Saturday, January 16, 2016

Oreos and Chips Ahoy going cage free

The eggs to make Oreo and Chips Ahoy cookies will have to come from hens that are not housed in cages after 2020.

The deadline was announced this week by Mondalez International, one of the world’s largest snack-making companies.

It is part of a pattern familiar to hog farmers who face deadlines set by retailers to empty crates and convert their barns to loose housing for gestating sows.

In the case of sow crates, the pressure on retailers and packing plants was brought to bear by the Humane Society of the United States.

Many of them face a deadline of next year.

What’s less clear is whether the sows or the hens will be better off. There will definitely be more bullying among the sows and more infections and diseases among the hens that will be tramping through poop, but they both might be happier.