Ben & Jerry's to get eggs from hens that don't live in cages

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

The South Burlington-based 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.

"Ben and Jerry's has always stood for progressive practices," CEO Walt Freese said Tuesday. "We have long-standing support for small family farms. When this issue was brought to our attention by the Humane Society, they provided information to us we previously didn't have."

Paul Shapiro, director of the factory farming campaign for the Humane Society of the United States, called the impact of Ben & Jerry's decision on the egg industry "massive."

"Ben and Jerry's is a massive user of eggs in this country. The fact that it is adopting a policy where it will only purchase eggs from cage-free hens is an indicator of just how serious the societal concern for the abusive treatment of egg-laying hens is in our country," Shapiro said.

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.

At that point, Freese wouldn't commit to buying only cage-free eggs.

"The closer we got to the issue, the more we realized how complex it was. It required us to move beyond our own expertise. We received substantive input from a variety of experts and resources, all of which helped us to arrive at our decision," said Ben & Jerry's spokesman Rob Michalak.

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.

Historically, Ben & Jerry's has made what it calls its social mission a central part of its operations, working on global warming, creating opportunities for at-risk youth and a national campaign to change federal budget priorities.

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.

Shapiro said a number of smaller companies and schools had also agreed to stop taking eggs from farms that don't treat hens humanely.

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On the Net:

Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc. http://www.benjerry.com

Humane Society of the United States: http://www.hsus.org