The VFF’s newest vice-president is the youngest ever elected — and an experienced tightrope walker.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Born into a family whose main business is cage-laid eggs, Danyel Cucinotta has wrestled with public opinion and laws at the farm gate, in Canberra, and everywhere inbetween.
“We are waiting for the backlash,” Ms Cucinotta said a week after her election.
“At times I like to think I’m more than a caged egg farmer, but I know what emotions the subject brings up.”
How involved she is can be boiled down to one sentence: “I’m well versed in things like trespass laws.”
For Ms Cucinotta, 28, the argument for caged eggs comes down to two things: sustainability and cost.
In her opinion a good caged egg production system gives more nutritional eggs, lowers fear and injury on the hens and does it all with a smaller environmental impact.
It’s that old chestnut: "If the whole world ate free-range, organic and grass-fed, then millions would starve.”
An interesting example of cage system advantages occurred in November when South Korea banned all free-range chicken and duck operations until early 2021 because of an avian influenza outbreak.
Free-range poultry are at higher risk of disease and parasites because they mingle with wild birds and their droppings.
South Korea's environment ministry estimated some 950,000 migratory birds arrived in the country that month, bringing with them new strains of the deadly disease.
An issue like this carries even more weight in 2020, where economies have been shut down because an animal-carried disease jumped to humans.
“While caged eggs are a controversial subject, sustainability and affordability is also important,” Ms Cucinotta said.
“Especially now with the pandemic. Caged eggs are selling like no tomorrow because people have less money to feed their families.”
Ms Cucinotta’s grandparents fled famine and war when they left Cyprus in 1949 and 1951 before meeting in Australia.
Irfan (John) Ahmed worked as a truck driver while Aliye (Julie) Ramadan cared for their two sons and managed a backyard farm.
“My grandmother started it as a hobby farm for herself while she raised her two boys,” Ms Cucinotta said.
“There wasn’t enough food on Cyprus to sustain the island, and the idea here was the farm would feed the family rather than produce an income.”
Eventually the 1500-bird caged and free range egg farm in Glenroy was producing enough of a profit to not only pay for itself, but support the family as well.
Mr Ahmed left truck driving to support his wife’s surprise business success and the family hasn’t looked back.
When a growing Melbourne started swallowing the farm, the family moved to Werribee.
L.T’s Egg Farm offers cage-laid and free-range eggs with the same amount of dedication to feeding the thriving mass of people which make up Australia’s second largest city as the farm originally had for the survival of Ms Cucinotta's grandparents and their children.
If everyone in Melbourne ate one egg a week, they’d be eating 20 million eggs per month.
Rather than hiding behind trading names and strictly policing entrance to the egg farm, the family has done the polar opposite.
There is an on-farm deli and fresh food outlet, which remains a popular stop for locals.
“I do believe when people come here they feel they get to know us and have that point of call if any welfare issues are raised,” Ms Cucinotta said.
“My biggest standpoint is animal husbandry and welfare. How do you know it’s being done right if you’re not the one there doing it?”
Ms Cucinotta thinks the direct connection customers get to the farmer is why so many people are happy to buy L.T’s Egg Farm's cage-laid eggs when they wouldn’t buy them in the supermarket.
“We don’t sell to the supermarkets,” she said.
“We got out of that game a long time ago when the margins kept shrinking.”
The family also fills wholesale orders, selling direct to commercial customers.
As a fresh-faced VFF vice-president, Ms Cucinotta promised she would not pretend to know everything.
“I’ve never actually been personally involved in (northern Victoria) stuff like the rail and water, but I invite any farmer who wants to teach me to call,” she said.
“If you’re a VFF member you should have access to my details.”
Ms Cucinotta also works with Egg Farmers Australia and has helped the Victorian Government in its Animal Welfare Code reviews alongside other legal advisory work.
Journalist