UR to buy only eggs certified 'cage-free'

Note: the University of Rochester will no long sell eggs produced by Wegmans Egg Farm or other farms like it. While Danny Wegman is a UR Board Member, and Colleen Wegman an alumnas, UR will not buy eggs produced at their farm.

Misty Edgecomb, Democrat and Chronicle Staff writer

The 4,200 pounds of eggs that the University of Rochester serves to its students and staff every month will be certified "cage-free," beginning next week, the school announced Wednesday.

Several student activists raised concerns about the small cages in which many hens are housed at industrial farms and, with a Wisconsin producer providing the cage-free eggs for a "negligible" cost increase, the shift was an easy decision, said David Feist, guest services manager for Aramark, the food university's food service provider.

"It was the right thing to do," said Cam Schauf, director of campus dining services."They gave us a lot of information, and we thought this was a cause we wanted to run with," Feist said, describing student lobbying efforts by a group called UR-VEG "pretty intense."

The new supplier, a Port Washington, Wis., company called Egg Innovations, pledges the humane treatment of its birds and does not use cages. Previously, the school had used eggs raised by SYSCO, one of the main suppliers used by Aramark, Feist said.

Industrywide, just 2 percent of all eggs sold are cage-free or free-range, said Mitch Head, a spokesman for the Georgia-based United Egg Producers. Of those farms that do use cages, battery cages, which are stacked atop one another, are the norm, he said. Banning these cages is a major focus for animal activists.

MEDGECOM@DemocratandChronicle.com

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