Walmart Pledges To Stock Only Cage-Free Eggs By 2025

Ever since the rise of urban foodie culture in the mid-2000s, there have been isolated contingents of shoppers demanding that their chosen grocery retailers shift to a more conscientious manner of sourcing their products. This has remained something of a niche movement until recently, and Walmart just pushed it into the mainstream for good.

Walmart announced on Tuesday (April 5) that it would begin a nine-year transition toward a supply chain that included only cage-free eggs. Kathleen McLaughlin, chief sustainability officer at Walmart, explained that the decision would satisfy the long-held demands of its customers without jacking up prices along the lines of pricier “organic” grocers.

“Our customers and associates count on Walmart and Sam’s Club to deliver on affordability and quality, while, at the same time, offering transparency into how their food is grown and raised,” McLaughlin said. “Our commitment to transition to a cage-free egg supply chain recognizes that expectation and represents another step we are taking to improve transparency for food we sell in our U.S. stores and clubs.”

Along with going completely cage-free, Walmart also outlined several new requirements it will gradually enforce of all partners involved in its egg supply chain. For the first time, Walmart publicly embraced the Five Freedoms concept of farm animal welfare, which includes access to fresh water, food, adequate space — Walmart is committing itself to, at least, one square foot per hen — and the exclusion of undue mental and physical stress.

While animal rights groups are likely none too pleased with the timeframe Walmart has set for itself to achieve 100 percent cage-free egg status, the fact that the retailer has embraced such a concept should be seen as a massive win regardless. Walmart is no niche grocer; according to Fortune, it sells 25 percent of the U.S.’s food supply, and if it stops buying eggs produced from non-cage-free farms, it’s only a matter of time before the small and large farmers stop producing the products Walmart won’t buy.