Sunflower Market Sprouts Cage-Free Egg Policy

WASHINGTON—Today, the nation's largest animal protection organization praised Sunflower Market, a new natural foods grocer owned by Supervalu, for adopting a policy against the sale of eggs from caged birds. The growing Midwestern natural foods chain exclusively offers cage-free eggs, which The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) applauded as an important policy to promote animal welfare.

With administrative offices in Minneapolis, Sunflower Market currently has one store open in Indianapolis. In 2006, the company plans to open another store in Chicago, as well as two stores in Columbus. Sunflower Market plans to have 50 stores in five years throughout the Midwest, and it has chosen to sell exclusively cage-free eggs in all its stores.

"Our cage-free egg policy is consistent with our commitment to animal welfare," explained John Sturm, vice president of Sunflower Markets. "It also fits perfectly with our high standards on natural and organic foods."

Sunflower Market joins a growing national trend away from eggs from caged hens. Retailers such as Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats Natural Marketplace have eliminated their sales of cage eggs, and all Trader Joe's brand eggs are now cage-free. Food service provider Bon Appétit is phasing in the exclusive use of cage-free eggs for all of its 400 cafés, and even companies such as AOL and Google are switching to exclusively cage-free eggs in their employee dining facilities. Nearly 90 schools have enacted policies to eliminate or greatly reduce the use of eggs from caged hens as well, including University of Wisconsin-Madison, Dartmouth College, Georgetown University, and Tufts University.

"The HSUS commends Sunflower Market for its cage-free egg policy," stated Paul Shapiro, Factory Farming Campaign director for The HSUS. "By refusing to sell eggs from caged birds, Sunflower Market is demonstrating just how important it is to incorporate animal welfare policies into socially responsible business models."

In the United States, factory farms confine nearly 300 million hens in barren, wire "battery cages." Stacked one of top of each other, the cages are so small, the birds can't spread their wings or nest, perch, or even walk. Each bird is afforded less space than a single sheet of paper on which to live, leading to extremely high levels of stress and frustration.

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The Humane Society of the United States is the nation's largest animal protection organization with more than 9.5 million members and constituents. The HSUS is a mainstream voice for animals, with active programs in companion animals, disaster preparedness and response, wildlife and habitat protection, marine mammals, animals in research, equine protection, and farm animal welfare. The HSUS protects all animals through education, investigation, litigation, legislation, advocacy and field work. The nonprofit organization is based in Washington and has field representatives and offices across the country. On the web at www.hsus.org.