Photographs ByMichael George
ByRachel Fobar
Published February 16, 2024
On open-pasture farms around the country, egg-laying hens seem to have it made: an open door offers access into fresh air beyond.
But ultimately, “access to pasture” means just that—the barn door is open, says Kestrel Burcham, a policy director at the Cornucopia Institute, a nonprofit consumer watchdog group. “It doesn’t necessarily mean they’re actually using it.”
Many chickens fear open spaces, which leave them vulnerable to predators from above. Unless these open spaces are well-designed with trees, brush cover, or even solar panels, “pasture-raised” hens may never experience the pasture. Still, when it comes to chicken welfare, pasture-raised sets the highest standards, and the label indicates the hens can spend most of their day outside—if they want.
To get the “free range” label, hens must have outdoor access for at least half of their lives, but like “pasture raised,” there are few requirements for what that outdoor space should look like—it could be concrete rather than grass, for example. And “cage-free” means only that hens aren’t in cages, but they may be kept indoors 24 hours a day. If a carton of eggs has none of these labels, the hens likely lived in battery cages, usually all-wire, communal enclosures in which each bird has 67 to 86 square inches. (For reference, a standard piece of printer paper is 93.5 square inches).
“Egg cartons are the most confusing of any livestock products,” Burcham says. (Confused at the grocery store? Here’s how to decode your egg label.)
Take “all-natural.” That label can be applied to chickens that were raised in farms that use battery cages, so long as the product was “minimally processed” in a way that doesn’t “fundamentally alter the product,” according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Typically that means there are no colors or artificial ingredients added. The words “farm fresh” on an egg carton have no specific meaning at all.
Photographer Michael George has spent more than two years capturing images of U.S. farmers who are trying to raise happier, pasture-raised hens. It’s been an eye-opening experience “learning how regulations with good intentions can often outpace science,” he says. But it’s been encouraging to see how farmers “are putting in significant time and money to keep tweaking the system to find what is truly most healthy for the birds,” he says. “There’s also an earnest sense of care the farmers have for their flocks.”
What does “pasture-raised” mean?
The USDA, which jointly regulates egg production with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, requires that “pasture-raised” animals “had continuous, free access to the out-of-doors for a significant portion of their lives.” The USDA doesn’t inspect facilities to ensure compliance, but farms are required to submit documents proving they provide pasture access.
“There are penalties if you make false labeling claims,” Burcham says. Consumers can file complaints about farms that misrepresent their outdoor access, and farms can be vulnerable to lawsuits. In 2021, PETA filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of consumers around the country against egg company Vital Farms, alleging that the company’s marketing led them to believe the company’s practices were more humane than they are. Vital Farms says it has always been transparent about its practices and that it has been independently audited. The lawsuit is ongoing.
Separate from the USDA’s “pasture-raised” label, egg producers may choose to seek a “pasture-raised” label from Certified Humane, a voluntary animal welfare certification program run by the nonprofit Humane Farm Animal Care, which independently audits farms to ensure they meet specific welfare standards. Certified Humane’s “pasture-raised” label requires that farms have 2.5 acres for every thousand birds, and hens generally must be outdoors year-round.
Starting in 2025, the USDA also will require new welfare standards for livestock products labeled “organic,” which include minimum outdoor space criteria, requirements that the outdoor space be at least 75 percent soil, and preventative health care such as sufficient nutrition and parasite prevention programs. Current organic standards require organic feed, no “unnecessary” antibiotics, and living conditions that accommodate an animal’s natural behaviors.
‘Pretty smart birds’
Modern domestic chickens are thought to be descendants of the Southeast Asian red junglefowl, which were preyed upon by sky-dwelling predators like raptors. Fearing open spaces, these wild ancestors evolved to seek sheltered habitats, including shrubs and vegetation, forests, and mangroves.
Studies suggest that today’s domesticated chickens show the same preferences. In environments dense with sorghum plants or olive trees, birds were more likely to explore and use the pasture available to them, according to one study. The same was true for chickens in habitats with human-made cover, including netting and straw huts. Even indoors, studies have shown that chickens prefer to hang out under painted Plexiglas panels in their pens, where they were more likely to preen and rest.
A good pasture setting consists of space, grass and vegetation, and, inside the coop, nesting boxes rather than battery cages for hens to lay their eggs, says Lewis Bollard, director for Open Philanthropy’s farm animal welfare program.
Handsome Brook Farms, a network of small, organic farms that sells eggs from pasture-raised hens to supermarkets like Safeway and Sprouts, requires that farms have at least 108 square feet per chicken, half of which is covered by vegetation, and that they provide enrichment for the animals. (Handsome Brook, too, was the defendant in a 2016 lawsuit alleging some of its “pasture raised” eggs didn’t meet criteria for the label. An out-of-court settlement in 2018 required third-party audits of the company’s egg purchases and farm practices for 18 months.)
Vernon Martin, owner of Crystal Spring Farm in New York, sells eggs through Handsome Brook. When he first built his chicken barn, there were no trees within a hundred feet of it. To encourage his chickens to go outside, he planted about 350 saplings, and a year later, he replanted some 10-foot trees. Gradually, as the trees have grown, he’s noticed the chickens venturing out more and more. They’re “pretty smart birds,” he says.
At Red Hen Roost, a 73-acre corn farm in New York that also sells through Handsome Brook, some hens are waiting at the barn doors first thing in the morning, owner Luke Nolt says. On his pasture, hens can wander in the shade of pines, willows, flowering pears, and crabapple trees. Thousands of hens follow him as he performs his daily checks, he says, and one white hen was particularly friendly, sometimes hopping up on his shoulder as he walked.
Better treatment, better business?
Higher welfare standards don’t only benefit the hens. They may also be beneficial for farm owners. In one 2008 study, giving hens access to cover panels boosted egg production by two percent and provided an estimated $3 million in revenue the participating poultry company.
In New York, Martin checks on his 15,000 birds twice a day, making sure the barns have proper ventilation and that it’s at a comfortable temperature, between 65 and 70 degrees.
When one of his flocks was sick, he noticed the yolks were pale and yellow rather than their usual orange color. “If you don’t have a good environment for them, they won’t produce like they should,” he says.
He believes consumers are willing to pay more for fresher eggs that come from healthier—and happier—hens.
That’s true, Bollard says, except for one problem: “A lot of consumers have no idea where their eggs come from.”
Usually, “consumers assume that the regular eggs on the shelf came from hens outside,” he says. And because pasture-raised eggs tend to cost more, customers might avoid them. Part of the problem is that supermarkets tend to mark up free-range and pasture-raised eggs more than conventional eggs, Bollard says.
Some grocery stores have recently made commitments to phase out caged eggs by 2025. Stores like Whole Foods, Sprouts, Costco, and Target are either entirely cage-free or well on their way. “When chickens behave naturally, they naturally lay great eggs,” Whole Foods says on its website.
The Animal Welfare Act, the federal law that regulates the treatment of animals in research, exhibition, and transport, doesn’t cover livestock, which means it’s often up to farmers and consumers to demand better welfare, Burcham says.
“There’s an odd perception that birds are not as complex or sentient as mammals, which isn’t accurate,” Burcham says. “They’re a very dynamic species and I wish people paid more attention to what makes birds special.”
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