Ben & Jerry's changes its egg-buying policies

Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. is changing its egg-buying policies to give hens a break.

The Vermont ice cream maker will become the first national food manufacturer to require egg producers to allow their laying hens to live outside cages, the Humane Society of the United States and the company said.

It will take four years for Ben & Jerry's to change all its egg-buying practices, the company said.

The company agreed to the change after the Humane Society made an issue last month of the fact that Ben & Jerry's bought eggs from Michael Foods Inc., of Minnetonka, Minn., which couldn't guarantee its hens were being treated properly.

The animal welfare group recently launched a campaign dubbed "A Scoop of Lies: Ben & Jerry's and Factory Farm Cruelty."

It called on Ben & Jerry's to stop buying eggs from Michael Foods, which the Humane Society said had hens dying of starvation, live hens living among dead ones and sick birds caught in cage wires.

The company, which doesn't buy eggs directly from farmers but uses about 2.7 million pounds of egg yolks a year, cut its ties with Michael Foods as a result.

According to the Humane Society, 95 percent of the eggs produced in the United States come from egg producers that keep hens in tightly-packed cages -- known as batteries -- that are so cramped, the birds can't spread their wings.

Once the program is implemented, the eggs that Ben & Jerry's uses will come from hens that have nests, perches and dust bathing areas. "It's a higher standard than merely cage-free," Shapiro said. (AP)