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@am*3 wrote:

Didn't read your post az before I posted that. Also I thought your post was made by she ele, with your pink avatar

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sorry, it is breast cancer awareness month and the avi is so small it looks odd, looking for a better one.

10,000 birds per hectare is a huge number. This is allowed in Queensland. Some states allow 20,000.

Woolies are not doing this from the goodness of their heart. They will make much more profit from their free range eggs than the cage ones, because consumers are willing to pay more because they believe it is more humane

 

I don't believe that to be true at all. Animal welfare organisations (in Australia and worldwide) have been active in demanding better conditions for hens and the banning of caged hens.

 

Worldwide, as I posted before, all the EU countries have banned caged  hens (since 2012) as have Switzerland and 7 States in the US.

 

Customers of supermarkets are demanding free range eggs and refuse to buy caged eggs. If people buy their free range eggs from farmers markets (As some posters mentioned here), that is money the supermarkets are missing out on, if they don't offer the same product.

 

Woolworths chiefs didn't wake up one day and say.. good idea here -  lets try and get rid of caged eggs and sell only free range eggs because we will make more profit.

 

The free range eggs are going to cost the supermarkets more to buy from the farmer anyway, so the margin between cost and selling price may not be as big as you think.

 

A free range hen is more humane than several stuck in a cage indoors 24/7, even if there is 10 000 of them per hectare.

 

It would not be possible to produce free range eggs for all of Australia (if caged hens banned) if the limit was 1500 hens per hectare... have to be realistic about that.

 

 

Have a look at the info with this week's "super complaint" lodged by Choice to the NSW Dept Fair Trading about free range eggs. Also there has been an article in the Sydney Morning Herald. In a lot of cases, consumers are being sold a pup. Charged way more for a product whose production is not quite the fairytale they would have you believe.

Yes, I have read that and am aware ( with storiesbeing in the media alot in the last year or so) that consumers are not always getting what they think they are.

 

However that doesn't make accurate that Woolworths has a hidden agenda to get rid of caged eggs just so they can sell more higher priced free range eggs.. there is no truth in that at all and I find it quite a ridiculous statement.

 

If caged hens are banned, which may very well happen, then that can only be a good thing. The pressure will be then on the 'free range' egg producers to be accurate in what they are claiming.

 

This is a start right? Investigating free range egg claims in NSW. Progress in the right direction.

 

 

CHOICE has submitted a super-complaint on free-range egg claims in New South Wales (NSW), asking Fair Trading to investigate whether these claims are misleading consumers. 

 

Different states have different standards for free range eggs or none at all.. that is being addressed in some states with voluntary codes.

 

The SA Greens have introduced a bill that would mandate a stocking density maximum of 1,500 chickens per hectare in consumer law for eggs labelled free-range, with support from Liberals and independents. 

 

NSW egg bill defeated

Meanwhile, the NSW Lower House has voted down a Greens bill that would set standards for free-range eggs, including a limit on the number of chickens on the outdoor range of 1500 per hectare. The bill failed to attract the support it needed from the Coalition government, after passing the Upper House with an unlikely combination of Greens, Labor and Shooters and Fishers support in 2011. 

The NSW Greens are now pushing for an inquiry into free-range labelling of all products with Greens MP John Kaye stating, “An inquiry is now essential to address the growing crisis in consumer confidence by exposing the systematic failures of regulation.” 

You also have to remember that bad news makes the news.  It is like all of the current affairs programmes that tell you the awful truth about some producers that are doing the wrong thing.

 

Do you think they would air a story about a farm that is treating it's birds well?  No, of course not.  

 

 

 

 

Woolworths aren't stupid. They are driven by economics just as any large company is. Yes, they would most certainly make a decision such as this based on perceived economic benefit. They have received significant free advertising. They have consumers who now believe they are a kind and responsible company, concerned for animal welfare. And yet the product will come from some of their own suppliers where animal numbers are questionably high, and they will charge the customer more for it under the guise of it being more humane.

They aren't the only company who uses marketing techniques such as these to great effect. They're profit driven.

I do agree with you some what lady em.  Both Coles and Woolworths are controlling the market at the moment and they are (I believe) squeezing out other suppliers and supermarkets.

 

Don't forget though that we already have eggs, barn laid eggs and free range eggs.  I would like to see the first two removed.

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@lady*em wrote:
Woolworths aren't stupid. They are driven by economics just as any large company is. Yes, they would most certainly make a decision such as this based on perceived economic benefit. They have received significant free advertising. They have consumers who now believe they are a kind and responsible company, concerned for animal welfare. And yet the product will come from some of their own suppliers where animal numbers are questionably high, and they will charge the customer more for it under the guise of it being more humane.

They aren't the only company who uses marketing techniques such as these to great effect. They're profit driven.

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Yes I tend to agree with a lot you say but the fact is even so it is more humane to buy free range. 

The conditions mightn't be perfect but it's still better than buying eggs from caged chickens.