Matthew Chalmers
Supermarket Farmfoods' Glasgow HQ, major offices in Birmingham, and Solihull depot have been targeted by animal activists over the company abandoning their commitment to stop caging egg-laying hens.
Farmfoods has become one of the few major UK retailers left insisting on sourcing eggs from caged hens, despite the 2025 deadline by which hundreds of companies will be dropping cages for good.
Representatives of The Humane League UK, whose 2016 campaign led to Farmfoods making a cage-free commitment, tried to get meetings with Farmfoods representatives in Glasgow and Birmingham while activists waved signs and chanted with megaphones. This comes after months of attempted dialogue, with Farmfoods refusing to meet or engage with the charity.
Chants named and shamed owner George Herd and Managing Director Eric Herd and included -
Stop the torture, stop the pain/ George and Eric are to blame/ Stop the torture, stop the pain/ Farmfoods bosses are to blame.
Activists leafleted the Solihull depot and sent all three locations ‘cruelty bundles’ featuring press clippings, photos of hens suffering in cages, and a letter requesting that Farmfoods urgently restore their cage-free promise.
If Farmfoods can make a quick quid selling cruelly produced eggs, that is what they will do - even though the public is overwhelmingly opposed to the practice. With 8 out of 10 hens free from cages in the UK, Farmfoods need to wake up and make this change, or forever stand out as a business who takes special pride in their cruelty to animals.
~ Claire Williams, Campaigns Manager at The Humane League UK
Farmfoods stated their decision was due to being “unwilling to deny customers access to the good value, nutritious food provided by eggs laid by caged hens.”
This is despite the fact that Farmfoods’ eggs from caged hens cost the same as Aldi’s free-range eggs, and that an overwhelming 94% of the UK public oppose the use of cages for laying hens. Keeping hens in cages prevents them from performing key instinctual behaviours such as dust-bathing, perching, roosting, and wing-flapping. This creates intense stress for the birds, as well as weakening their bones. An estimated 140,000 hens will remain in cages because of Farmfoods’ reversal.
The Humane League UK launched a petition in response to this betrayal of animal welfare standards, which has accumulated over 36,000 signatures.
Farmfoods take £1 billion in revenue each year, which The Humane League UK argues must be used to help get hens out of cages.
Iceland, who also tried to backpedal on their cage-free commitment, ended up recommitting with a new timeline after a campaign from The Humane League UK. All other major retail brands in the UK are either on track to meet their 2025 commitment or are already 100% cage-free - with Co-op, Sainsbury’s, M&S, and Waitrose among the latter.
