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Not long ago, Manjunath Marappan says, all chickens in India were cage-free. These were birds like his grandmother’s chickens, which pecked at worms and grains in the backyard. From the 1980s onward, India’s appetite for both eggs and chicken meat soared .
(Eggs are generally considered meat in India, and thus not suitable for vegetarians.) Egg production was transformed, from a largely small-scale and outdoor activity to a much more concentrated, industrialized system. The chickens lost their freedom, packed instead into small, cramped spaces with limited space to move.
Marappan believes that Indian consumers and farmers have also lost something in the process. Going back to the roots with egg production means better jobs, more dispersed opportunities, healthier food, and happier animals, he feels. Eventually he and his business partner, Ashok Kanna, decided to put their agricultural experience into a new venture.
Following several years of research, Happy Hens Farm was born in 2015. From the start their chickens were free-range. The birds are happier in other ways as well; for instance, their wings and beaks are left intact .
In 2024 the company received a Good Egg Award from Compassion in World Farming, a first in India. Now 12 farms, across several South Indian states, are part of the Happy Hens network. “We have been a very organically growing company,” Marappan says, finding farmers by word of mouth.
These include many young people and women who can maintain small egg businesses alongside their other activities, Marappan reports. The farmers are a combination of seasoned farmers and newcomers, which means that the company and the farmers are trading knowledge in both directions. In addition to providing training and market support, the company supplies nutritious feed and mostly indigenous chicken breeds to the farmers.
Strong, agile, not necessarily fast-growing breeds are especially suited to outdoors living, he says. Naturally, there are some concerns about keeping free-range chickens. One is the sufficiency of land, though Marappan believes that in India, “we have enough space to do farming.
” Certainly this type of egg production is not as intensive as industrial-scale barns. Marappan says that a free-range producer can keep up to about 3,000 chickens, compared to about 20,000 for a cage-free (indoor) farm. The numbers are higher for caged birds.
Another concern is predation. Marappan is fairly relaxed about this too, saying that the main predators are not mongooses or snakes, but humans. He estimates that perhaps 1% of eggs overall are stolen.
An additional health risk is that the Happy Hens Farm suppliers don’t create controlled environments. So chronic respiratory disease, catalyzed by monsoons or temperature fluctuations, occurs occasionally. Marappan says that the company encourages certain precautions to reduce the risk.
Why, with these potential hardships, would a chicken farmer decide to keep free-range eggs? For one thing, it’s less intimidating to start keeping some birds in a backyard, compared to the high capital costs of establishing an enormous operation. With a caged model, according to Marappan, large volumes are necessary to ensure profit. Instead, he says, a woman with 300 outdoor birds could earn about 10,000 rupees ($117) a month – a decent income in India, especially if it’s supplementary.
Consumers pay more for higher-welfare eggs: prices of cage-free eggs in India are up to 50% more than for caged eggs. What’s especially important about this income is that it’s consistent, Marappan emphasizes. He says that 100% of eggs produced are sold, and the company guarantees this.
Happy Hens Farm is able to do this because they’ve signed up to a cage-free credit program. This is how it works: Where they have customers in places where cage-free eggs are not available, such as hotels in remote locations, they can arrange a kind of digital exchange. Happy Hens Farm would sell the cage-free eggs locally, but at the lower rate for conventional eggs.
On its end, the hotel would buy the local (caged) eggs, but would pay Happy Hens Farm the difference in prices between caged and cage-free eggs. The egg producers get certainty about being able to sell all their eggs. And the egg buyers get a marketing boost from saying that they participate in a cage-free credit scheme.
What Are Cage-Free Credits? Cage-free credits are still in their infancy. The Singapore-headquartered consultancy Global Food Partners launched its program , the only one of its kind, in 2020. “It’s essentially the first cage-free credit system that allows food and hospitality businesses to offset their use of conventional or caged eggs by buying incentives and supporting directly the local farmers who are doing higher-welfare certified cage-free production in their countries,” explains Elissa Lane, the CEO of Global Food Partners.
In some ways this is an extension of work related to farm animals that she did previously at Humane Society International. Egg producers were seeking support not just with the specific logistics of removing cages, but in related areas of biosecurity, animal welfare, and health. On the other side, because most global food companies have cage-free egg commitments, eggs were the area where they needed the most support.
Businesses would often mention that Asian egg markets were particularly challenging. There are several reasons that cage-free credits have sprouted in Asia, rather than in the U.S.
, Europe, or Latin America. “Food businesses have more leverage in those regions over producers,” according to Lane, and there’s also more demand for cage-free eggs in those regions. Another issue is the vast geography, with many dispersed and remote locations, stretching among Asian egg producers and buyers.
