Why Quality Eggs And Animal Welfare Matters More Amid The Avian Flu Crisis

Forbes

17-04-2025

Eggs on the supermarket shelves might look the same, but crack one open and the differences are obvious: Premium eggs have harder shells, brighter yolks, firmer egg whites and a superior flavor. The reason? Healthy hens.
Pete & Gerry's, one of the largest premium egg producers in the country, partners with almost 300 family farms where hens can roam, scratch in the dirt, eat bugs and relax in lush pastures. There are no crowded barns and no shortcuts. At a time when avian influenza, or bird flu, is making headlines, smaller scale farms and humane practices have become even more important.
Pete & Gerry's hens roam around an expansive pasture, a farming model that has helped protect hens from avian influenza.
'We've always been committed to hen welfare,' says Phyllis Rothschild, chief marketing officer for Pete & Gerry's, the nation's top producer of organic, pasture-raised and free-range eggs. 'We like to say that we were the first to do it better, and we're still doing it best.'
Doing it better matters. Consumers care about where their food comes from and consider animal welfare and ethical production practices when making purchasing decisions.
Embracing a family farm model and raising hens on pasture also protects birds from avian influenza. Outbreaks of the disease, which causes coughing, sneezing, lack of coordination and, often, sudden death, occur far less often in free-range and pasture-raised hens. In fact, almost 100% of avian influenza outbreaks happened at farms where chickens lived in cages or inside crowded barns.
'When we started this business … we weren't thinking about, 'This is going to be the best defense against avian flu.' We were thinking that we wanted to support family farms and that we believed in animal welfare,' explains Cameron Whitehead, chief operating officer for Pete & Gerry's. 'Our model of having family farms across 15 states and fewer hens on each farm insulates us and minimizes how avian influenza impacts us.'
You don't need to look further than the colorful carton to see Pete & Gerry's commitment to hen welfare. The girls, as the company sometimes calls them, are raised in free-range or pasture-raised settings, and each family farm in the Pete & Gerry's network is third-party Certified Humane. It's a guarantee that hens were not raised in cages and given opportunities to express their natural behaviors like dustbathing, perching and roaming outdoors.
The Willhide Family, one of Pete & Gerry's nearly 300 family farm partners.
Including the brand's values and approach to farming on the egg cartons means consumers don't 'need to have a Ph.D. in egg terminology to go shopping in the grocery store,' Rothschild explains.
'There are segments of consumers that place a lot of value on animal welfare and egg quality,' she adds. 'They want to make sure that the claims that they're reading … translate into their own value system.'
And now consumers are valuing egg safety much more as bird flu has been blamed for record-setting egg prices and bare store shelves due to limited egg supplies.
'The family farm model has been more resilient,' adds Rothschild. 'This is their family's livelihood. There's hands-on care, and there are people present with the hens all day long making sure that they're protected, both from the flu but also from any other risks that can be associated with the health of the hens.'
This unwavering commitment to hen welfare and biosecurity means every time you cook a Pete & Gerry's egg, you get a safe egg and support a farming model that is better for hens, farmers and the environment — and definitely better for breakfast.