Free range

Free range is a method of farming husbandry where the animals are permitted to roam freely instead of being contained in any manner. The principle is to allow the animals as much freedom as possible, to live out their instinctual behaviours in a reasonably natural way, regardless of whether or not they are eventually killed for meat. In practice, there are few regulations imposed on what can be called "free range," and the term may be used misleadingly to imply that the animal product has been produced more humanely than it actually has been. One of the many benefits of free-range animals is for some rudimentary insect population control in the free-range area.

Free range may apply to meat, eggs or dairy farming.

In ranching, free-range livestock are permitted to roam without being fenced in, as opposed to fenced-in pastures. In many of the agriculture based economies, free-range livestock are quite common. Some animals like the goat will only thrive on a free-range diet.

Salmonella infection rate in free-range and organic chickens have been found to be comparable to those produced in typical poultry production houses. This is because the USDA Organic standard is not strict enough to require sanitary conditions in poultry production. For example, there is no requirement that the chickens are ever on pasture, where they would benefit from exposure to fresh air, sunlight, insects, and chlorophyll in the pasture plants.

United States
Traditional American usage equates "free-range" with "unfenced," and with the implication that there was no herdsman keeping them together or managing them in any way. Legally, a free-range jurisdiction allowed livestock (perhaps only of a few named species) to run free, and the owner was not liable for any damage they caused. In such jurisdictions, people who wished to avoid damage by livestock had to fence them out; in others, the owners had to fence them in. .

In recent years, with the days of free-range cattle mostly behind us, neither the presence of a "legal fence" surrounding the farm nor the pros and cons of old-time free-range ranching are the main points of interest. Instead, the term "free range" is used colloquially to mean something on the order of, "low stocking density," "pasture-raised," "grass-fed," "old-fashioned," "humanely raised," etc. In poultrykeeping, "Free range" is widely confused with yarding, which means keeping poultry in fenced yards. In reality, the two methods have little in common.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture requires that chickens raised for their meat have access to the outdoors in order to receive the free-range certification. Free-range chicken eggs, however, have no legal definition in the United States. Likewise, free-range egg producers have no common standard on what the term means. Many egg farmers sell their eggs as free range merely because their cages are 2 or 3 inches above average size, or there is a window in the shed.

The USDA has no specific definition for "free-range" beef, pork, and other non-poultry products. All USDA definitions of "free-range" refer specifically to poultry. No other criteria-such as the size of the range or the amount of space given to each animal-are required before beef, lamb, and pork can be called "free-range". Claims and labeling using "free range" are therefore unregulated. The USDA relies "upon producer testimonials to support the accuracy of these claims."

In a December 30, 2002 Federal Register notice and request for comments (67 Fed. Reg. 79552), USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service proposed "minimum requirements for livestock and meat industry production/marketing claims". Many industry claim categories are included in the notice, including breed claims, antibiotic claims, and grain fed claims. "Free Range, Free Roaming, or Pasture Raised" would be defined as "livestock that have had continuous and unconfined access to pasture throughout their life cycle" with an exception for swine ("continuous access to pasture for at least 80% of their production cycle"). This proposed rulemaking is still in play. In a May 12, 2006 Federal Register notice (71 Fed. Reg. 27662), the agency presented a summary and its responses to comments received in the 2002 notice, but only for the category "grass (forage) fed" which the agency stated was to be a category separate from "free range". Comments received for other categories, including "free range," are to be published in future Federal Register editions.

The broadness of "free range" in the U.S. has caused some people to look for alternative terms. "Pastured poultry" is a term promoted by farmer/author Joel Salatin for broiler chickens raised on grass pasture for all of their lives except for the initial brooding period. The Pastured Poultry concept is promoted by the American Pastured Poultry Producers' Association (APPPA) , an organization of farmers raising their poultry using Salatin's principles.

Alternative terminology is also used to make high-density confinement sound more palatable. For example: cage-free,  free-running, free-roaming, naturally nested, etc. are used as an alternative to the technical term, high-density floor confinement. Whether high-density floor confinement is more humane than high-density cage confinement is arguable, but in any event high-density confinement (of whatever type) is the antithesis of free range.

European Union
The European Union regulates marketing standards for egg farming which specifies a minimum condition for Free-Range Eggs states that hens have continuous daytime access to open-air runs, except in the case of temporary restrictions imposed by veterinary authorities.

United Kingdom
In the UK, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says that a free-range chicken must have daytime access to open-air runs during at least half of their life. Unlike in the United States, this definition also applies to eggs.

Japan
Jidori (地鶏) are chickens required by law to be at least 50 percent genetically indigenous to Japan. Jidori older than 28 days must also be allowed to roam in a pasture in which there is at least 1m² of land for every 10 chickens. (ja:地鶏)