Ethical Food

There were some interesting comments on ethical food by Steve Spencer in this week's Weekly Times
Part of his discussion, which related to supermarket changes to pork supplies, is here:

'Our analysis suggests consumer demand is well ahead of supply. By far the greatest impact of this ethical foods trend has been around animal welfare issues.
The egg category has seen strong gains in shares won by free-range and barn-laid eggs. Pork will follow the same path as consumers respond to market offers.
Crucial to maintaining that consumer support, as demand expands, are production systems that are backed with credible, uniform standards that consumers can recognise, understand and trust.'

This demonstrates the clear problem that the egg industry will face if the Australian Egg Corporation implements its new draft standard for 'free range' egg production. AECL will bring the industry into further disrepute if it endorses a scheme which misleads consumers and destroys what little trust they have left.
Because of the actions of the Egg Corporation in promoting 'minimum' standards, consumers already distrust industry claims because they are not backed by credible standards which can be trusted.

The proposed standard has no credibility in the free range industry and responses to consumer surveys demonstrate clearly that buyers of free range eggs don't want the new standard either.