Slaugherhouse

[Aroura]

A common practice, for example is to time the feeders with the doors.  Presenting the hens with a choice.  I wouldn't call it a pipe dream...it's just that industry reps took control of the NOP process in the vacuum created by various ideological groups infighting as to what was to become the standards.

ARg, and after reading this, it does seem like large companies still find ways to completely cheat and never even let them have access to REAL outside. Sigh. 
http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2...-industry/

“After the big guys got into organic production using porches, more and more of the organic egg market was coming from birds that never went outside,” says Dena Jones, who directs the farm animal program at the Animal Welfare Institute. “If you ask any organic consumer, nobody would think of a porch as being outdoor access. It just wasn’t what the consumer expects.”

The new rules say that “outdoor access” means there’s no solid roof overhead and that half of the ground surface should be dirt that chickens can scratch and “bathe” in. Those requirements are more in line with the organic standards of the US’s biggest agricultural trading partners, including Canada and the European Union.
“They have much higher standards,” Jones said. “Theirs is more like a true pasture-based approach, but this brings us much closer.”
Of the roughly 12 million organic laying hens in the country, only about six million actually go outside, according to John Brunnquell, president of the Organic Egg Farmers of America, who also heads up Egg Innovations, one of the largest organic egg producers in the US.  Brunnquell explained that his birds all have true access to the outdoors. “What we see is that when you let the chickens be chickens, they live a long, healthy lives and lay a lot of eggs,” he says.

Of course it seems like these changes went into effect a couple of years ago, so even after readign this I'm unsure if Organic egg laying hens have to have real yard access or not.
 I don't know. Yet again, it seems like the ONLY option for consumers concerned with animals welfare is to not buy animal products (or severely limit it).