US egg producers predict not all hens cage free by 2025

The big story in the U.S. egg industry in 2016 was the number of cage-free purchase pledges made by major retail and foodservice shell egg purchasers, and similar pledges by foodservice and food companies regarding egg products purchases. Most of these cage-free shell egg and egg product purchase pledges are due to take effect in 2025. In a report released on January 9, 2017, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) estimated that the number of cage-free egg layers housed in the U.S. had increased to 37.6 million by December 2016, with 14.1 million of these hens being certified organic. Read more