Politicians pose health risk for Consumers and chickens

Politicians are putting consumers and chickens at risk over their new 'free range' stocking density standard.They need to be convinced to change their minds on a standard of 10,000 hens per hectare for egg production. The sheer volumes of manure make intensive free range production dangerous for animal health, and us humans eating contaminated eggs. Intensive cage eggs are likely to be less dangerous than intensive free range. Outbreaks of food poisoning have increased in Western Australia apparently as a result of poor handling of eggs. Eggs are safe if handled properly on farm, during delivery and in kitchens. Problems are likely to increase after politicians approved an intensive standard for free range production which risks major contamination. As each hens produces half a cubic metre of manure a year, hens on farms complying with the new standard, allowing 10,000 hens per hectare will be living in a huge dung pile of 5000 cubic metres every year.