U.S. News

The poultry project has been pitched as an integrated solar and chicken farm, a new land use practice known as agrivoltaics. But agrivoltaics projects typically pitch a vision somewhat resembling animals grazing underneath solar panels — not hundreds of thousands of confined chickens packed into sheds.

Just another developer trying to green wash their bullshit.

agrivoltaics projects typically envision animals grazing underneath solar panels — not hundreds of thousands of confined chickens packed into sheds.

I presume "free range cage free" means hundreds of thousands of confined chickens packed into shed because the law allows it.

There's a smaller operator near me that charges about twice the standard price for eggs to afford making things nicer for their birds. They keep hundreds of chickens (maybe a few thousand?) in big sheds/coops with roosts, nest boxes and screened retractable roofs that give the birds sunshine when it isn't raining. It isn't free range, but it is cage free and less crowded than typical commercial operations, and it costs more than just packing the birds in a warehouse.

Unfortunately, there's no obvious way for consumers to know how animals are treated without doing more research than practical for the average busy person. There's also a commercial egg factory near me (long windowless warehouses), so I checked and found cornucopia gives them a 3 out 5 score when I expected a 2 or less. The nicer place seems too small to even get listed. https://www.cornucopia.org/scorecard/eggs/