Cage-free eggs are winning support because of concerns about animal welfare, but the former specialty product may be less environmentally sustainable than conventionally raised eggs. After his remarks at the Egg Industry Center's Issues Forum, Carlos Saviani, vice president of the World Wildflife Fund's food team, fielded questions from the audience. “It’s going to require a lot more acres of soybean and corn (and) a bigger footprint for the actual farms themselves. I remember Dr. Jason Clay (WWF’s senior vice president of food and markets) telling us several times that intensification is going to have to feed the growing population by 2050, when we have 9 to 10 billion people … We’re actually being forced to do just the opposite,” Gregory said. “I’d like to know your opinion … about what that means to feeding the world’s growing population … when we’re actually being forced to take steps back and harm the environment.”
Saviani replied it’s important to consider the natural resource impact of food production and that includes when certain types of livestock housing, such as cages, are removed from the equation. He referred to the Coaltiion for Sustainable Egg SUpply's 2015 report – which gathered research on conventional, cage-free and enriched colony housing – and said from a scientific, rather than emotional, perspective, “it’s hard to defend cage free” as it is today.