Misleading the Ethical Consumer: The Regulation of Free-Range Egg Labelling

Abstract

In mid-2014, Australian consumer affairs ministers announced that they would together set 'a national, legally enforceable definition of free-range eggs'. A response to significant conflict, claims and counterclaims about what free-range should mean, the proposed code could take the form of a mandatory information standard under the Australian Consumer Law. This paper asks whether this approach would adequately respond to the underlying conflict between various actors as to what free-range means. Conflict over the meaning of free-range on the label is the latest expression in an ongoing series of challenges, defences and counter-challenges to the legitimacy of intense, industrial-scale anima..