In Asia overall, Lane comments, “The cage-free movement is growing for sure. It’s not a mature market yet.” However, she sees progress in countries including China, Thailand, and Indonesia.
Overall, there is a particular need for liquid and powdered eggs from chickens not kept in cages. Some companies’ credit purchases account for all of their cage-free eggs, Lane reports. But in most cases it’s between 20 and 50%.
Suppliers set the price of a credit, which is equivalent to 1,000 shell eggs. Ten companies have publicly announced their use of such credits so far. These are mainly multinational companies headquartered in Europe or the U.
S., such as Unilever and Krispy Kreme, that have global cage-free pledges. In Unilever’s 2024 farm animal welfare report , the company states that it reached its goal of 100% cage-free eggs (encompassing shell and processed) in Europe and North America back in 2020.
From a global perspective, the report states, “To meet our target of transitioning to cage-free eggs by the end of 2025, we are currently prioritizing physical supply. In areas where we are experiencing availability challenges, we are planning to use egg credits as an alternative.” The areas with the least progress are the Middle East/Turkey and Asia/Oceania; in both regions, cage-free eggs make up only 27% of 2024 sourcing.
It’s likely that more companies will turn to cage-free credits as the deadlines for their cage-free goals approach – many in 2025. Lane says that there are enough farmers willing to expand, to meet all of the expected demand. “The message is that it is still totally feasible to do in Asia.
” The Limits And Future Of Cage-Free Credits However, Lane cautions, “cage-free production can be a disaster if good management isn’t in place.” It’s not enough to simply rip out the cages. From nest boxes to lighting, Global Food Partners works with suppliers like Happy Hens Farm to ensure both the health and productivity of the hens.
Lane hopes that while the program offers a tool now for businesses that want to be cage-free, in the future this will lead to economies of scale. Ideally there would be a shift toward physical cage-free eggs within three to five years of a business signing up; Global Food Partners and its clients develop a roadmap for this transition. The concept of these digital credits can seem a bit abstract, Lane acknowledges.
But “we are seeing the impact on the animal welfare and on farmers being able to go cage free.” In Vietnam, for instance, it might be that without the cage-free credit program connecting them with willing buyers, farmers would have to keep more of their birds stuck in cages. Carbon offset programs have been justly criticized for not actually increasing carbon storage , instead justifying high-emitting activities in an example of greenwashing.
If credit schemes similarly enabled humanewashing of animal products, this would not be progress. But supporters of cage-free credits argue that this type of exchange is different, as it directly spurs cage-free production. Some animal welfare organizations, like the Humane League , have embraced the concept.
Lewis Bollard, who leads work on farm animal welfare at Open Philanthropy, is supportive of cage-free credits as a transitional step. He views this as a short-term solution in countries where there’s very little cage-free production (though he stresses that the U.S.
and Europe could go 100% cage-free). Compassion in World Farming has a cautious perspective. A spokesperson states: “The introduction of cage-free credits is a fairly new concept, and it remains to be seen whether credits speed up the physical transition to cage-free production, particularly in areas where cage-free is difficult to source.
We require businesses to be transparent in their reporting of their cage-free progress. They must specify the proportion of physical cage-free eggs they produce/supply and the proportion covered by credits, along with year-on-year progress towards physical cage free and away from credits. Currently, we do not consider a company 100% cage free if they are using credits.
” Indeed, accurate labelling is essential. Lane stresses that a company using cage-free credits is not allowed to claim that their supply chain is fully cage free. Instead, they can say that they support the production of cage-free eggs, or that their cage-free commitment is fulfilled.
The distinction may be subtle to many individuals, who simply want the comfort of knowing that the egg they’re currently eating did not come from a confined chicken. It will also be important to ensure that companies paying for cage-free credits are not using it as a convenient way to lag on cleaning up their supply chain. The credits represent a hybrid approach, according to Lane.
Her consultancy encourages businesses to buy physical cage-free eggs wherever possible; and credits are just one component of their suite of support. In their experience, companies do want physical cage-free eggs where possible, because the companies can then make stronger claims about animal welfare. In the future, Global Food Partners is open to possibly expanding the model to other types of animals, including broiler chickens and fish.
Back in South India, Marappan of Happy Hens Farm acknowledges that this is not a long-term solution in itself, but calls it a solution that builds capacity for a long-term vision. In the short time that cage-free credits have existed, they appear to be incentivizing some higher-welfare egg production. This article is part of a series on cage-free transitions in animal agriculture around the world.
The first article explores delay in implementing the European Citizens’ Initiative on banning cages..
