Kroger’s cage-free eggs promise is now landing on Greg Foran, CEO of one of the largest US supermarket chains since February. The animal protection group Animal Equality is collecting emails addressed to him personally and demanding a meeting. Kroger wanted to sell only cage-free eggs by 2025 and backed away from that goal. The awkward part: at Walmart, where Foran used to run the US business, the same promise has also failed.
In short
- The promise: in 2016, Kroger pledged a 100 percent cage-free egg supply by 2025
- The retreat: since 2022, Kroger has aimed for about 70 percent by 2030, with no date for 100 percent
- Where it stands: 43 percent of units in 2024; at Walmart U.S., most recently 30.4 percent of sales
- Foran: neither decision to walk back came on his watch, and Animal Equality concedes this for Kroger
- For animals: cage-free would be less bad, but that doesn’t make an egg vegan
Contents5 chapters
What Kroger promised.
In March 2016, Kroger set a goal of a fully cage-free egg supply chain by 2025. Reports at the time said only about one in seven eggs it sold was cage-free. Six years later, the company’s animal welfare policy said it would miss that goal. The new target: about 70 percent of eggs sold by 2030.
Kroger cites the pace of its suppliers and customers’ demand for affordability. That neatly hands the problem to the checkout. Yet it is still the company that decides what goes on the shelf.
The Louisville Courier Journal pulled the numbers from Kroger’s sustainability reports in July 2026: 33 percent of units in both 2022 and 2023, then 43 percent in 2024. By sales, the share was 56 percent in 2024. Kroger itself reported beating its weakened goal. It didn’t answer several of the paper’s emails, and a spokesperson said only that they had no comment.
Why the pressure is on Greg Foran.
Kroger appointed Foran on 9 February 2026. Before that he ran Air New Zealand, and before that he spent six years at the head of Walmart U.S., until 2019. That period includes Walmart’s 2016 announcement that all its eggs would be cage-free by 2025.
Animal Equality builds its campaign on that link. Walmart has since acknowledged in writing that it missed the goal. In fiscal 2026, 30.4 percent of Walmart U.S. shell egg sales were cage-free, and we found no new date there.
In fairness, Walmart admitted the gap in 2022, after Foran had left. Kroger’s retreat also dates from 2022, long before he arrived. Animal Equality says so too on a campaign page, while holding him responsible for what happens now. The group offers no source for its claim that he is the only executive in US grocery history with this record, so we don’t repeat it as fact.
How far the campaign has gone.
Animal Equality has been pushing for a while. On 23 September, activists chained themselves to the entrance of Kroger’s Cincinnati headquarters, and nine people were arrested. According to the group, nearly 60 more joined the demonstration. In October it turned to individual board members, even protesting in Dublin outside the office of another company where one of them holds his main job. The idea is to make it personal for the board.
Animal Equality speaks of up to 12 million hens a year kept in cages because of Kroger, each with the space of a sheet of paper. That figure comes from the group itself, and we found no independent source for it. It points to Ahold Delhaize and Target as counterexamples that, by its account, still intend to phase out cages.
The animal ethics angle.
A life without a cage makes a real difference to a hen. She can spread her wings, walk and scratch. That’s why holding companies to these pledges is right. Kroger itself asks cage-free suppliers to use open aviary systems and calls combination cages a transition tool.
The system behind it stays the same, though. Hens are bred for high laying rates and killed once they stop paying. Their brothers have no place in egg production. The cage is the most visible cruelty in a long chain, and “cage-free” on the carton ends only one link of it.
In Germany, too, the issue isn’t settled: most respondents in a 2026 animal welfare survey want to end cage farming.
What you can do.
If you shop at Kroger, Animal Equality’s action page offers a ready-made email to Foran. Wherever you live, your own shopping counts too: most recipes manage easily without eggs, and egg replacers cover much of the baking.
How we researched this
The trigger was Animal Equality’s action page. The group is a party to this dispute, and we’ve marked its figures and claims as such. We read Kroger’s 2022 animal welfare policy, Walmart’s sustainability page (fiscal 2026) and Kroger’s SEC filing on Foran’s appointment. Kroger’s shares for 2022 to 2024 come from the Louisville Courier Journal’s report of July 2026; we didn’t check each ESG report individually. We found no figures for 2025. Unit and sales shares aren’t comparable. We didn’t contact Kroger ourselves. We have no business relationship with Animal Equality, Kroger or Walmart.
Want our reporting to show up first in Google's Top Stories? Add This Is Vegan as a preferred source on Google.