Tell the FDA to Stop Their Plan of Banning Outdoor Access to Organic Laying Hens

The FDA is zeroing in on egg farmers who provide outdoor access (required in certified organic production) for their flocks. The agency has issued a Draft Guidance that will make it difficult, expensive and perhaps even impossible to maintain medium-sized poultry flocks outdoors. This could spell the end for commercial-scale, truly organic eggs where hens live outdoors, free to exhibit their native behaviors, as required by the USDA’s organic regulations. The FDA’s guidance seeks to prevent outbreaks of Salmonella Enteritidis in shell eggs, and was sparked by a major 2010 salmonella outbreak in eggs, centered on “factory farms” in Iowa, confining tens of thousands of hens indoors in filthy and dangerous conditions. The fact is, based on published-reviewed research, that the biggest risk to human health comes from caged hens in giant factory farms—not organic birds enjoying a good life outdoors! Read more, and make your voice heard before September 23rd!