Of all the turmoil in consumer markets, one trend has held steady and that’s the rise and rise of cage-free eggs.

Today’s cage-free flock size currently stands around 35% of the total market—an increase from around 10% in 2016, when the USDA began recording the data.

Why is the cage-free trend growing?

The main reason why we are seeing a push toward cage-free eggs is due to growing concern for animal welfare – in this case, the welfare of egg-laying hens. This has given rise to a number of corporate commitments and anti-confinement legislation, which continues to have an impact up the supply chain.

Is a cage-free life better for chickens?

Welfare can be broken down into three main components:

Physical well-being refers to the health of an individual animal as well as the whole flock of hens, and mainly refers to the absence of pain, injury, and disease.
Mental well-being refers to the absence of negative feelings like fear and distress, as well as an opportunity for positive feelings like relaxation and safety.
Behavioral expression refers to the opportunity for animals to freely execute highly motivated behaviors, in the case of hens, activities such as dust-bathing, scratching, and nesting. Just as dogs like to dig in the yard and cats like to scratch on a scratching post, these animals have natural behaviors too.

Good animal welfare incorporates each of these components. Cage confinement, on the other hand, is widely considered to be one of the worst-of-the-worst animal agriculture practices. Simply put, cages do not provide basic behavioral or physiological needs for the hens.