No multi-tier here, as paper gets it wrong

One should always be careful when pointing out the mistakes of others, in case there is a beam lurking in your own eye.

But the Forager was amused to spot the photo used in a recent Times newspaper article in relation to flat-deck versus multi-tier systems of housing free-range hens.

The article, covering the recent “No Multi-tier Here” campaign from Blackacre Farm in Somerset, sought to demonise multi-tier units, accusing egg producers of “cramming in birds to cut costs”.

The birds found it difficult to venture outside their “high rise hangers”, because of the distances they had to travel to get there, it claimed. The reality of multi-tier was also far removed from the images of hens roaming the fields, as so often portrayed on retail egg boxes.

Unfortunately, the picture The Times chose to illustrate such monstrous behaviour by farmers was actually a flat-deck system, not dissimilar to the kind used by many so-called “traditional” free-range egg producers….