The following article from the front page of the business section of the Tuesday, May 9 Columbus Dispatch, in which standard egg suppliers suggest that battery cages are humane, calls out for letters to the editor supporting the University's choice. You can see loads of footage of battery cages at www.WegmansCruelty.com
The Columbus Dispatch takes letters at letters@dispatch.com and advises, "Short letters (200 words or less) have the best chance of being published... Each should include a signature, address and daytime phone number. Specify a date if there’s a reference to a previous article or letter."
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
EGG DEBATE
University switching suppliers
Kelly Lecker
http://www.columbusdispatch.com/business-story.php?story=dispatch/2006/05/09/20060509-C1-05.html
The omelets at Ohio State University should taste the same as ever.
But now they’ll come with a side of social conscience.
The campus dining service has stopped using eggs from "battery caged" chickens, meaning poultry kept in rows of cages found on most large farms.
Ohio State is the latest school to join a nationwide push by the Humane Society to use only cage-free eggs.
Students should be eating their first noncaged eggs this week. They might not know the difference; the eggs look and taste just like the old ones. But dining-service officials will get the word out in weekly e-mails, on the service’s Web site and in literature in the dining halls.
The move renewed a debate between animal-rights activists and farmers about whether cages harm the chickens.
A few grocery chains, includ- ing Whole Foods and Wild Oats, have stopped selling eggs from caged chickens. America Online recently announced that its cafeterias were going cage-free.
And the central Ohio catering company Made From Scratch, prompted by the university’s decision, said it, too, was no longer using eggs from caged chickens.
"It’s very difficult for chickens to lay eggs if they can’t do their natural rituals" like clean themselves or stretch their wings, said Thom Stevenson, who oversees the campus dining services. "It’s fairly inhumane, quite honestly."
Stevenson said the move will raise students’ social awareness.
But farm groups counter that a university renowned for its research should have done a little more on this issue. Ohio’s chickens produce more than 7 billion eggs, most of them from cages, and farmers say the university’s decision is disheartening.
"With OSU being a sciencebased research institution, I would hope that they would look at all the facts," said Jim Chakeres, executive vice president of the Ohio Poultry Association.
He said chickens are kept in cages to protect them and the consumers.
In cages, the amount of food and water each chicken receives can be regulated. The birds can be protected from diseases that can fester in manure lying at the bottom of chicken coops. And farmers can watch for signs of disease — such as avian flu — that could be passed on to consumers.
Left to their own devices, Chakeres said, dominant chickens can hog food and water and hurt weaker birds.
"It’s a more humane way to care for them in large numbers," he said.
Farm groups say chickens in cages tend to be healthier and live longer than roaming chickens because they are protected from disease and predators.
Chakeres said he was not aware of the OSU decision and now plans to talk with university officials.
The campus dining service, which operates on the money it makes from student customers, uses 1.8 million eggs each year.
OSU psychology professor Laura Dilley learned about the Humane Society’s campaign from a friend. She urged the dining service to reconsider its egg buying.
"My feeling is that when you learn what chickens go through, it’s just a no-brainer to use cage-free eggs," she said.
Stevenson agreed. But before he went cage-free, he wanted to make sure there was a big enough supply. There are only three major suppliers who sell cage-free eggs in bulk.
Because of the added space and labor involved in raising non-caged eggs, they can cost up to four times more.
The move will cost the dining service about $4,000 a year.
Most consumers wouldn’t pay the premium, said Mitch Head, a spokesman for United Egg Producers, a national coalition of farmers.
"We’ll supply the market with whatever consumers want. And 98 percent of consumers want caged eggs," he said.
Most of the group’s members keep their chickens in cages, but some don’t, so the organization does not take a stance on which way is better. But caging chickens is not inhumane, Head said.
United Egg Producers tapped some independent researchers to study the issue, and they recommended having at least 67 square inches — a little smaller than a notebook page — of cage space per chicken.
Paul Shapiro, who leads the cage-free campaign for the Humane Society of the United States, acknowledged that cage-free eggs are pricier.
"Of course, the hidden price of caged eggs is animal welfare," he said. "And the chickens are paying that price."
klecker@dispatch.com
(END OF DISPATCH ARTICLE)
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Date: Wed May 10 16:58:05 2006
