Australians consumers looking to buy eggs will find supermarket shelves bare for at least the next couple of months, as retailers struggle to implement even the woefully inadequate protections of the new "free range" regulations.
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Consumer affairs ministers around the country have agreed that factory farms can still call their products free range up to a density of 10,000 hens per hectare – allowing each bird just one square metre of space. Even this minimal new standard has apparently proven difficult for producers to meet, proving that "free range" was always just a marketing slogan. The Model Code of Practice, published by the CSIRO, which set the limit at 1,500 hens per hectare, is apparently just a joke to the egg industry.
Australians are already struggling with a barrage of misleading and vague labels on eggs, including "barn laid", "free to roam" and "cage-free", all of which tell the consumer little about how the chickens were actually farmed. And let's not forget that for each hen confined to a short, miserable life, a male chick has been killed by gassing, suffocation or being minced alive, as male babies are considered the "waste products" of this industry.
Don't be fooled by cynical marketing slogans. The best way to save chickens and other animals from suffering for eggs, meat and dairy products is to go vegan today.
Desmond Bellamy
Special Projects Coordinator
PETA Australia
