TL;DR
Cage-free layer campaigns are one of the most celebrated success stories in animal welfare and in EA-aligned work, improving the lives of hundreds of millions of hens and reshaping entire global supply chains. But alongside that incredibly important work, few people realize that an even larger and far more neglected confinement system exists almost entirely out of sight: broiler (meat) chickens kept in stacked wire cages, primarily in China.
- Scale: China raises ~15 billion broiler chickens annually, and ~10 billion (60–70%) spend their lives in cramped cages with even less space than battery-caged layers. This is 2x the total number of caged laying hens worldwide, with severe welfare implications.
- Neglectedness: Despite the enormous scale, this issue has received virtually no attention from the animal-welfare or EA communities. Broiler cages in China were almost entirely unaddressed, with effectively no corporate commitments on record before this year.
- Tractability: This may be one of the most overlooked high-impact opportunities in farmed-animal welfare.
- Roughly half of major Chinese producers already offer cage-free broiler chicken.
- Cage-free broiler meat is at price parity with caged meat.
- Major restaurant and retail chains have already begun committing to cage-free sourcing.
These conditions create a rare window where modest additional resources could shift hundreds of millions of birds out of extreme confinement each year and help prevent broiler cages from spreading globally.
Lever Foundation is currently leading this work. We have been working on the cage-free egg issue in China and Asia generally for the past seven years, and have been able to secure around 300 corporate policy commitments and producer shifts on that issue. While we continue to work on that issue, this year we expanded our corporate campaigns work to also include broiler chicken cages for the first time. Since the start of the year, we have secured seven cage-free broiler chicken commitments from major Chinese restaurant, retail, and packaged food companies. These initial broiler chicken commitments are expected to move roughly 15 million chickens per year out of cages once fully implemented, and early results indicate that with additional capacity, we could scale this impact to hundreds of millions of birds annually. The combination of broad market availability, negligible cost differences, and strong initial corporate receptivity makes this a uniquely leveraged moment.
The Scale of the Problem
China produces roughly 15 billion broiler chickens per year. An estimated 60-70%— around 10 billion birds annually—spend their whole lives in stacked wire cages.
For comparison:
- This is twice the number of caged egg-laying hens globally (~5 billion).
- Broiler cages remain almost entirely a China-specific phenomenon today.
Cage dimensions are extremely small, with the two most prominent types:
- Type A: 24 × 20 × 14 inches
- Type H: 26 × 25 × 17 inches
This provides around 59 square inches per bird, often less space than battery cages for hens (typically 67+ sq in). Birds cannot walk, spread their wings, rest comfortably, or express any natural behavior.
Welfare effects include:
- High mortality and disease
- Neuromuscular strain and constant discomfort
- Behavioral disorders
- Chronic suffering throughout their short lives
Although broiler cages are currently concentrated in China, producers and equipment companies are already piloting them in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, and Brazil. Without intervention, this system may spread globally.
Why This Looks Unusually Tractable
Despite the scale and severity, this is a rare case where the path to change is unusually straightforward.
1. Cage-Free Broiler Chicken Is Widely Available
China’s broiler market has two segments:
- White-feather chickens (75-80% of all chicken, used for Western-style fast food and processed products)
- Yellow-feather chickens (used for traditional cuisine)
An analysis of the 64 largest poultry producers found:
- 8% produce only cage-free
- 41% produce both caged and cage-free
So about half of large producers already offer cage-free broiler chicken at scale. This holds true even looking only at the top five or top ten producers.
Most producers and distributors serving large chains already have cage-free lines.
2. Price Parity: Switching Costs Are Essentially Zero
One of the biggest hurdles in campaigning for cage-free eggs campaigns has always been meaningful cost differences. Cage-free egg production typically carries operating costs around 15% higher than battery-cage systems, which slows corporate adoption and requires sustained pressure.
By contrast, caged vs cage-free broiler chicken sells at effectively the same price.
Examples from a major commodity chicken marketplace:
- Cage-free producer white-feather drumsticks: 103 CNY / 9.8 kg
- Caged producer white-feather drumsticks: 105 CNY / 9.8 kg
For yellow-feathered chickens, price differences are similarly negligible, and in some markets the cheapest products are cage-free.
This parity is not theoretical. When McDonald’s China transitioned to 100% cage-free chicken, the company reported zero increase in cost.
The absence of a price gap removes one of the biggest historical barriers in animal-welfare transitions and is a major reason why progress on broiler cages is unusually tractable.
3. Early Market Momentum
McDonald's China reached 100% cage-free chicken sourcing by 2024 and heavily publicized it. IKEA China followed with a similar commitment.
Building on this momentum, within just the first year of focused broiler-cage campaigning (starting in 2025), we have already secured seven cage-free chicken commitments from major domestic restaurant, retail, and packaged-food companies, including:
- Steel Pipe Factory (1,000 locations)
- Wagas (350 locations)
- Big Pizza (400 locations)
- Fan Shushu (500 locations)
- Wang Shun Ge (50 locations)
- Epermarket (major retail/e-commerce)
- Du Feng Xuan (one of China’s largest sauce & spice companies)
These pledges are expected to move ~15 million birds per year out of cages once fully implemented.
While this is only 0.1% of China’s caged broilers, the combination of:
- price parity
- existing supply of cage-free chicken
- early corporate momentum
suggests that scaling could plausibly move hundreds of millions, and potentially ~1 billion birds per year, out of cages.
Who We Are and What Additional Funding Would Enable
Lever Foundation is a US-based 501(c)3 public charity working to eliminate the most harmful factory farming practices across Asia, with operations across Greater China, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Korea, Malaysia, and Singapore. Since 2019, we have focused heavily on securing corporate commitments for cage-free eggs and supporting producer transitions toward higher-welfare systems. This work has led to around 85 commitments from domestic companies in China and around 300 commitments in total from companies based in or operating in Asia.
In 2025, we expanded our corporate policy work to include cage-free broiler chicken sourcing. Since then, we have secured the first seven broiler cage-free commitments in China—from major restaurant chains, retail groups, and packaged food companies—and early indications suggest that the combination of existing cage-free supply, price parity, and buyer receptivity makes this an unusually tractable opportunity.
Right now, this work is funding-constrained, and additional resources would meaningfully accelerate progress. We estimate that we can productively deploy $500,000-$800,000 in additional annual funding toward this work over the next 24 months, with clear opportunities to convert marginal dollars directly into additional commitments and producer shifts.
Specifically, additional funding would support:
- Salary and related costs for additional team members to carry out corporate outreach work (there are currently only two staffers working on this issue); this would be the primary use of additional funding
- Hiring one new team member to work on producer-side outreach (this has worked very well on the cage-free egg topic, where we have been able to persuade ~20 egg producers to shift 3-4 million hens into cage-free production, and it helps facilitate buyer-side commitments as well as implementation of commitments)
- Media and industry conferences (generating consistent trade industry media coverage on the momentum toward cage-free chicken, and presenting on the topic at large national and regional food and producer conferences, both of which have worked well in advancing the cage-free egg topic)
Given the scale of the issue (10 billion birds in cages annually), the lack of attention it has historically received, and the unique market conditions that make progress unusually tractable, we believe this area has substantial room for more funding and can deliver very large welfare gains per dollar.
If you are interested in learning more or exploring support, feel free to reach out to:
- Lily Tse, Program Director, Lever Foundation: lilyt@leverfoundation.org