Egg Producers Relent on Industry Seal

By ALEXEI BARRIONUEVO, NY Times

(Similar stories by PHILIP BRASHER, Des Moines Register; and Nelson Hernandez, Washington Post)

Published: October 4, 2005

CHICAGO

THE label "Animal Care Certified" on egg cartons was supposed to assure egg buyers that hens were getting enough food, water and cage space to flap their wings. But after complaints by an animal welfare group that the labels were misleading consumers into thinking that hens were receiving indisputably humane care, the Federal Trade Commission approved a labeling change in late September.

The new logos, which will instead say "United Egg Producers Certified," will affect about 180 egg producers in the United States, or about 80 percent of the 220 egg producers in the country.

"This is an important victory for animals and consumers," said Erica Meier, executive director of Compassion Over Killing, an animal welfare group in Washington that filed complaints two years ago with the trade commission and the Council of Better Business Bureaus over the old labels. "This allows consumers to make more informed buying choices," Ms. Meier said. "It is a step in the right direction for the egg industry."

The trade commission, while not making a formal decision on the dispute, encouraged the United Egg Producers, the trade group representing the $5.3 billion American egg industry, to alter the labels after the Better Business Bureaus recommended changes last year, said Mary K. Engle, associate director of the commission's division of advertising practices.

Ms. Meier said that the old label "implied that the animals were treated humanely, when they are not."

Egg-laying hens, she said, are the most abused animals in modern agriculture. They spend up to two years crowded together in cages with little room to move or spread their wings. To prevent the hens from pecking each other, parts of their beaks are sliced off, "without pain relief," she said.

And unlike household pets like dogs and cats, or other agricultural animals like hogs and cows, "pretty much from birth to death, egg-laying hens, as well as chickens raised for slaughter, have virtually no legal protection," Ms. Meier said.

Mitch Head, a spokesman for United Egg Producers, said he disagreed that the old labeling was misleading but said the association decided to make the change because the trade commission's review had become "a purgatory" for the egg producers and was hurting business.

United Egg Producers has consistently disputed that hens are mistreated. Mr. Head said a national consumer survey done by the producers showed that consumers did not think the label was misleading.

The issue of the Animal Care Certified labeling began in 2002, when the United Egg Producers established a panel of independent scientists to study the conditions under which egg-laying hens were raised. The scientists looked at cage space, food, water and how the hens were transported, among other factors.

The panel, headed by Jeffrey Armstrong, dean of agriculture and natural resources at Michigan State University, came up that year with a set of guidelines. Producers who followed the guidelines could place the Animal Care Certified seal on their egg cartons. Producers submit monthly compliance reports and are audited annually, usually by staff members of the United States Agriculture Department.

Mr. Head said the animal welfare groups' battle against egg producers could cost consumers money. The groups are pushing for eggs to be produced in a cage-free or free-roaming environment. Eggs produced under those conditions cost about $3 a dozen, about three times what eggs produced by conventionally caged chickens cost. Some 98 percent of the eggs that are sold in the United States are cage-produced, Mr. Head said.

"Right now consumers are voting with their pocketbooks," Mr. Head said. "If Americans are forced to pay three times as much for eggs, many of them will be forced out of having that cheap source of protein and vitamins."

The label change could affect retailers as well. Animal welfare groups have been pushing for retailers to stop selling eggs produced from birds confined to so-called battery cages, which severely restrict hens' movement.

Compassion Over Killing and the Humane Society of the United States recently singled out the Trader Joe's food stores, accusing the company of hiding behind the Animal Care Certified program. The company says it does not include that seal on its private-label packaging but has defended its use of eggs produced by battery-caged chickens by saying it buys eggs only from Animal Care Certified companies.

Alison Mochizuki, a spokeswoman for Trader Joe's, declined to comment.