Egg producers seek assurance on cage-free standards
WASHINGTON, Sept. 28, 2016 - Egg
producers are facing a massive bill, estimated be at least $5.6 billion, to
remove the cages from their farms, and they fear the cost could turn out to be
steeper. Now, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has become personally involved
in an effort to work with the food industry and egg producers to help them cope
with sweeping conversion to cage-free systems.
The industry’s transformation is the
result of a series of commitments that supermarket and restaurant chains and
food service giants have made to shift to cage-free eggs over the next decade.
About 10 percent of the 300 million
laying hens nationwide are currently raised without cages, including organic
operations. It’s estimated that by 2025 farms will need to install cage-free
systems for an additional 140 million hens, according
to USDA. At an estimated price tag of $40 per
bird, that will cost the industry $5.6 billion. The United Egg Producers says
the cost could be closer to $8 billion.
As if that’s not bad enough, producers
say they also worry that their investment in new cage-free systems could be
squandered if animal welfare advocates someday force the food industry to
demand additional changes. “Farmers
need to know what they can build and invest in right now,” said Chad
Gregory, UEP’s president and CEO.
The concern, Gregory tells Agri-Pulse,
is that animal welfare groups will
demand that hens should be provided outdoor access or raised on pasture. UEP
has a current standard for cage-free production that allows the use of what are
known as multi-tiered aviaries, structures that provide a place for hens to
feed, perch and lay their eggs.
Vilsack is alarmed enough about the
issue that he personally attended a meeting at USDA last week with Agricultural
Marketing Service staff and representatives of the food and restaurant
industry, farm groups and Gregory.
According to a USDA summary of the
meeting obtained by Agri-Pulse, there was consensus that the egg
industry’s cage-free transition “requires
a thoughtful, collaborative approach beginning with a common definition of ‘cage-free’
so that producers have a clear goal and those selling eggs and egg products can
articulate what that means to consumers. USDA will continue to check in
periodically to ensure this transition remains on track.”
Gregory said
that Vilsack’s interest in the issue was clear at the meeting. “He is very,
very concerned about this transition, about will there be enough eggs,
cage-free eggs in 2025? He’s very concerned about the farmers
feeling confident about what they can build, invest in. … You could see it in his
body language.”
The Humane Society of the United States,
which has led the push to get food industry to shift to cage-free eggs, was not
represented at the meeting. But Paul Shapiro, HSUS’ vice president for farm
animal production, tells Agri-Pulse that his group supports UEP’s
current standards for cage-free and won’t push to allow hens outdoors. “Free-range and cage-free are two different
things and we are not trying to conflate them,” he said.
He said he trusted UEP to maintain
adequate cage-free standards and to update them as necessary as new science
develops. “They have been doing it
without our input, and I believe they will continue to do it. The UEP wants to
have good standards.”
That still leaves the producers’ concern
about how to pay for conversion of their farms to cage-free before there is an
adequate market. A few of the 160 food companies and restaurant chains shifting
to cage-free are doing so in the next few years. Taco Bell is going 100 percent
this year, Costco in 2018, but most aren’t doing so until much later, typically
2024 or 2025, which allows for a 10-year phase-in. “We don’t want egg farmers going out of business between now and then
because they don’t know how to pay for it,” said Gregory.
Andy Harig, senior director of
government relations for the Food Marketing Institute, which represents
supermarket chains, said his member companies are committed to working with
producers to address their concern. The 10-year transition period that most of
the retailer commitments provide were designed to allow egg producers to make
the conversion “in hopefully as painless a way as possible,” he said.
Harig, who attended last week’s USDA
meeting, also said that it’s important to have industry and animal welfare
groups agree on a cage-free standard on which producers can rely. How that
would be done is still to be determined. “Obviously we would like to have as broad a buy-in as possible for it.
It’s working out how to get there.”
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