Awesome! Levapan announces a cage-free policy for 7 countries
- Feb 6, 2020
- 1 min read
One of Colombia's largest food companies, Levapan, has announced a commitment to outsource only from cage-free systems after discussions with Sinergia Animal and other animal protection organizations.
The transition will be completed in 2025 and will be valid in the 7 countries where it operates: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Peru, Brazil, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, and all its products. The Colombian company is a producer of sauces, and supplies for pastry and bakery shops, as well as agribusiness. In Colombia, Levapan owns the famous brand of sauces ‘San Jorge’.
This policy represents an impact on the lives of millions of egg-laying hens that will not have to spend their lives in cages. The company joins a trend shared by brands such as Unilever, Colombina, and Kraft Heinz, among many others.
In Colombia, about 70% of the egg industry uses battery cages. This system is considered one of the cruelest against animals. The hens spend their entire lives confined in a small space that prevents them from walking and performing their natural behaviors, in addition to causing them pain, frustration, and painful diseases.
Help us to continue working for animals and raising awareness among the largest companies on the continent, support Sinergia Animal here:
These announcements always make me think about the “middle years” between now and 2025—are they already shifting purchasing, or is it a last-minute scramble at the deadline? If Sinergia Animal ends up publishing interim milestones, that would make the commitment feel way more real. Odd comparison, but it’s like Caesarcipher—the shift amount matters, not just saying you’re “encrypting.”
The regional scope is what stands out—seven countries and “all products” is harder to weasel out of than a single-market pledge. Now I’m wondering if Levapan will publicly name the standards they’ll accept (Certified Humane? equivalent local audits?) so it’s not just vague “cage-free” wording. Also, totally unrelated, but I saw some whimsical art output on Imgg and it’s a nice mental break from reading about industrial farming.
It’s wild how much leverage bakery/ingredient companies have here—people think of “egg policies” as just restaurants, but suppliers touch a ton of everyday products. Hopefully this also pushes better welfare standards beyond just “no cages” (space, enrichment, etc.), otherwise it can get pretty minimal. Side note: I went down an internet rabbit hole the other day on Stylelooklab and it’s funny how both activism and random tools live in the same scrolling session.
I like seeing big food brands join the cage-free wave because it creates pressure on competitors (and suppliers) to stop pretending cages are “normal.” The part that matters now is follow-through—2025 can turn into “2027” real fast if nobody’s watching. Slightly off-topic, but I decompress with puzzle stuff like Blockblast after reading news like this because it’s equal parts encouraging and maddening.
What I’m always unsure about with these cage-free commitments is whether they include imported ingredients too, or only local sourcing per country—because companies can “shift the problem” without meaning to. If Sinergia Animal has any details on enforcement mechanisms, that’d be interesting to see. Random tangent, but the idea of “identifying what’s really going on under the hood” reminds me of Caesarcipher.