One of my favourite restaurants in Sydney has its kitchen
right at the front, with a big glass window that lets you peer in as the chefs
weave their culinary magic. There’s always a queue to get in, so there’s always
plenty of time to enjoy the show.
The last time I visited I looked on in awe as one of the
young cooks grabbed a couple of eggs from a carton, one in each hand, and
meticulously cracked them right down the middle. The gooey insides poured out
and hit the hot frying plate with a satisfying sizzle. The shells were neatly
cast aside and the cook reached back to the box to apprehend his next pair of
victims, all in a matter of seconds.
My eyes trailed his lightening-fast hands back to the carton
– and caught the words ‘cage eggs’ printed on the side.
I’ve been a believer in free range even longer than I’ve
been a self-righteous vegetarian. My Nan had chooks when I was a kid, so I’ve
grown up with the ideal of hens happily scratching in the dirt as they eat
kitchen scraps. The whole concept of battery farms, where beaks are cut off
without anaesthetic and birds live their whole lives in a space no bigger than
an A4 piece of paper, has always seemed unconscionable.
There is no way I’d buy cage eggs and buy into that gruesome
business.
Now with the ACCC announcing it is launching proceedings
against two producers – Snowdale and Pirovic – because of claims they are
misleading customers by using the term “free range”, you have to wonder if it’s
possible to avoid cage eggs at all… even when you make a clear choice in the
supermarket.
But what about when you have less control over your choices?
There I was, standing with a friend outside one of my
best-loved eateries, just about to get to the front of the line and the
delicious treats inside. Could I walk in and order lunch, knowing that every
vegetarian option on the menu included one of those factory-farmed eggs?
I could. And I did.
Although on this visit, I just couldn’t enjoy the flavours and
textures in the same way. Probably due to that overwhelming taste of guilt in
my mouth.
Since then I’ve been thinking about how many other cage eggs
end up on my plate. Sure, the inner city hipster cafes I frequent proudly
promote their use of organic free-range, but I’ve never seen that kind of
proclamation on a menu in Chinatown, or at the RSL clubs I visit with my Nanna.
I’ve never asked the ladies who make my egg sandwiches in the cafe at work if I
could check their cartons for a free-range logo. And I’ve only just realised
that eggs are used to make countless other products I buy, from egg noodles to
pasta, cakes, custard, mayonnaise and even red wine, where egg whites are used
to remove excess tannins.
The Australian Egg Corporation has reported a substantial
decrease in the number of cage eggs sold in retail outlets over the past five
years, but they’ve been hesitant to release the figures on how many cage eggs
continue to be produced in total. Only about a third of Australian eggs make
their way onto supermarket shelves in cartons, most of the rest are used
locally in food production. According to the latest figures, just over half of
the eggs now sold at retail are cage eggs, but the percentage of cage eggs sold
for food production is estimated to be substantially higher.
Animals Australia say that there are twelve-million laying
hens confined in battery facilities around Australia today, which is over 70
per cent of the total laying stock.
Last month the Woolworths supermarket chain committed to
phasing out cage eggs from their shelves by 2018. More strikingly, they also
said that they will stop using cage eggs as an ingredient in their home brand
products. According to Woolworths, the primary motivator for the
decision is rising consumer concern for animal welfare. The company reported
that 70 per cent of the eggs they sold in 2009 were cage eggs, but now that
figure has dropped to just 50 per cent. Customers are willing to pay a little more if that leads to
a little less suffering and they’ve delivered that message in cold, hard sales
figures.
Organisations like Animals Australia, Animal Liberation and
the RSPCA have been advocating loudly for an end to battery-produced eggs for
years. Public campaigns have circulated images of hens crammed into cages,
sometimes pecking themselves or their cage-mates to death because of distress
and cramped conditions. But even those types of shocking images haven’t been enough
to shut down the industry.
Another tactic has been to put pressure on governments to
outlaw battery farms, or to at least enforce labelling standards that give
consumers a genuine choice to support free-range production. Bills sponsored by
Greens or independent members have been made their way to state parliaments
right around the country, but all have been defeated.
So the announcement by Woolworths was a big deal. It’s both
a genuine win for animal rights and also a triumph for consumer advocacy. One
of the biggest Australian retailers has been swayed by consumer sentiment,
proving that small ethical choices can make big transformations in the food
industry. It’s got me wondering how many letters it will take from
people like me before that favourite restaurant of mine will consider making
the shift to free range. Or how few.
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