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Egg industry challenges are a cautionary tale for the meat industry

To end animal agriculture the movement has to drive down demand and raise the costs and people will stop purchasing so much meat, thus bringing an end to the industry.”   One example of this tactic was the push in 2016 by several activist groups to pressure food companies to commit to only sourcing cage-free eggs within the next few years. A total of over 230 restaurants, retailers, hospitality companies, foodservice companies and food manufacturers ended up making such commitments. In order to meet that demand, 228 million laying hens (more than 75 percent of the U.S. flock) will need to be cage-free. Today, 16 percent of the U.S. flock (around 52 million layers, this includes both organic and non-organic) is cage-free, and that number has risen dramatically (by more than 20 million) over the past two years. That rapid pace isn’t going to be enough, though – according to the Egg Industry Center, the rate of conversion will need to be 21.5 million layers per year for the next eight consecutive years to meet the pledges (double the pace of the past two years). That conversion isn’t cheap, either – it comes at a cost of around $10 billion.   All of this is made even more complicated by the fact that consumers aren’t flocking to cage-free eggs the way brands thought they would (which further illustrates that these pledges were driven by a small but vocal minority of activists). It’s a tough pill to swallow for the egg industry to invest the needed funds to make this transition (to a higher-cost production model) when consumers are still opting to buy the lowest-cost, conventionally-produced product.

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