The Triangle

Issue date: 11/20/09 Section: Ed-Op

Media Credit: Florence Low Sacramento Bee/MCT Campus

When it comes to sustainability, Drexel often seeks to position itself at the forefront of the movement to "go green." Yet there is one issue where Drexel now lags dangerously behind its university peers, an issue affecting not just sustainability but animal welfare and student health as well: the decision of Drexel Dining to continue purchasing battery cage eggs.
On massive battery cage egg farms, hens are confined to small, filthy wire cages where they are unable to spread their wings, barely able to turn around and forced to live amongst the excrement of other birds. Each battery cage is smaller than this opened copy of "The Triangle" that you hold in your hands, and yet in that small area, five to nine birds will be crammed together for their entire lives. The situation is so bad that battery cages have been banned as criminal animal cruelty in Mich. and Calif. and throughout the entire European Union. The New York Times Editorial Board has called for an end to battery cage farming, as have the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Humane Society of the U.S.
In addition to being cruel, battery cages are also incredibly destructive to the environment. National environmental protection groups including the Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Greenpeace, Clean Water Action and many others encourage a switch to cage-free due to the terrible impact that these farms (which often hold up to 500,000 hens) have on air and water quality.
As if that weren't bad enough, battery cage eggs also threaten student health; battery caged eggs are at least 2.5 times more likely to cause salmonella poisoning. It is for this reason that organizations including the Center for Food Safety, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the Union of Concerned Scientists all support bans on battery cage egg farming.
Sadly, Drexel is now the only major University in the greater Philadelphia area that continues to support battery cage egg farms. Local schools including the University of Pennsylvania, Temple, West Chester, Rowan, Ursinus, Immaculata, Gwynedd Mercy, Cabrini, Rider and the Archdiocesan school system have all either gone cage-free or are committed to being cage-free for 2010. Nationally, over 350 colleges and universities have made the switch. Shockingly, when it comes to sustainability and animal welfare, Drexel now trails behind fast food outlets like Burger King, Carl's Jr. and Denny's, which have all have begun moving towards cage-free eggs.

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