Consumers Behind Accelerated Shift To Cage-Free Eggs In Us

WAUKON, Iowa — Alert and curious, hundreds of hens with bright red crowns and faces strolled out of a large chicken house midmorning into the fresh air and a fenced pasture amid rolling fields of alfalfa, clover, corn and soybeans. They cluck and coo, peck and scratch at the ground.

"They're obviously much more comfortable without cages," Iowa organic farmer Francis Blake said of his flock of 5,000 hens, which live a cage-free life.

This existence, by all appearances a chicken nirvana, is what animal rights groups have sought for years and increasingly what consumers want. Already, large chains like McDonald's, Starbucks, Costco, and, most recently, Panera Bread have begun requiring suppliers to go cage-free over the next decade.

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