Most egg-laying hens in this country spend their lives stuffed inside cramped battery cages within massive, dimly lit sheds, wing to wing with other birds. There is light on the horizon, however: Major corporate customers are responding to activists’ calls and demanding that suppliers go “cage-free”—allowing the birds to move about, albeit mostly still within the confines of a shed. “Pastured raised” chickens have it far better: at Grazin’ Angus Acres in Ghent, New York (depicted on the cover), they can feel the sun, spread their wings, forage, dust-bathe, and generally live like real chickens.
