Don't let 'Free Range' become 'Factory Farmed'!

Australian Egg Corporation Ltd (AECL), the Australian egg industry body, is planning changes to egg farming standards that would turn free range into another form of factory farming.

Current (voluntary) standards allow free range egg farmers to keep up to 1,500 chickens per hectare, but for AECL this is not enough. AECL wants to increase this to allow a staggering 20,000 laying hens per hectare and to call eggs produced under these intense conditions 'free range', to attract a premium price.

AECL also proposes that free range hens be allowed to be locked inside sheds for the first 25 weeks of their lives -- even though they begin laying eggs at just 18 weeks old and currently go outside from about 5-6 weeks of age.

Traditional independent free range producers are horrified by AECL's proposal. It appears that the push has come from large influential battery producers who want to diversify their operations to include 'free range' to cash in on the trend of consumers shunning cruel cage eggs. Clearly profit is more important to them than the welfare of their hens -- or honesty to consumers.

Whilst AECL has the authority to decide on free range standards, retailers ultimately decide what products they offer their customers. If retailers refuse to accept intensively produced eggs labelled as 'free range', AECL will have no other option than to abandon their proposal.

Please urge the major national retailers, Coles and Woolworths, to use their power to defeat this proposal by committing never to sell eggs labelled 'free range' that do not meet today's minimum free range standards.

Take Action!

Subject: (please enter a subject line) Dear Decision Maker, (please edit the letter below, or send as-is) The Australian Egg Corporation recently proposed dramatic changes to standards for free range eggs. These changes would increase stocking rates of laying hens from 1,500 to 20,000 per hectare and would allow for hens to be kept inside their overcrowded sheds for the first 25 weeks of their lives, even though they begin laying eggs at just 18 weeks. This would effectively lead to 'free range' eggs on shelves laid by hens who have never once stepped outside. Such standards are clearly not free range and should not be sold as such. Consumers are prepared to pay a premium for free range because it provides a significantly better quality of life for animals. If AECL's weaker standards are accepted this will not be the case. I seek your reassurance that you will not endorse these inadequate standards to your customers, and that you will not sell any eggs as 'free range' that have been produced to weaker standards than current minimum free range standards. Sincerely, Your Name

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