer, he added.

 

For consumers, they may find the peace of mind eating an all-natural product worth the added cost, Buckwalter said. In fact, there has been some feedback that brown textured eggs produced by such farms are tastier than the white ones produced at commercial farms, he added.