"Ben and Jerry's has always stood for progressive practices," CEO Walt Freese said Tuesday. "We have long-standing support for small family farms. When this issue was brought to our attention by the Humane Society, they provided information to us we previously didn't have."

We weren't sure what Wegmans was going to do when they saw our footage from their farm. It didn't work out like we had hoped. They say that some day they may consider cage-free production, but they continue their use of battery cages. We're glad they have a welfare expert now, and maybe they'll take her private recommendations seriously. Yet they still use a system designed so animals can't even walk for their entire adult lives. That isn't humane by any stretch of the term, and most customers don't like to think that Wegmans intentionally keeps animals in those conditions.

Ben and Jerry's quickly came to the realization that battery cage production was something they couldn't support. They didn't just demand better standards - they rejected the system entirely.

"The closer we got to the issue, the more we realized how complex it was. It required us to move beyond our own expertise. We received substantive input from a variety of experts and resources, all of which helped us to arrive at our decision," said Ben & Jerry's spokesman Rob Michalak.

We're glad to see Ben and Jerry's join the growing list of retailers that reject this cruel system animal agriculture. This is a huge win for humane consumers and the animals who produce our food. We can't wait for Wegmans to do the same.