The Higgins family poultry farm is aiming to be cage free by November 2017.

When Auckland mother-of-one Idang Rusden goes to the supermarket, she's focused on price.

The self-described bargain hunter stocks up on whatever brand of eggs are on special. This week, that would probably have been a $4.50 pack of 12 from Farmer Brown.

Whether she should splash out a few more dollars for a pack of free-range eggs doesn't really cross her mind. While she says all animals should be treated humanely, she can't justify spending more if she doesn't have to.

SAFE Kiwi actress Aidee Walker is fronting a new Safe television commercial attacking Countdown for their continuing sale of cage eggs.

If there was no alternative, she would change to free-range eggs. "Maybe, but then, I'm not on the minimum wage. I don't have multiple children to feed."

READ MORE:

* Countdown to go cage-free for own brand eggs

* Countdown moves to secure egg supply ahead of phase-out

* Safe calls on Countdown to dump cage-farmed eggs

* Consumers face much higher costs for free-range, fair trade options

* Opinion: Who has the moral lead on battery-caged eggs?



​Countdown says 70 per cent of Kiwi shoppers are like Rusden. Only 30 per cent of the eggs it sells are from free-range or barn chickens.

The supermarket chain should know: It's been talking about eggs a lot lately.

Safe The hens in the Safe advertisement are themselves actors; they are in fact rescue hens, but still thin and partly featherless after their time in cages.

Throughout last year, animal rights group Safe ran a campaign calling for it to phase out the sale of eggs from caged hens. Protests were held outside supermarkets and shoppers were encouraged to send a form letter to the company.

Now, Safe is taking its protest to the next level with an ad campaign featuring actress Aidee Walker, of Step Dave fame.

In the stark attack ad, she is confronted with emaciated battery-caged chickens as she selects eggs from a Countdown shelf. At the end, the camera zooms in on a Countdown logo over a story. It's fair to say, when the supermarket sees the advertisement, it won't be happy.

JASON DORDAY/FAIRFAX NZ Aidee Walker, the face of a new television commercial calling for a ban on coop eggs, is a vegetarian and will eat only free-range eggs.

The ad is set for TV broadcast from early April but, last week, Countdown got in first, saying it would remove all cage-laid eggs from its own brand range by 2022.

It's not as much as Safe wanted, and Countdown's move is partly because the supermarket has to do it: By 2022, the current style of battery cages will be outlawed. Only "colony-laid" eggs will be allowed. Countdown's move means it won't stock them either.

It is also not as much as the company's Australian parent did across the Tasman. There, it has committed to phasing out all cage-laid eggs, not just own brand, by 2025.

Safe The Safe advertisement depicts a Countdown shopper reaching for eggs, only to realise they are being laid by emaciated caged hens right in front of her.

Foodstuffs moved to drop cage-laid eggs from its Pam's brand in 2008, although its other own brands still sell them.

EGG AND SPOON RACE

"If it's good enough for Australians, why is it not good enough for New Zealanders?" Hans Kriek asks. The former executive director of Safe has been campaigning against battery hen cages since 1986.

Safe The new Safe television commercial, featuring Step Dave star Aidee Walker, goes on the attack against Countdown for continuing to stock eggs laid by caged hens.

Under his watch, Safe started talking to Countdown about two-and-a-half years ago. There were meetings with key people. Kriek says he expected it would be easy: They would see sense and make the change.

But the response was luke-warm and any progress there had been stagnated.

Just over a year ago, Safe decided to step it up to an action campaign – that's why you might have seen people dressed as chickens outside your local supermarket.

DAVID UNWIN / FAIRFAX NZ Higgins Poultry farm near Whanganui will be 100 per cent cage free from November 2017. David Higgins is building more barns for the remaining 32,000 hens on his farm to live in.

"We decided to use consumer pressure on Countdown to get them to change," Kriek says. "They weren't happy. They felt it was unfair that we were just targeting Countdown and not any other supermarkets, because they sell caged eggs as well.

"We explained to them that the reality is that if we were to campaign on all supermarkets in New Zealand they will all just look at each other and wait for the others to do something first."

