Free-range eggs to outsell caged for the first time

(U.K) Free-range eggs are predicted to outsell eggs from caged hens for the first time this year, according to industry estimates.

The British Egg Industry Council said that of the nine billion eggs expected to be laid in the UK in 2012, 49% will come from free-range hens allowed to roam outdoors, compared with 48% from hens stuck in cages. A further 3% will come from ‘barn’ hens that wander around indoor sheds. In 1995, 86% of British eggs came from battery cages.
Free range eggs means the eggs obtained from hens that can roam freely, without being confined in cages while in battery style cages, widely used around the world hens are kept in small battery cages, which don't allow them to flap their wings or show other natural behaviour.

If you've ever seen the chicken housing inside a conventional mass-production farm, you've likely already switched to buying free-range chicken. Movement, sunlight and fresh air positively affect human health, and they do the same for livestock. Although certification for meat and poultry is less stringent and less straightforward than it is for produce, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has recently refined its rules. In fact, the "organic" label now says more about the chicken's living conditions, as well as the food it was fed and the overall way the farm was run, than "free-range."

Animal welfare campaigners have lobbied furiously to ban these practices around the world, with some success.
The European Union has banned caged eggs from the start of this year and is phasing out sow stalls and New Zealand will ban sow stalls by 2015.