Walking into a windowless warehouse, I was overwhelmed. Row after row of cages were stacked on top of each other. The noise was deafening. Through the gloom, I could make out the frantic heads of hens flicking in and out. It was the only sign that the cages were inhabited by living creatures. The hens were crammed in so tightly that they couldn’t flap their wings. Each bird with less space than a standard piece of typing paper.

It’s an experience that left me wishing that we could create our own good news stories, to make things different.

Well, changing the narrative, helping to make things better is exactly what TV personality and business entrepreneur, Deborah Meaden, has been doing. Deborah took a break from her Dragon’s Den duties to host a prestigious event in Paris celebrating supermarkets and other companies for their commitments to better animal welfare. It was all part of Compassion’s Good Farm Animal Welfare Awards, an annual event that helps incentivise companies to take action for a better, kinder world. 

Recognising leaders

Deborah welcomed nearly 50 companies from 15 countries to the stage to receive their awards, including household names like Waitrose, Lidl, M&S and Ferrero. In total, the commitments made by companies receiving awards that night amounted to more than 500 million animals benefiting from better lives. 

What did the companies do to get them? 

The bulk of the awards were given to businesses who had made game-changing commitments to move to higher welfare standards for their products, be it cage-free eggs, crate-free pork, or chickens given the space and ability to live better lives. 

Innovation in action

Others, like the one received by Waitrose, were in recognition of leadership and innovation for more humane and sustainable food and farming. Waitrose received a Sustainable Food and Farming award for its pledge to source UK meat, milk, eggs from farms using nature-friendly, regenerative farming practices by 2035.

Lidl received a ‘Planet-friendly Award’ for being the first UK retailer to launch an ambitious protein strategy to shift the proportion of protein sales to 25% plant-based by 2030.

M&S received special recognition for its new commitment to improve the welfare of shrimp. 

Naming and faming

Often, companies seem to be under fire for doing the wrong thing. Fifteen years ago, I remember thinking, why not turn this situation on its head? Why not incentivise companies to change things for the better on the basis that they could get an award?

So, the ‘Good Egg Awards’ were born. Out of necessity, if I’m honest. Because back then the EU, including the UK, were dithering over a key piece of legislation to ban the very worst form of cages for hens, known as ‘barren battery cages’. 

To get politicians to stick to their word and bring in the ban by 2012, it was imperative to show that companies were already abandoning them. Which is how the annual awards came into being, first in the House of Commons, Westminster, then at the European Parliament. Awards were given to companies for committing to move their entire supply chains to cage-free eggs within a short time span. Demonstrating that better welfare was not only the right thing to do, but a move backed by leaders in business too. 

Ending the cage age

Today, that ‘naming and faming’ approach remains much needed. For example, whilst Britain and the EU banned barren cages, sadly what’s still allowed, the ‘enriched cage’ for egg laying hens, is not much better. 

Which is why it’s so important to demonstrate that a new wave of companies is seeing any sort of cage as beyond the pale.  

One such company is globally renowned chocolate manufacturer, Ferrero, who took to the stage to receive their Good Egg Award for committing to source only cage-free eggs on a global basis. 

The company has been working with other big-name corporations to press governments to make similar moves in Europe by banning the use of all cages for animals farmed for food. 

Francesco Tramontin, Vice-President of Global Public Affairs at Ferrero, told me that, “establishing virtuous value chains in global operations and addressing significant impacts like animal welfare require substantial effort, and this award acknowledges the dedicated teams within our company who strive to make it possible. However, sustainability and ethical business practices should not be a beauty contest”. 

Which is why he is leading the charge to press for government action on animal welfare. To ensure that ethical choices become the default. That companies are required by law to only stock products produced to higher welfare. Which would also mean that prices would tumble because they’d no longer require a premium price mark-up. 

It was great to see Deborah giving out a record number of awards in Paris to companies leading the cage-free movement for hens, sows and rabbits. All of which reinforced the message that the EU, UK, India, Thailand, Japan, and every government should end the cage age. 

Consumer power

That night, the event hall was full of leading companies proving that cage-free production is not only viable and the right thing to do – but beneficial for their customers, their brand and for the animals in their supply chain.

Every purchase counts. As consumers, by choosing free range, pasture-fed, or organic products, we help push for a future where cages are a thing of the past, making sure that the only cage left is an empty one.

Note: This is a version of an article originally published in The Scotsman on Friday 1^st November, 2024

Main Image: Credit: Compassion in World Farming