After months of discussion with the HSUS (The Humane Society of the United States) and weeks of hearing from concerned individuals like yourself, Ben & Jerry’s has declared that it will adopt an exclusively cage-free egg policy for the eggs it uses in its ice cream.
This decision will improve the welfare of tens of thousands of animals annually. As you know, Ben & Jerry’s is putting the chicken before the egg and making a dramatic improvement in its animal welfare policies. By committing to exclusively purchase eggs from producers who do not confine hens in battery cagesone of the most inhumane practices in modern agribusinessBen & Jerry’s has taken a meaningful step in the right direction.
The Vermont-based frozen dessert company will phase in the exclusive use of cage-free eggs over a four-year period. Ben & Jerry’s has also pledged that all of its cage-free eggs will only come from sources that meet the animal care standards of Humane Farm Animal Care, an independent farm animal welfare certifying organization.
Please thank Ben & Jerry’s for improving the plight of the laying hens whose eggs its uses.
Thank you for all you did to help win this victory, and for all you’re doing to help reduce the suffering of farm animals.
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Hi Tiffany,
Yes Hurray for Ben and Jerrys…..which is owned by Unilever big food conglomerate, it’s not really Ben and Jerry anymore. It’s green washing. At least they were responsive to this issue. If you don’t want to support the big food conglomerate there are some alternatives: Julie’s Organic Ice Cream.
Check out this link on the Cornucopia website that gives ratings for milk quality used in dairy based products: http://cornucopia.org/dairysurvey/Ratings_Alphabetical.html
Regards,
Erin
Thanks for the suggestion Erin! I am not a big ice cream eater but I have tried and enjoyed Juiie’s Organics.
As I’ve recently understood, “Cage-Free” is just one more bureaucratic certification that means very little in reality. So the battery cages are not used… Sounds good until you realize the hens are in the same concentrations per square foot, only this time they’re on the fecal-strewn floor of the poultry house. I guess they get to scratch, at least. Poultry health actually decreases any time they’re in groups of more than 300 anyway.
LJ – raising hens with real air on real land