He said the Countdown decision was good, but nothing to get excited about. "It falls well short of what we have been asking them to do for some time.

"I'm Dutch, and in Holland you can go into any supermarket and no longer find caged eggs. They made that change in 2004."

Finally, Countdown got wind of a new campaign against its caged eggs. The supermarket chain says it did not know the specifics, but it was spooked into bringing forward its scheduled own brand eggs announcement.

It's just not feasible to drop all cage-laid eggs, Countdown says. To reach just the goal it set this week, it will need about 40,000 more free-range and barn-laid eggs, every week. It is giving suppliers five years' notice to enable them to work towards adequate supply.

Countdown also argues it's unfair to compare New Zealand to Australia. Aussie egg farmers are allowed 10,000 "free-range" chickens per hectare of land. In New Zealand, we allow only 2500.

James Walker, the supermarket chain's general manager of corporate affairs, says the decision this week was not about beating Safe to the punch. "It's about recognising that there is increasing customer demand for free-range and barn eggs in New Zealand and we want to support and encourage farmers to invest more in these eggs over time and in a measured way. We are taking a leadership position because these eggs have a big future."

While retailers and producers are optimistic about the growth of demand for free-range and barn-laid eggs, at the moment most New Zealanders aren't backing them with their wallets.

When asked, we say we support free-range eggs. A Horizon poll conducted for Safe showed three-quarters of Countdown's customers supported it phasing out caged eggs.

But we are still buying them, and it's probably due to the cost.

Offering an affordable product and progressing towards cage-free eggs, within Countdown's brands, must be done in a measured and practical way, Walker says.

"Kiwis demand affordable eggs. We know that from how they shop. We need to ensure we don't do anything that would result in egg shortages, or more expensive eggs."

This is why Countdown has set a realistic goal of committing to cage-free eggs for its own brands within five years.

Perishables merchandise manager Nikhil Sawant says Countdown only accounts for 20 per cent of eggs sold in supermarkets.

"We are just struggling to see where Safe is coming from. You can't solve the issue by targeting one retail chain."

BREAKING OUT OF THE CAGE

When Ian Higgins was knee-high to a grasshopper his father bought a small free range hen farm in Whanganui that would eventually distribute eggs nationwide.

From 5000 hens to 100,000 hens, supply and demand has rapidly grown for the Higgins family since the 1950s.

At 16 Ian got stuck into the family business and suggested cages for an ever-growing number of hens.

The thought of cooped-up birds may have ruffled a few feathers 40 years ago, but now the push for free-range hens is bigger than ever.

Ian's son David is the third generation to run the farm. After suggesting they move away from caged eggs the farm got resource consent to expand its free range and barn areas in 2014. By November 2017, Higgins farm will be completely cage-free.

For now 32,000 hens remained caged – featherless from their necks down as they stretch their heads out through metal bars, gazing aimlessly into adjacent cells.

The "dirty little secret" remains a shameful reality for David who vows to move them all into barns where they can finally flap their wings.

"They can jump, they can forage, they can dust-bathe, they can display any natural instinct they desire. We have a family farm here – both dad and I think that's the way to go."

The barn is set up as an aviary that mimics an outdoor setting.

"The birds get to roam in a three-dimensional matter, from tier to tier, jumping from perch to perch like they used to back in the jungle where birds lived in trees."

While still expanding the free range section, barns are the answer to providing a cost effective product that is still humane, David says.

A conveyer belt catches the eggs and moves them to the distribution centre, which is more efficient than free-range eggs that are collected by hand.

The free range hens have the added option of going outside but Ian says the most freedom comes from the hens being able to move, jump and "do things birds do".

"They enjoy it outside, no question about it, but the barn ones equally enjoy it because they've never been outside."

The hens in the barn have the feathers, colour and liveliness the caged hens lack.

Higgins sells SPCA approved free-range eggs and it is waiting for SPCA approval on its barn hens.

Offering a product that is truly humane and reflects on 100 per cent of the farm has meant the family is steering clear of colony-laid eggs.

Ian says he "was particularly hot against colony cages".

