Reason for Vegan Series 3: “Cage-Free” and “Free-Range” Explained

05/31/20 • 16 min

Reason for Vegan Series: In this series of short shows, Hope will focus in on specific aspects of animal agriculture and answer the question of why are we vegan. In this third Reason for Vegan Series she will expose the truth behind egg industry labels like “cage-free” and “free-range.” These labels are gaining in popularity, but are they really better for the birds? To understand these labels, we must first look at the standard battery cage system and the multiple cruelties that all hens endure in the egg industry. These labels suggest that the hens are “happy,” but does cage-free really mean cruelty-free?

Previous Episode

Bill Claims to End Factory Farming and Climate Healer’s Sailesh Rao

On this episode, Hope digs into the Farm System Reform Act introduced by Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker. The bill is being pushed as an end to factory farming, could it be true? Then she has a conversation with Climate Healer’s Sailesh Rao about his campaign Vegan World 2026, overhauling society by seeing it as an engineering problem, and exploring what it would take to change the system to create a vegan world in just six years.

Next Episode

Unjust Farm Subsidies and Systemic Racism in the Food System with Connie Spence

In episode 4 we talk with Connie Spence, an outspoken vegan and anti-oppression activist whose work addresses a range of justice issues. In this podcast we will discuss using creative tactics in vegan activism, systemic racism in the food system, and unjust farm subsidies.

Connie Spence is the founder of Vegan Justice League and the Agriculture Fairness Alliance. The Vegan Justice League educates vegan advocates about the issue of farm subsidies, and the Agricultural Fairness Alliance is a federal lobbying group influencing legislation to bring fairness back to farm policy by ending subsidies and bailouts.

Connie has utilized creative tactics in her vegan activism. Using a large stage light, Connie has projected vegan messages onto buildings that could be seen from half a mile away. These seven-story tall projections have been shown in diverse locations such as on the Staples Center, on Las Vegas hotels, on freeways in Los Angeles, and many other prominent locations.

Now, through her two sister organizations, she is dedicated to educating the community about how the food system is monopolized and rigged by livestock farmers and what we need to do to solve it. Agriculture Fairness Alliance is sponsoring federal legislation that will divert subsidies to programs that help struggling animal farmers transition to sustainable, plant-based, cruelty-free farming. Learn more about how to support this legislation here.