ATLANTA, Ga. — Are consumers being forced to pay higher food prices? Are their food choices in jeopardy? That’s exactly what could happen if animal rights groups have their way. Led by a vegan agenda, groups such as the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) target food groups, universities, foodservice and retailers, spreading misinformation and touting junk science in an effort to eliminate all food derived from animal production including milk, meat, cheese and eggs.

Contentedly pecking seed in the open countryside, free-range hens have carefree lives that their counterparts in battery farms can only dream about, or so it has long been believed.

In fact, caged hens are no more stressed than those that roam free, researchers have discovered.

Scientists measured corticosterone, a hormone produced in response to stress or fear, in eggs from free-range and caged hens. They found that the levels in both were very similar.

According to the Egg Nutrition Center Recently, the results of 224 studies conducted among 8,000 participants over the past 25 years were compiled by researchers at The University of Arizona. The conclusion: if you’re healthy, enjoy your eggs. Your cholesterol probably will stay about the same. “…there’s no connection whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in the blood. None. And we’ve known that all along” (Dr. Ancel Keys, EATING WELL, March/April 1997).

According to the Egg Nutrition Center Recently, the results of 224 studies conducted among 8,000 participants over the past 25 years were compiled by researchers at The University of Arizona. The conclusion: if you’re healthy, enjoy your eggs. Your cholesterol probably will stay about the same. “…there’s no connection whatsoever between cholesterol in food and cholesterol in the blood. None. And we’ve known that all along” (Dr. Ancel Keys, EATING WELL, March/April 1997).

United Egg Producers (UEP), a trade association for U.S. egg family farmers, is leading an animal welfare initiative to educate executives in the food industry sector about proper farm animal care with its second national Animal Welfare Conference for Grocery and Foodservice Executives that took place in Denver on November 7 – 8, 2007.

Animal rights extremist groups which are opposed to the consumption of all meat, dairy, poultry and fish are now trying to eliminate another nutritious and inexpensive protein and nutrient source from the grocery aisle: eggs.

As for the welfare of the bird, there are benefits and drawbacks for both cage and cage-free production systems, but in many situations, hens in modern cage housing are better off, especially if the housing is managed according to the guidelines of the United Egg Producers’ (UEP) animal welfare program, according to a noted animal welfare scientist. Dr. Joy Mench, in a letter to an executive of one supermarket company, responded to several issues, or statements, raised by an animal activist urging the company to cease merchandising eggs from caged hens.

Sacramento CA (Oct. 1, 2007) – California egg producers said today that animal activist groups from Washington D.C. were attempting to mislead California consumers and voters about farming practices in the state and trying to take away Californians’ rights to making their own grocery purchasing decisions.

Ten years ago most consumers weren’t questioning the ingredients in their meals aside from calorie or fat content, but a new trend reported by Packaged Facts, a market research firm in Rockville, Maryland, shows that more and more Americans have serious concerns about their food. Consumers now want to know where their food comes from, how far it travels to reach the store, what the conditions are like along the way, and how food production impacts the environment and public health. Meat, and chicken in particular, often comes under scrutiny.

AN executive at one supermarket company recently wrote the United Egg Producers (UEP) asking for responses to a number of statements an animal rights advocate made opposing the company’s merchandising of eggs from cage production systems. UEP asked Dr. Joy Mench, an animal behavior specialist at the University of California-Davis, to answer the letter.