McDonald’s Pledges To Use Eggs From Cage-Free Hens – Will Your Next Breakfast Get Costlier?
McDonald’s has pledged to use only those eggs which have been laid by hens that have not been crammed into cages. However, there are quite a few hurdles that might not appease its regular customers in the long run.
The McDonald’s Corporation has announced that it will gradually cease using eggs that haven’t been laid by cage-free hens. In other words, the world’s largest fast-food chain has committed to making egg producers more cautious and humane towards hen-rearing and poultry management.
Though the intention is quite noble, owing to the sheer volume of the eggs McDonald’s uses, combined with the premium attached, could make the switch a costly, not to mention lengthy, proposition. McDonald’s uses about 2 billion shell and liquid eggs annually. That’s about 2 percent of the 43.56 billion eggs produced by egg producers nationally. Incidentally, McDonald’s does source about 13 million cage-free eggs a year, reported Fox News.
McDonald’s can’t shift its entire sourcing to cage-free hens mainly because only 10 percent of the nation’s hens are classified as cage-free. To add to the hurdles, according to United Egg Producers, shell egg production has declined by about 10 percent. Moreover, housing hens in wide enclosures costs a lot of money, which translates to a premium attached to the eggs. Market experts estimate that prices of eggs increase by as much as 40 percent owing to the markups that advertise them as sourced from happy cage-free hens.
The decision taken by McDonald’s comes close on the heels of a change that is gradually spreading across the nation, reported MSN. For instance, from this year, California’s administration mandated egg producers to provide more space for their birds. Though few states have embraced the concept, cage-free hens and the produce derived from them is an old concept and is expected to be adopted by multiple states soon. Quite a few states are seeking to enact regulations that will ensure the animals are housed in a spacious environment.
American poultry farmers were recently hit with huge losses due to the avian flu that mandated culling of millions of hens. These famers could sanitize and utilize the still-empty barns to house the cage-free hens and try and meet the huge demand that McDonald’s will soon send their way.
The decision to change sourcing of eggs is going to hit farmers from U.S. as well as Canada, who haven’t bothered to accommodate their poultry properly and secure the relevant certification. But, if McDonald’s wants its eggs from cage-free hens, these producers will certainly realign their priorities.
[Image Credit | Justin Sullivan / Getty Images]
