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A nesting box for chickens. (Photo By Susan L. Angstadt/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty ... [+] Images)MediaNews Group via Getty Images2025 is a turning point for the treatment of animals raised for food in the U.S. But its been a decade in the making.Lewis Bollard, who heads up Open Philanthropys work on farm animal welfare, explains that the first major corporate policies committing to being 100% cage-free came about in 2015. Especially in 2016, there was a wave of such pledges. Globally, companies have made over 2,500 cage-free egg commitments, mostly by 2025, and 1,200 have already been met. Many of the early pledgers asked for a decade to ensure that their supplier chains would completely ditch caging mainly of cages for egg-laying chickens, and crates for pregnant pigs.All those pledges are now coming home to roost. Ten years seems like a long time, Bollard acknowledges, but changes needed to overhaul farming systems do take time.Some Successes, Some ExcusesA number of companies have used that time well. And it isnt just an elite movement. The fast food chains in the United States are moving to systems where pigs are able to turn around, rather than squeezed into isolation crates, explains Josh Balk, CEO of the ethical investment firm The Accountability Board. Preventing an animal from turning around for months on end is animal cruelty.Balk notes, This is no longer a thing for natural food stores or co-ops or farmers markets. Everyone from McDonalds to Burger King to Wendys, all have a policy to get to 100% at least group housing for these pigs. Within the same category of restaurant, there are many cases where one company already has fully cage-free eggs or pork while a competitor hasnt even set a target showing that change is viable within that industry segment.As for supermarkets, Whole Foods and Sprouts have already achieved 100% of their cage-free egg commitments with several pasture-based options too, comments Nancy Roulston, senior director of corporate policy and animal science at the ASPCA. For layer hens, according to Roulston, Cage-free systems that are pasture-based are the best kind as they offer the birds enough space to stretch their wings, a stimulating environment to explore and forage, with all the benefits of sunlight and fresh air and a safe place to seek shelter from predators and roost at night. The ASPCA maintains a Supermarket Scorecard, ranking large grocery store chains on animal welfare, including battery cages for hens and gestation crates for pregnant pigs.MORE FOR YOULess positively, Bollard says, a lot of companies have wasted that time. Walmart is an example. In 2016, Walmart set a 2025 goal for fully cage-free eggs, but qualified this by saying that it would be based on available supply, affordability and customer demand. The company admitted defeat five years later. Indeed, Walmart has fallen far short. In FY 2024, just 27% of eggs sold by Walmart U.S. came from non-caged hens. The companys pork is supposed to meet the standards of a federal program called Pork Quality Assurance (PQA) Plus, but PQA Plus continues to allow pigs to be placed in crates too small for them to turn around. (Walmart, like all of the supermarket chains mentioned in this story, chose not to comment.)Walmart has largely blamed its customers and suppliers for not stepping up. Its a tactic that some other large retailers have also used. In 2023 Dollar General revoked its commitment to 100% cage-free eggs, mentioning customer and shareholder activity, and declined to set a new goal.Krogers 2025 goal of 100% cage-free eggs is intact, but off-target. The company points to sluggish customer demand, in spite of its efforts to reduce prices and increase promotions. It now expects to be at 70% cage-free by 2030.I think its unfair to blame consumers, says Christine Nicol, a professor of animal welfare at the Royal Veterinary College in London. She argues that consumers arent being hypocritical by saying they want higher-welfare food, but ultimately choosing lower-welfare options. She points out that food isnt just a matter of individual choice, and few people have enough time and energy to carefully scrutinize every food claim.For comparison, in the UK some retailers just took all caged eggs off the shelf, which shoppers hardly noticed. Nicol notes that for supermarkets, being braver and just saying right, were not going to include caged eggs at all, or having the caged eggs in some very plain, cheap packaging, is another option.Some U.S. retailers have found a middle ground: offering cage-free store-brand eggs, plus caged eggs from external brands. Costco, Sprouts, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods are among the supermarket chains with fully cage-free store-brand eggs.Another justification some companies use for missed pledges, including Costco, Target, and Compass Group, is that recent avian flu outbreaks have made the commitments impossible to keep. In 2024, cage-free chickens were especially hit hard by avian flu.But The Accountability Boards Balk has little patience for this argument. These