CONSUMER and animal welfare groups have cracked it big time over newly hatched free range egg standards with Choice asking shoppers to boycott 19 ‘fake’ producers who don’t meet their preferred definition.
Industry and farm representatives say they are baffled the campaign has continued beyond the government’s definitive ruling last week: that free-range chickens be given a minimum of one square metre and meaningful and regular access to the outdoors, and that a farms’ hen stocking density be displayed on egg packets.
“It’s ironic, because Choice are basically saying that they don’t want shoppers make a choice,” NSW Farmers’ egg council chair Bede Burke said.
“The science says it works, the stocking density will be on the packet... I think it is beyond common sense (for Choice) to keep pushing for absolute exclusivity on this.”
The Choice campaign to set a national free-range egg standard reverted to protest after the watchdog’s failed push for 1500 hens per hectare to be the uniform standard for free-range.
That figure is in line with the CSIRO Model Code - which also says a density higher than 1500 is acceptable if hens are rotated regularly onto fresh range areas.
Choice head of media Tom Godfrey said last week’s ruling by consumer affairs’ ministers was not an accurate reflection of what consumers expected from free range eggs.
“(It) means that big producers can still flog dodgy 'free range' eggs at high prices in supermarkets,” Mr Godfrey said.
He called for a boycott on 19 free range producers with stocking densities higher than 1500 hens per hectare, including Coles and Woolworths brands, Pace Farm eggs, and Aldi’s Lodge Farm Free Range.
Opposition to the 10,000 hens per hectare stocking density also came from the RSPCA and Humane Society, as well as NSW Greens MPs and shopping website Aussie Farmers Direct.
NSW Farmers, however, said common sense and science had prevailed in “a good day for chooks”, while the QLD, Victorian and National farmers’ federations also backed the new standards.
Senator and Minister for Northern Australia Matt Canavan said he was happy to be guided on free-range standards by people who spent every day producing eggs.
“Choice can do what they want, but if I want to know about producing eggs I’m probably not going to go to someone behind a desk in Sydney,” Mr Canavan said.
“It’s that growing disconnect that worries me – the lack of knowledge from people who consume eggs and farm produce about how it is produced.”
