Launched by the RSPCA in 1994, Freedom Foods is the UK equivalent of the BC SPCA’s “SPCA Certified” label, which aims “to provide farm animals with the opportunity to express behaviours that promote physical and psychological well-being.”
Freedom Foods is considered one of the most respected labels when it comes to eating “humane” animal products. Like similar labels, however, it has shown to be less trustworthy than people like to think; most recently, for example, this February, at a farm for “high-welfare free-range” poultry:
Filming, done through a gap in a wall, showed farm staff swinging ducks by their necks and throwing them at other birds as they are herded into crates to be transported for slaughter. Images later captured from inside the building showed sick, injured and dead birds. (Farm workers filmed abusing free-range ducks)
This isn’t the first time that a supposedly humane, free-range farm has been proven to be surprisingly similar to conventional factory farms. It isn’t even the first time for Freedom Foods label. Back in 2007, undercover investigators in Great Britain discovered something disturbing at “Freedom Foods”-endorsed farms which boasted “the very highest standards of welfare”: dead and decaying ducks, diseased and injured turkeys, filthy drinking water, pigs lying in wet, soiled conditions with no access to dry, clean straw, and more. (Film shows neglect of pigs, turkeys, and ducks sold under ethical label)
It happened again in 2008, at a free-range egg farm, where thousands of hens lived crammed into the darkness of an enormous shed. The birds were so cramped that they could barely move; many were undernourished and losing feathers, both signs of stress and overcrowding. Dead and dying chickens were found as well, decomposing and covered with dust. Though the birds were supposed to be outside every day by 9 AM, an employee at the farm admitted that he didn’t let them out enough because eggs laid outside got dirty and workers were too “lazy” to clean them. (‘Freedom Food’ sham exposed)
As I said before, these are not isolated incidents. Learn more about organic, free-range, and other “humane” animal products at our page: What do all the labels mean? or check out our other blog entries on the subject here.
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Witness the profound absurdity of a company insisting that free-range chickens, who in the very best of circumstances, DO go outside, won’t have any form of shelter and will have to stand around in the rain.
Apparently egg producers also think chickens are unbelievably stupid, and will stand around waiting to get picked off by predators. I guess they haven’t read the studies which demonstrate that chickens actually have different ways to communicate where a predator is coming from, 
As if chickens lay their eggs for us to eat. Even life in a battery cage does not destroy the chicken’s desire to create a nest for the babies she expects to have. Because battery cages are entirely barren, however, they don’t generally have anything to build with–no straw, sticks, leaves, etcetera.
Face it, egg producers, chickens don’t care whether their eggs taste like wild onions or like cheap corn meal/flax seed mixes. They lay them for the same reason that all birds lay eggs–because they are expecting to have offspring.
I have a new gues blog post over on the 
