There are 2.5 million chickens in battery cages in New Zealand alone.
This is causing conflict in the buying public over what eggs to buy.
It's a competition between the more expensive free-range eggs and cheaper battery-cage eggs.
There are supporters of battery farming chickens who say that their methods are efficient and that they save land and food resources.
This is due to high productivity.
These intense poultry farming systems are much more efficient than free-range farmed chickens as they turn out eggs to consumers all year round at a lower cost.
On average, battery chickens produce 300 eggs in comparison to 250 eggs produced by free-range chickens.
This shows how much more efficient it really is.
Battery farming is also more practical for administering antibiotics for treating and preventing the outbreak of disease.
Due to the small size of these cages, this makes it easy for the medication to be put in the food or water of the chickens.
However, in free-range chicken farming, it is hard to catch the chickens and administer medications, taking up time and raising the end price of the eggs.
There are many animal rights groups who believe that the conditions these chickens live in are unsanitary.
One of these groups is Compassion Over Killing, who have led undercover investigations at battery chicken farms and have seen first-hand these chickens living and laying their eggs in their own faeces.
They say that this allows the rapid growth of bacteria such as Salmonella and E coli.
This evidence proves how unsanitary it really is and that it can affect both the chickens and the humans eating the eggs.
Some people believe battery farming hens is inhumane.
Battery hens are kept in small cages and cannot carry out natural behaviours.
They say this causes the hens physical and psychological discomfort.
An example of this is dust bathing.
Not being able to dust bathe means the chickens cannot rid themselves of parasites such as fleas and mites.
This is just one of the inhumane problems inflicted on chickens from battery cages.
The debate over battery farming chickens is an ongoing one.
It is a conflict between the economical values of battery farming chickens and how ethical it is to do so.
I have found the economical values outweigh the ethics of battery farming.
The fact that battery farming harbours diseases is exceeded by the case of administering antibiotics to counter these diseases.
People argue that free-range eggs are more ethical, that it is saving the chickens.
However, at the speed our world is growing, we can no longer afford to pay for this quality.
People all over the world, even in New Zealand, a developed country, are going hungry.
In our growing world, this is only going to worsen.
We need to be able to produce more food, more cheaply and on less land.
I think battery-farmed chickens are just the right form of farming to take this step, and that many more are soon to follow.
• By Coery Blakeborough, Year 11, Gore High School
