The Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply project: An introduction.
In the United States, empirical information on the sustainability of commercial-scale egg production is lacking. The passage of state regulations specific to hen housing created urgency to better understand the effects of different housing systems on the sustainability of the egg supply, and stimulated the formation of a coalition, the Coalition for a Sustainable Egg Supply (CSES), to conduct research on this topic. The CSES is a multi-stakeholder group with 27 members, including food manufacturers, research institutions, scientists, restaurants, food service, retail food companies, egg suppliers, and nongovernmental organizations. A commercial-scale study was developed to better understand the effect of 3 housing systems (conventional cage, enriched colony, and cage-free aviary) on 5 areas related to a sustainable egg supply. These 5 sustainability areas represent effects on people, animals, and the environment: animal health and well-being, environment, food safety, worker health and safety, and food affordability. Five teams of scientists, each associated with a sustainability area, conducted an integrated field study at a commercial site in the upper Midwest through 2 flock cycles in 3 housing systems. This paper provides a brief overview of the CSES project to serve as an introduction for the papers that follow in this volume of Poultry Science.
Department of Animal Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824 swansoj@anr.msu.edu.
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JC
Swanson
Department of Animal Science, Center for Animal Welfare, University of California, Davis 95616.
J A
JA
Mench
Department of Animal Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing 48824.
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Karcher
D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000827:Animal Welfare / Q000592:standards; D000818:Animals; D004531:Eggs / Q000600:supply & distribution; D004777:Environment; D005502:Food / Q000191:economics; D059022:Food Safety; D006799:Housing, Animal / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D015146:Midwestern United States; D016272:Occupational Health / Q000592:standards; D011200:Poultry / Q000502:physiology*; D012941:Social Responsibility
coalition; egg supply; housing system; sustainable