Unilever commits to stopping the slaughter of male chicks
Environment — di Lorenzo Brenna
Every year millions of male chicks are killed because they are of no use to the food industry. Unilever tries to alleviate their suffering.
Unilever commits to stopping the slaughter of male chicks
Every year millions of male chicks are killed because they are of no use to the food industry. Unilever tries to alleviate their suffering.
The industrial production of eggs conceals bloody practices that consumers are often unaware of. Beyond the horrific conditions in which laying hens are forced to live, there are other victims. In this type of production, animals are treated as mere commodities, and those that are not profitable are therefore destroyed — such is the case with male chicks. Being male, they are of no use for egg production, nor are they needed for raising chickens destined for meat production. They are therefore separated from the females and killed.
"Male chicks are thrown into high-speed machinery and, if everything goes as planned, killed instantly," explained Janice Neitzel of Sustainable Solutions Group, "but that's not enough. Consumers are often unaware of this practice. Thanks to social networks, though, it's only a matter of time." Unilever, the multinational that owns many of the world's most well-known brands in food, beverages, hygiene and household products, has committed to finding a solution and to putting an end to the brutal killing of male chicks.
The Anglo-Dutch giant will fund research to create incubators that allow the sex of embryos to be determined before the chicks form, so that sexing can be carried out at the embryonic stage, eliminating non-productive chicks before they are born. According to Unilever, the introduction of embryo identification systems could spare millions of male chicks from being thrown alive into the macerator.
The project forms part of the new sustainability goals adopted by the world's third-largest consumer goods company, aimed at sourcing entirely sustainable agricultural raw materials by 2020. "We are organising meetings with animal welfare experts, egg-producing organisations, suppliers and other stakeholders," reads a Unilever press release, "to develop a dialogue and to address this issue by evaluating alternative options." The initiative confirms the new direction taken by Unilever, which had previously decided to ban the use of eggs from caged hens in the production of food products.