Americans love their Egg McMuffins, which accounts for the two billion shell and liquid eggs the company uses annually (about 4 percent of the 43.56 billion eggs produced in the United States). This week, McDonalds announced that it begin a process that will ultimately lead to them using only cage free eggs, and will be phasing out using eggs produced by hens trapped in battery cages.
Currently less than 10 percent of the nation’s laying hens housed are “cage free” , so it could take McDonald’s up to 10 years to reach its goal of having 100 percent come from hens that are allowed to move freely inside barns.
The company is responding to consumer demand and public pressure for more “humanely” produced eggs. Meeting the price could be dicey as cage free eggs tend to be more expensive. In California, where egg producers were required to provide more space for their birds by the beginning of this year, agricultural economists estimated that prices for eggs would rise 10 to 40 percent. Egg producers there argue, however, that retailers add big markups to cage-free eggs that distort the actual increase in the cost of producing them.
