End to battery cage egg farming is a big win for animal welfare

Parkwood egg farm and industrial estate

The move this week to put an end to battery cage based egg farming within the ACT borders is a big win for animal welfare, and a big win for the ACT Greens. Greens MLA Caroline le Couteur has doggedly pursued this issue virtually since she was elected, despite no small amount of ridicule from political opponents.

Recently the Tasmanian Government though became the first state or territory to outlaw "cage eggs". Perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, the ACT ALP has reached an unusual agreement with Parkwood Egg Farm to purchase surplus land back from them for eventual conversion into industrial land. The funds from the land swap can then be used by Parkwood to convert their facilities to barn-laid production.

The ALP Government believe their returns on the industrial land sales will recoup more than double their outlay. Certainly there will be a need for more industrial land around Canberra - the development potential of much of the land we already have has been seriously degraded by the incursion of non-industrial use within the estates and residential uses close to them.

Returning to the chickens, the conversion is to barn-laid rather than free-range, back that's a massive step up in welfare for the animals.

There have been some acerbic comments about people just buying cage eggs from across the border. That may be the case, but change happens in increments. You get your own house in order first, then talk to others. And meanwhile the dominance of cage eggs continues to decline, and the costs of other production methods decline and competition increases.

In 2009, the Greens were successful in a bid to require labelling of shelves in Canberra supermarkets to identify cage, barn and free-range eggs more clearly. This lead to Canberra retailers reporting increases as high as 90% in the sale of free-range eggs since the new signage requirements started in mid-2009.

Well done ACT Greens! And credit to the ACT Government for responding to the growing community support and brokering the deal that makes this possible.