Social Responsibility & Public Trust

Greening Our Farms

Abe Loewen, a Manitoba egg farmer, is making an environmental impact on his family’s farm near Arborg Manitoba. The Loewen’s recently invested in solar panels to heat and cool the family’s home along with the entire 12,600 laying hen barn on their property.

“We enjoy seeing how sunshine can produce energy for our farm” said Abe.

The Loewen family has proven to be early adopters as they were among the first egg farmers in the province to move away from conventional cages to new enriched housing. The enriched environment provides the birds with more space and enables them to express natural behaviours like perching, scratching and laying their eggs in private nesting areas.

Regulated egg farmers like Abe Loewen are making huge strides in greening the egg industry. In fact, the environmental footprint of Canada’s egg production supply chain declined by almost 50% between 1962 and 2012, while egg production increased by 50%. In that timeframe, the Canadian egg industry used 81% less land, 41% less energy and 69% less water. The industry produced 61% fewer emissions that contribute to acid rain, 68% fewer emissions of nitrogen and phosphorus and 72% fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Laying hens themselves have been doing their part, as their feed efficiency or ability to convert feed into a source of protein is remarkable. On average, for every 1.7 kilogram of feed, a hen produces one kilogram of high-protein eggs.