WATERLOO — Some would call Mike Morrice a good egg. There’s no doubt he’s a stand-up guy, but it isn’t his personality that spawned the reference.

His moniker is much more literal: Morrice recently convinced Laurier Food Services to switch to cage-free eggs.

“I fully realize this won’t change the world,” says Morrice. “But it’s a small first step to providing more sustainable food options and an excellent model for how students can engage administration in order to see tangible change on our campus.”

Morrice, along with fellow student Erica Campbell, approached Laurier’s Food Services Management Board with the idea in November after they learned about the plight of egg-industry hens.

A far cry from the Charlotte’s Web variety, egg-laying hens in many farms are crammed into tiny wire cages known as "battery" cages. Their resulting trauma ranges from physical injury to death.

Cage-free eggs, on the other hand, are produced by hens who roam freely inside large barns. Not only does this offer better living conditions for the hens, but it also lessens the negative environmental impact of ammonia gas emissions from battery-cage egg farms on the surrounding communities.

Morrice, poaching ideas from his double-degree in business and computing and computer electronics, presented a business case to the Food Services Management Board outlining the background, the benefits and the steps for implementing the change.

Food Services agreed, and soon hatched a plan to switch to cage-free eggs in the dining hall and Union Market by the winter term. By January 14, they had accepted their first delivery from current supplier, Burnbrae Farms.

“I was really impressed with how willing the administration was to make the change,” says Morrice, who worked with Food Services director Kelly Ough, director of Student Services Dan Dawson and WLUSU’s vice-president of university affairs, Lauren McNiven. “They were excited to see students passionate about an issue, and took the opportunity to make an ethical, sustainable decision.”

Although Morrice surveyed random Laurier students through an online Facebook poll to determine their willingness to shell out an extra 10 cents per egg (68 percent said yes), Food Services decided to cover the extra cost themselves.

Like most other universities who have made the change, cage-free eggs will be used for the 20 percent of foods that use whole shelled eggs, as opposed to the liquid eggs used to make other food products.

“We’re hoping to eventually make the change in liquid eggs as well,” says Morrice.

Laurier is among a small group of Canadian Universities that have switched to cage-free eggs.

But Canada is far behind. Only three percent of eggs sold in Canada are cage-free. There are already more than 100 universities in the U.S. serving cage-free eggs, and the European Union is cracking down on battery cages with a commitment to ban their use by 2012.

While the additional health benefits of cage-free eggs are undetermined, students can enjoy them with a lighter conscience, knowing that their choice has improved the welfare of some hens and upped the market demand for more responsible farming practices.

In another effort, Campbell will bring organic, locally grown food to the Laurier campus with the launch of the Laurier Farm Market. The market will include a range of food offerings from 12 local vendors, and will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Concourse on March 11, 25 and April 8.