Egg farmers have spent more than $11 billion over the past decade to satisfy cage-free mandates. Now some states are reexamining those mandates.
As the United States continues a protracted battle with highly pathogenic avian influenza—or bird flu—that has sent egg prices soaring, some states are temporarily rolling back laws governing how egg-laying hens are housed.
Eight states currently have laws or have passed laws that will soon become effective, requiring all eggs sold in the state to come from cage-free hens.
In February and March, however, Nevada and Arizona, respectively, paused their newly enacted cage-free laws, aiming to save consumers money and ensure the availability of eggs.
Cage-free measures, boosted by animal welfare activists who say keeping hens in cages is cruel, are designed to give birds a better quality of life.
However, critics say that over the past decade, egg farmers have spent more than $11 billion converting operations to supply a product that costs them more to produce, but isn’t necessarily in demand from the average consumer.
A 2023 study by researchers from Purdue, Michigan State University, and Kansas State University found that while some consumers will pay higher prices for cage-free eggs, the largest segment—representing 55 percent of consumers—is mainly motivated by price, not by whether their eggs came from cage-free hens.
According to data from United Egg Producers, an agricultural cooperative and advocacy group, about 122.6 million cage-free hens, or about 42.1 percent of the total commercial laying flock, were actively laying eggs on Feb. 1.
For most of the history of the U.S. egg industry, egg-laying hens—known as layers—have been raised in so-called battery cages. In this setup, hens live their productive lives in a cage where they receive food and water. They remain in the cage until they can no longer lay eggs. Typically, once a hen can no longer lay eggs, it is processed for meat or protein products.
About 20 years ago, the conversation around animal welfare and egg production began to change. That conversation was advanced by the publication of the 2008 report, “Putting Meat on the Table: Industrial Farm Animal Production in America,” by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.
