Q: What's wrong with free range eggs?

A: Free Range eggs often conjure up idyllic images of hens scratching in the farmyard. The reality is often very different. They are often kept in barn-type houses in flocks of up to 16,000 in large sheds. They are often debeaked. The birds must have access to the outdoor range area, which can be stocked at a maximum of 2,500 birds per hectare of land available to the hens. However, in large-scale free range units, often less than 50% of the birds regularly go outside. As with all commercial laying hens, after usually a year of egg production they are slaughtered.

Even if it were possible to produce cruelty-free animal produce, all of the associated harmful effects on human health and the environment would remain.