companies should have been, and many have been, getting ready to fulfill these commitments, he says. The point of a 10-year promise is its a phase-in; he points to McDonalds U.S. as an example of a company that set a phased approach, and actually reached its cage-free goal two years ahead of schedule. For a 10-year commitment to be derailed by a recurring disease suggests a lack of genuine preparation. Now its excuses time.Clearly, not all companies will get to the end of 2025 with their promises intact. As of December 2024 in the U.S., 121 million more hens needed to be living outside of cages for all the collective commitments to be met. Companies with global commitments are struggling especially in Asia. The U.S. supply should be much easier to clean up.A Mixed Record On TransparencyThough its not yet at 100% cage-free eggs, Kroger has been praised by some animal-welfare advocates for its overall approach to setting phased targets and disclosing information about its animal-welfare policies. Kroger bans cages for broiler chickens. And the company expects to achieve its goal of 100% of fresh pork coming from group-housed sows in 2025.While its not quite at 100% cage-free either, Costco also provides detailed information. Costco is moving toward genuinely crate-free pork, not just group housing. Jess Chipkin, the head of the nonprofit advocacy organization Crate Free USA, says that group housing can include some crated time though its still a positive step forward.Other companies have been less forthcoming. Target will not meet its objective of 100% cage-free eggs by the end of 2025, and it does not specify when it expects to get rid of gestation crates for pigs.In fact, Balk says, Target has gone backwards on its animal-welfare commitments. The company has actually deleted the statement We will report annually on our progress from its website.Dollar Tree has also struggled with transparency. In 2016, the company committed to 100% cage-free eggs by the end of 2025. It promised to specify in 2023 what percentage it had achieved. Were still waiting for this information.Publix is another company that recently weakened their promise and policy on transitioning to cage-free eggs by 2026. They also removed their statement that at Publix, we believe animals should be treated humanely at all phases of their lives, notes the ASPCAs Roulston. Customers and suppliers are seeking transparency around animal welfare, so its always disappointing when a company pulls back on its promise to publicly report.For Balk, the two biggest offenders on transparency but also on caging more generally are Ahold Delhaize and Aldi US. Both have European counterparts with more humane policies.Chipkin explains that in 2019, Crate Free USA began advocating for Aldi to commit to a policy to transition from gestation crates to group housing. Aldi added a line to its animal welfare policy stating We expect our suppliers to pursue the elimination of crates for pregnant sows in favor of group housing. Chipkin was concerned about the vagueness of this statement. Unfortunately, more than five years have passed, and that statement has not been changed/updated. Despite food industry trends and consumer concerns, Aldi still allows its pork suppliers to use gestation crates and continues to have no public comment on this issue.Its not just grocery chains that have a mixed record on information sharing. Hardees has not provided public updates on its 2025 cage-free egg commitment, though sister brand Carls Jr. has already reached this goal in the U.S.Transparency extends from annual reports to labels on store shelves, where the proliferation of options and terminology can be daunting. For example, shoppers are confused by labels like farm fresh for eggs, which they sometimes purchase in the mistaken belief that the hens producing those eggs were not kept in cages.Many claims on meat, dairy, and egg products either dont have a formal legal definition, so conditions vary enormously between farms, or the label doesnt actually influence animals living conditions, Roulston warns. Many folks dont understand how the vast majority of animals are raised, and they have been purposely misled through empty claims like natural and farm fresh and images of cartoon chickens on grass, when the hens are actually confined in stacked wire cages in barren warehouses.Its even worse for pigs, Chipkin says. There is a total disconnect between the shrink-wrapped package someone sees on the shelf and the life of the animal.To Balk, this lacking or misleading information actually inhibits consumer choice. If grocery stores really want to put it to the test, make it crystal clear which egg cartons contain eggs from caged chickens, he challenges. It can also be argued that beating the drum of consumer choice has allowed for grocery chains to divert some of their own responsibilities.Advocacy organizations like Crate Free USA and the Open Wing Alliance have found it constructive to engage with corporations on improvements to animals living conditions. And while its easy to call out companies that have failed to meet the objectives they set themselves, this