Animal Welfare and Treatment Label Claims in U.S. Table Eggs: Trends in Retail Premiums and Policy Impacts, 2008–18

In the U.S. table egg industry, a range of production practices have been under scrutiny, from the housing where animals are kept, to the use of exogenous substances like antibiotics and hormones, to the types of feed the animals receive. A common assumption has been that consumer demand for animal welfare and treatment practices accompanies a willingness to pay market premiums for the resulting products. Market premiums are a common justification or incentive for producers shifting production away from conventional standards. However, increased costs of alternative production methods can mean the sustainability of a specialty operation depends on the size and consistency of premiums. In addition to classical market drivers, shocks like State policy passage and disease outbreaks may increase the uncertainty of premiums. In the 2008–18 period, the U.S. table egg industry experienced both types of shocks in the form of: (1) a highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) outbreak in 2014–15; and (2) the passage of a series of State policies restricting the housing practices allowed in laying-hen production or restrictions on the sale of eggs from hens housed under certain conditions. This report provides a full accounting of common animal welfare and treatment claims in the U.S. retail table egg market from 2008 to 2018 and investigates dynamics of price premiums for those claims.