Langwarrin’s Nirvana Free Range Eggs owner Eva Barabas welcomes government changes to free range egg standards
An egg farmer in Melbourne’s southeast says federal government changes to free range egg standards is a step in the right direction.
South East
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A LANGWARRIN egg farmer has welcomed federal government changes to free range egg standards, saying it is a step in the right direction.
Minister for Small Business Kelly O’Dwyer announced changes to egg-labelling earlier this month, saying the standard would help consumers know what they were buying.
Under the new standard free range farmers must have no more than 10,000 chickens per hectare or one chicken every square metre.
Eva Barabas, who owns Nirvana Free Range Eggs in Langwarrin, stocks her hens at 1500 per hectare. She said while the standards were a good move, the economics and morality of free range eggs were a complex issue.
However, she said she would like to see labels to tell people whether the eggs they were buying were ‘intensive’ free range or if they came from a farm like hers.
“There are 24 million people in Australia and if all of them had one egg per day that’s 24 million hens you would need to have so it’s a very complex topic,” she said. “We have 20 acres (eight hectares) for our birds; if we had to have 24 million birds free range, how much of Australia would that take up?
“If you rule out cages altogether you are going to have to import eggs from countries where they do not have any standards.
“We welcome them (standards), absolutely.”
Aussie Farms Direct spokesman Jim Cooper told news.com.au big producers and supermarkets would benefit most from the changes.
“Allowing eggs from farms stocked with one bird per square metre to be labelled ‘free range’ is a slap in the face for those farmers and retailers who are trying to give consumers a true free range egg,” he said.
“These farmers will continue to be caught on an uneven playing field, competing with industrial egg operations who are offering ‘free range’ eggs at prices far below what’s sustainable for true free-range egg production.
“Aussie Farmers Direct will continue to support farmers who are running free range egg farms that meet the Model Code of Practice, stocking to a maximum of 1500 birds per hectare.”
Consumer group Choice said the changes represented the government caving to the interests of big business.