"They make them out as some wonderful new welfare system but they're not. They're a cage that's slightly bigger – 60 birds in a cage instead of six."

The farm produces 50,000 eggs per week, and is working with Countdown as it move towards making its egg brands cage and colony-cage free.

THE PRICE OF EGGS

Consumer NZ says eggs are now as cheap as they have ever been. The price has fallen steeply over the past 50 years, because of the mass production of battery cages.

In 1959, the advocacy group says, a dozen eggs cost the equivalent of just over $10. Now, they are about $3.50.

Denise Conroy, a senior lecturer in marketing at the University of Auckland, says there is a disconnect between shoppers' intentions and their actions.

"There's also a bit of social desirability. Most people would say it would make us better people if we bought free-range so if you ask in the public arena what are you going to do you'll say you'll only get free-range but you eat eggs in the privacy of your own home so who would know?'

Countdown would not say whether its decision would affect the cost of its home brand eggs.

Kriek agrees most Kiwis choose the cheaper, caged option. "New Zealanders are very focused on bargains."

But he says that doesn't mean they always will. "When you see commodity prices go up, whether it's the price of dairy or bread, people take it on the chin. But the moment you want to do something for animal welfare, then suddenly it becomes a big issue.

"The reality is, when you change, some people are a bit upset but most people will not be. People adjust in no time at all."

Egg farmer Hamish Sutherland, general manager of Zeagold Foods which also supplies Countdown, says the supermarket's move has sent a clear message that if they want to continue to supply the supermarket chain, suppliers may need to change their housing mix.

Supermarkets take about half the eggs produced in this country.

He says, if Countdown were to only sell free-range eggs across its store, as Safe wants, they would need about 500,000 dozen a week. Current volumes are "nowhere near" that and it would be a struggle to get there within five years, he says.

At present, Zeagold produces the free-range Woodlands brand and the caged Farmer Brown brand – the same brand that Auckland mum Idang Rusden buys.

And while we might imagine a free-range farm as a bit like a lifestyle block on a large scale, Sutherland says as demand for free-range eggs grew, so too will the egg farming operations. They will start looking much more commercial and run much bigger flocks.

Discussions about eggs tend to focus solely on animal welfare, he says. But there are other important factors to consider. Animal health is a concern: Other countries have battled avian flu, with devastating animal losses.

In Britain, egg producers risked losing their "free-range" tag earlier this year when they could not let their animals outside due to the threat of the disease.

He harks back to the cost argument, too.

"For lower-income families, eggs are an absolute staple. If you buy a $7 or $8 tray and some bread, that's a whole lot of food for a big household.

"If it becomes a luxury item, you remove a very good food source."

Actress Walker, a long-time vegetarian, recognises that free range eggs will blow some families' household budgets, but says it's time to take a stand against complacency. "It's so easy to go 'oh well'."

The uncompromising Safe ad will shock some viewers, she acknowledges, but sees no alternative.

"It has to be shocking to get through," Walker explains.

"I hate that – it sucks you have to show shocking images to make an impact, but sometimes it works."

UNSCRAMBLING OUR EGGS

Battery: "Conventional cages" are due to be phased out by 2022. Farmers say this method allows efficient farming with fewer animal health problems. But the cages limit the natural behaviour of birds. For cages built after 2005, hens have 500 sq cm each with no perches, scratching or nesting areas.

Colony-laid: A colony is an "improved cage housing system". Hens are still kept in cages with up to 80 hens. Egg farmers say colonies give birds about 750 sq cm each. They have the opportunity to do some of the things they might do normally, such as peck and scratch. Safe says the cages are still too small and hens cannot walk or flap their wings without difficulty.

Barn-laid: Hens live in sheds with a litter floor, perches and nest boxes. They have no access to the outdoors but there can only be seven hens per square metre.

Free-range: Farmers can have up to 2500 hens per hectare outside, and nine hens per square metre inside. They must have access to the outdoors and "best practice" dictates they have some shelter. Consumer NZ says compliance isn't routinely monitored. The SPCA's "Blue Tick" is available for free-range and barn-laid eggs with up to 5000 birds per barn.