There's been quite a bit of joy at retailer Aldi’s announcement that they are moving toward supplying cage-free eggs in their Australian stores. The RSPCA says it means Australia is one step closer to freeing all hens from attery cages.
The move came after 14-year-old Angelina Popovski started a petition earlier this year. Her change.org campaign asked ALDI Australia to stop selling cruel cage eggs and to match what ALDI are doing in the US and much of Europe.
The petition, which was delivered to ALDI Australia CEO Tom Daunt and marketing director Sam Viney, had close to 100,000 signatures. And now ALDI Australia say they will commit to selling cage-free eggs...by 2025.
While there has been praise for Popovski’s initiative and the decision by ALDI, there's also frustration about the timeline. People are asking the supermarket giant why it’s going to take nine years to implement.
Consumers have taken to ALDI Australia’s Facebook page to point out that Woolworths will supply only free-range eggs much earlier than 2025 and are wondering why ALDI have to take so long to put an end to their cage egg sales.
An ALDI Australia spokesperson tells SBS, "ALDI has committed to 100 per cent cage-free eggs by no later than 2025. This timeline has been set due to the limited amount of infrastructure to support a cage-free only egg industry. Currently, more than 50 per cent of the Australian egg supply is from caged eggs. As a responsible company, ALDI Australia wants to ensure that the complexity of transitioning to cage-free eggs is managed effectively."
In her change.org petition Popovski explains that she was driven to start the campaign after learning how hens suffer when they are kept in caged conditions.
“Their beaks are deliberately cut without painkillers, some are even trampled or starve to death from neglect – and they’re crammed into tiny miserable cages, with no more space than an iPad and can barely move. Most will never see sunlight,” she writes.
The response to the launch by consumer group CHOICE in April of an app called CluckAR, which helps consumers navigate the free-range egg market, shows there's plenty of appetite for free-range eggs.
"By scanning egg cartons, consumers can quickly see which eggs live up to the ‘free-range’ claim," CHOICE spokesperson Tom Godfrey tells SBS.
"Since its launch, the CluckAR app has been downloaded 30,000 times resulting in a staggering 280,000 egg carton scans, or approximately 5000 scans per day."
there's an app for that
New app helps shoppers find free-range eggs
