Eggs People fear that, if the battery cage was banned, egg prices would rise dramatically. This means that a carton of half a dozen free-range eggs costs only 8.4 pence more to produce than six battery eggs. The economics of outdoor pig rearing generally compare favourably with indoor husbandry, with outdoor pig rearing often involving slightly lower production costs than indoor systems. Both capital and labour costs are lower in outdoor systems. Indeed, a whole range of economic indices show outdoor pig rearing to be more efficient than indoor production.
Mortality is lower in outdoor herds.
Moreover, food prices have been rising at a much lower rate than prices in general. At a time when our food has become much cheaper in real terms than ever before, surely we as a society could afford to pay the relatively small extra sums needed to ensure that animals are reared in good conditions. It is often assumed that moving from intensive husbandry systems to more humane ones will lead to a huge rise in food prices - and that this will largely be brought about by increased labour costs. This is simply not the case. Indeed, in some cases free-range farming requires less labour than intensive systems.