The Australian Capital Territory looks set to become the first jurisdiction in the country to legislate against factory farming.

The ACT's Greens minister, Shane Rattenbury, will introduce the animal welfare bill to the Legislative Assembly today and it's likely to be supported by the Labor-Greens parliamentary agreement.

The bill will prohibit the use of battery cages, sow stalls and farrowing crates and is expected to be passed next month.

Mr Rattenbury says the ACT Greens have been campaigning on the issue for 16 years.

"This is now the fifth bill as part of those attempts and I'm very pleased that this one will finally pass through the Assembly," he said.

"These are both practices that are considered cruel and for many consumers don't meet modern expectations about how they want their food produced."

There are currently no commercial piggeries or battery hen factories in the ACT, but Mr Rattenbury says the laws are still necessary.

"If you have clear standards, no one will attempt to come here and set one up," he said.

The closest piggery is across the border at Murrumbateman, in south-east New South Wales.

"It's not unrealistic that somebody might come and set up in the ACT.

"I think it's better for business that we're clear of what we want in the ACT and what we expect."

Egg producers have raised concerns about the move.

Bede Burke, from the Egg Council of New South Wales, says it will hurt the industry and make eggs more expensive.

"What we're trying to do as an industry is provide choice for consumers," he said.

"I understand and concur that some people are willing to pay more for free range egg production or barn egg production, but by far and away the larger amount of consumers prefer to get an economical egg."

Mr Burke says practices like debeaking, where the tip of the chicken's beak is trimmed to stop cannibalism, are misunderstood.

"Is it better to not beak trim and have 30 to 40 per cent mortality from cannibalism in free range and barn, or are we better off to beak trim (in battery hen factories) and contain that back to 5, 7, 8 per cent mortality?" he said.

"So they want to take away our tools of trade that have been with us for many many years and, you know, it's like driving on the left hand side of the road.

"It's great to drive on the other side of the road, but it just doesn't have a fit."

The Australian pork industry is already working towards a target of phasing out sow stalls by 2018.

Chief executive of Australian Pork Limited, Andrew Spencer, says the industry is more than half-way through that process.

"It's an example of the industry doing something voluntarily that's never really been done before in Australia and it's a first for the whole world," he said.

"So when governments come out and undermine us by actually legislating for something that we're already doing, it's a bit of a slap in the face because they don't seem to understand what it is we're actually achieving."

Mr Spencer says he expects sow stalls will be phased out before the proposed deadline, but the process is proving expensive.

"The irony is that in the ACT they'll ban sow stalls and we'll still be eating ham and bacon and pork from other states, where they're subject to the rules of those states," he said.

"But the really unfortunate thing is that we'll be eating 70 per cent of the ham and bacon coming from overseas where they're still using these sow stalls and they have no intention of stopping to use them.

"If they really want to do something about animal welfare, we'd be doing something with governments about making consumers understand that they're helping animals if they choose to buy Australian."