What’s the difference between cage-free, free-range, and pasture-raised when it comes to eggs?
Cage-free can be considered a minimum baseline for improved animal welfare since laying-hens aren’t suffering in battery cages. Free-range eggs come from hens who have some access to the outdoors, but the size and quality of that space are unregulated, as are the amount of time the hens are allowed out. In fact, they may still spend the majority of their time indoors. Pasture raised eggs allow hens even more time and space outside.
Does cage-free mean something different for eggs than it does for chicken or turkey?
Yes. While cage-free is meaningful on egg products to ensure that hens were not raised in cages, it is meaningless on poultry products, including chicken and turkey. Chickens and turkeys raised for meat in the U.S. are never caged, though they’re often raised in factory farms in barns with tens of thousands of other birds, without access to natural light or the outdoors. So, in this case, a cage-free label on chicken or turkey meat is misleading and meaningless.
Does having a third-party or independent animal welfare certification guarantee that no animals will ever suffer on those farms?
No. The best way to guarantee that your food involves no potential animal suffering is to eat plant-based. Certifications verify through annual on-farm audits and reviewing documentation that farms are raising animals to higher standards at that point in time. They can have high, robust and science-based standards, but certification programs cannot oversee animal treatment or farm conditions 24/7. There is a chance that animals can be mistreated or neglected, intentionally or unintentionally, even if a farm is certified. While they’re not perfect in assuring animal welfare, certifications are one of the best and only tools we currently have in the marketplace to verify, independently and regularly, that a farm’s environment and practices are better than those on factory farms.