I wonder how this will affect chicks & brooder houses.
I also don't understand the arguement about retrofitting costs... from my simple side, if you have caged animals now, and you let them roam, especially chickens... you don't HAVE any additional costs... just a lot of cages to sell, and maybe a couple of guardian animals to aquire (goats, donkeys, sheep or even a trained pooch)
I just don't understand why the price of eggs would go up... suddenly you need less equipment, less food & less clean up work and the price goes UP?
I've seen several large scale egg production farms that were freeranging.. big barns for shelter, big pastures to roam.. I've even seen mobile home sized tractors being moved around fields.. it just doesn't seem that hard to me.
My mom keeps everything in a cage... now.. there is a time & place for everything, but I think the key is not ALL the time and not EVERY place.