The McDonald’s Corporation has announced that it will gradually cease using eggs that haven’t been laid by cage-free hens.

“Our decision to source only cage-free eggs reinforces the focus we place on food quality and our menu to meet and exceed our customers’ expectations”.

Marion Gross, senior vice president of the North American supply chain at McDonald’s, said the company is working with its existing egg suppliers to convert housing systems for hens. McDonald’s United States of America, which is fighting sagging sales, made waves in March by announcing a two-year plan to phase out meat from chickens raised with antibiotics used to fight human infections.

McDonald’s restaurants in Canada and the United States are switching to so-called cage-free eggs over the next decade, marking the latest push under CEO Steve Easterbrook to try to reinvent the fast food chain as a “modern, progressive burger company”.

“Our customers are increasingly interested in knowing more about their food and where it comes from”, said McDonald’s USA President Mike Andres.

As students prepare for their first day of school, McDonald’s restaurants in Carson City and Northern Nevada are helping kick-start their year with a breakfast.

The stakes are high for McDonald’s, because breakfast items are a key part of its turnaround strategy.

“Richard Adams, a former McDonald’s franchisee turned consultant, said McDonald’s had told franchisees that all-day breakfast would lure 200 extra customers a week per restaurant”, writes the NYT’s.

“Along with today’s news, recent announcements, from other industry leaders including Walmart and General Mills, will have a significant impact on the future of egg production and be a catalyst to end cage confinement for hens”, says Priscilla Massachusetts.

In the episode, Annie Baxter said, “Maybe we picture hens on a pastoral farm with rolling hills…” In such systems, chickens are allowed to move freely up and down tiers and in nesting areas inside barns. HSUS undercover investigations have revealed the suffering caused by the extreme overcrowding in “battery cages”, wire contraptions where birds are confined to cages so small and tight, they can’t even flap their wings or perch or nest.

“It doesn’t necessarily mean they are living in bucolic conditions but it does mean that the birds have a better quality of life”, Shapiro said. In 2014, the fast food giant accounted for 4 percent of the total eggs produced in the U.S. (43.56 billion eggs), and that is around 2 billion eggs annually.

“They know how big we are, and the impact we can make on the industry”, Gross said. One of my pregnancy cravings was a sausage burrito with hot sauce from Mickey D’s, so it was a real bummer when I couldn’t satisfy this desire at 7 p.m. Now pretty soon – pregnant or not – I’ll be able to pick up a breakfast burrito or an Egg McMuffin whenever I darn well please.