Happy Chickens

I stumbled apon this article on the WSPA website, it is about animal friendly farming. If you know me you know that I get pretty upset about the effects that animal abuse have on "industrial farming." You can follow this link to read the full article which will also lead you to the WSPA website where you can read more about how the treatment of the animals that you eat can actually affect your health. Guess who has already figured this out? Yes, the de Venco Group farms in the Netherlands upgraded their industrial caged chicken farming into a high animal welfare model which was designed by the Science Group of Wageningen University. The model is known as Het Rondeel or The Roundel in English. "The Roundel gives the hens space to engage in natural behavior of foraging, socializing, perching and dust-bathing and has the capacity to house up to 30,000 hens in divided sections of a hexagonal building." Thankfully this model has proved economically successful for the Dutch farmers, which dismissed the nay sayers who have said that higher animal welfare means loss of profits for the farmer. Although this Roundel system is not "organic" it does use less energy, it has environmental benefits, as well as shielding the public from diseases that are common among caged chickens. And of course the Dutch created a really interesting new style of egg carton that is... hexagonally shaped much like the Rondell itself. Overall I would say this is a great step forward in the treatment of animals, which equals higher quality food for us.