6 January 2006

BRUSSELS – Makro will become the first supermarket in Belgium to definitively end sales of eggs from battery chickens on Monday.

The move was welcomed by animal welfare group Gaia, which delivered the chain a giant cake made from free-range chicken eggs.

The group noted that battery eggs were taken off the shelves in Dutch supermarkets over a year ago. Gaia also called on other supermarkets to follow Makro’s example.

Free-range eggs are produced without intensive factory farming methods: the birds are allowed to roam freely within the farmyard and are only kept in sheds or henhouses at night.

Animal welfare groups say these conditions are kinder to animals, giving them as much freedom as possible to live out their instinctual behaviours in a reasonably natural way.

Free-range eggs are slightly more expensive, but Gaia said consumers were willing to pay the extra costs if it meant the eggs were more environmentally friendly.

Under European Union rules, battery chickens will be banned completely in 2012.

[Copyright Expatica News 2006]

Subject: Belgian news