Wegmans Egg Farm
Wegmans Food Markets, Inc. is a Rochester institution, and self-proclaimed market leader, with over 70 stores and $3.8 billion in annual sales. Company officials take pride in their forward-thinking reputation, often boasting of their commitment to animal welfare.
Yet their rhetoric falls short when it comes to egg production. Wegmans runs New York State's largest egg farm, with over 700,000 hens on a single facility in Wolcott, NY. In 2004, investigators at the farm found evidence of widespread neglect and animal cruelty. UR-VEG is calling on Wegmans to live up to its image by improving the appalling conditions at its farm.
Read more...UR drops battery cages!
"Battery cages" are a intensive-confinement system in which thousands of egg-laying hens are confined in cages so crowded that they cannot walk, stretch their wings, or perform other natural behaviors. Experts in animal welfare have long known that such confinement causes profound suffering, and consumers have gradually been withdrawing their support from this abusive practice.
In 2005, UR-VEG worked with UR Dining Services to switch to cage-free eggs in all food prepared on campus. Although cage-free production still involves tremendous cruelty, it's a small step in the right direction.
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