is still a better situation than knowing nothing about companies caging practices at all.It can be a delicate balance to be pragmatic, without letting corporations off the hook. To have a chance of achieving this balance, companies need to set measurable targets for improving farmed animals lives, as well as data on their progress. Companies should be acknowledged for meeting those targets, and held to account for falling short or even worse not reporting at all. Otherwise all those nice-sounding cage-free pledges made in the past decade will amount to empty publicity grabs, intended to be forgotten.The good news is that this is an area where companies are actually responsive to their customers, as well as to shareholders and policymakers. This is a very consumer-driven movement, Chipkin says. Individuals and groups can push their states to pass laws restricting cruel caging, as both red and blue states have done. They can also pressure companies directly.Crate Free USA is running campaigns with several retailers, and provides general tips on reducing the suffering of farmed animals. The Humane League has an online form that anyone can use to easily email Ahold Delhaize and 10 other businesses to press them on getting to cage-free eggs.Then: Gestation crates previously used to house pregnant sows on the New Back 40 farm. (AP ... [+] Photo/Jeff Roberson)Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.Now: Jared Schilling in a New Back 40 gestation pen. Jared SchillingThe Price ConundrumAdmittedly, it costs more to produce meat and eggs under more liveable conditions. Fluctuating egg prices are an especially sensitive area for Americans. Of the nine grocery staples tracked by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the price of a dozen eggs rose the most between September 2023 and 2024. Walmart estimates that cage-free eggs cost 2540% more to produce, and most people are not motivated by animal welfare. However, for some U.S. supermarket chains, cage-free eggs can be cheaper than caged eggs at the same store (generally when part of the store brand). And some research has estimated that pork from crate-free sows, as required by California law, would only tack on about $8 to an average persons grocery bill per year.Jared Schilling remembers disliking farming as a kid, when his dad and uncle raised hogs to the standard industrial model. The economic model is just to be the cheapest, so any possible shortcut is taken, he says, from cramming pigs into the tightest quarters possible, to giving them antibiotics to grow faster. It was hard to reconcile feeding the pigs ractopamine, a chemical banned in several countries, when that was something he didnt want to put into his own body. All in all, it was harsh.When he and his siblings took over the farm, they were committed to a different type of farming. What made this work was having a reliable customer with similar values. They found that in Coleman Natural, a brand of Perdue Farms, whose pork is sold in places like Costco. (Perdue has been a bit more open to animal welfare reforms than its fellow agribusiness giants, according to Open Philanthropys Bollard.) Coleman Natural does not allow antibiotics, and requires at least 24 square feet per pregnant sow. Its not as much space as Coleman Naturals sister brand Niman Ranch, but its considerably more than the industry average.In line with the higher standards, which are monitored via regular site visits, New Back 40 built new facilities that gave extra space to the sows rather than isolation stalls, stopped using hormones and antibiotics, and added toys for these intelligent, social animals. The conversion was costly, Schilling admits, but Coleman Naturals 510% price premium and guaranteed purchasing have offset the costs. On an ongoing basis, this type of production isnt more expensive, but it does involve a different kind of management, according to Schilling. For instance, the pigs dont appreciate the sudden appearance of new neighbors, and could turn aggressive if these transitions arent well managed. We kind of have to work with their behavior, Schilling explains.Its all made a big difference for the pigs, he reports. Theyre less stressed, and thus less susceptible to injury and illness. The farm is quieter now, which makes it more pleasant for the farmers. It feels calmer everywhere.Schilling understands well that farmers tend to be independent-minded and can resist apparent efforts by outsiders to change how they produce food. But hes also practical, and concerned about the health of both humans and the environment. For multiple reasons, hes convinced that crate-free is the future.Consumers demand is such that people are realizing that there have to be adjustments, because more people want something different. You know, they want to have a little higher trust in their food and where it comes from. For big food companies to source entirely crate-free pork soon, Schilling believes, its not insurmountable.This article is part of a series on cage-free transitions in animal agriculture around the world. The other articles in the series explore cage-free progress in Europe and Asia.
