Former head of Akita Foods found guilty, but won’t any chickens be saved?

On October 6, 2021, a trial of the former Akita Foods representative in the egg corruption case was held and he was found guilty. He frequently lobbied the then ministers, former ministers, and Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) staff to change the international standards of animal welfare into industry-friendly policies, and bribed them. Although convicted, the hens who were the victims of the incident have not been saved at all.

The main topic of this incident was animal welfare. While the world, including Japanese citizens, began shifting to cage-free rearing of hens, the industry stayed stuck to cage rearing, and MAFF continued to follow suit. After all, neither the industry nor MAFF has changed that attitude.

Another reason for the bribery was that the egg vendors have devised ways to make it easier to get subsidies. The subsidies are basically given to users of cage rearing, a method that’s being phased out in the world.

Although it was not recognized as the reason for the bribe to the former Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Yoshikawa, an industry-friendly amendment for a project that the industry including Akita Foods worked on to kill the laying hens and get a subsidy when the egg price goes down (adult chicken renewal/the vacant house extension project) was also put into operation without any rework, and in 2020 the largest number of laying hens to date were killed to adjust egg prices.

After all, because MAFF and the industry are almost united, bribes are said to have had no effect on policy, and MAFF just lost credibility, leaving no improvement.

Citizens are different

However, the movements of citizens are different from that of the industry and MAFF, which have not changed at all.

Demand for cage-free eggs continues to grow.

The clear difference in level between overseas animal agriculture and Japanese animal agriculture has become apparent from the eyes of the public.

More and more companies are mentioning cage-free. (Even if they don’t declare cage-free completely)

It’s not the industry or the government, but the citizens and companies open to accept the needs and voices of the citizens, that can release chickens from cages.

Please tell supermarkets, shops, hotels, processed food companies, online shop companies, etc. that you do not want chickens to be kept in cages.

Translation thanks to Misaki.