Enriching the Chickens

The European legislation that 'battery'/ high density chickens have to have 'enriched' caging from the beginning of 2011 is generating a lot of comment (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/jan/09/egg-farmers-crisis-talks-europe ). The main concern expressed by UK farmers appears to be that the new caging is very expensive and they claim that, although they will adopt the new standards, competitors in some other EU countries may cheat to under-cut them on price. I personally feel that this is a difficult argument to maintain. Enrichment (a difficult term but one attempting to provide a more complex and naturalistic environment for the animals), done sensibly and based on science (rather than anthropocentric considerations) is a humane and appropriate action. You can hardly argue that it should not be done because others may not follow the legislation. That would really be chickening out!