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TechnoratiThe toy industry had its Tickle Me Elmo, the automakers the Prius and technology its iPhone. Now, the food world has its latest have-to-have-it product: the cage-free egg.
The eggs, from chickens raised in large, open barns instead of stacks of small wire cages, have become the latest addition to menus at universities, hotel chains like Omni and cafeterias at companies like Google. The Whole Foods supermarket chain sells nothing else, and even Burger King is getting in on the trend.
All that demand has meant a rush on cage-free eggs and headaches in corporate kitchens as big buyers learn there may not be enough to go around.
The Vermont ice cream maker Ben and Jerry's got plenty of attention last September when it became the first major food manufacturer to announce it would use only cage-free eggs that have been certified humane by an inspecting organization. But the company says it will need four years to complete the switch.
"It's not easy to find all the eggs you're looking for," said Rob Michalak, a spokesman for Ben and Jerry's. "The marketplace is one where the supply needs to increase with the demand."
The eggs can cost an extra 60 cents a dozen on the wholesale market. But most chicken farmers are not ripping out cages and retrofitting their barns. They question whether the birds are really better off, saying that keeping thousands of hens in tight quarters on the floor of a building can lead to hunger, disease and cannibalism. They also say that converting requires time, money and faith that the spike in demand is not just a fad.
"There is a lot of talk about cage-free, but are people actually buying them?" said Gene Gregory, president of the United Egg Producers. "I think the consumer walking into the grocery store sees cage-free and they cost two or three times more, and they don't buy them."
It takes about six months to build a cage-free operation from the ground up, including raising the chicks, said John Brunnquell, who owns Egg Innovations, based in Port Washington, Wis. The cost for a well-designed facility is about $30 a bird. Building a conventional operation with the stacks of cages known as batteries costs about $8 a bird, he said.
Converting to a cage-free operation can cost less than building anew, but it can still mean the loss of several months' income and the complexities that come with new methods.
A few years ago, about 2 percent of the 279 million laying hens in the United States were not confined to small cages, according to statistics from the United Egg Producers. Now that figure is closer to 5 percent.
Growing consumer concern with farm animal welfare and interest in local and sustainable agriculture have driven some of the popularity, but campaigns by animal rights activists have had a lot to do with it. The Humane Society of the United States began a campaign against battery cages in 2005, pressuring egg producers to improve conditions and companies to change their policies. Last week, the group took on Wendy's with a series of print and radio advertisements urging the company to follow Burger King's lead on eggs.
In a battery cage, the area allotted to each chicken is about the size of a laptop computer. Opponents say that in such small spaces, chickens cannot stretch their wings, roost or engage in other natural behaviors.
This year, the Humane Society convinced the chef Wolfgang Puck that cage-free chickens make better-tasting eggs. Although the look and taste of an egg are most affected by its age and the chicken's diet, many chefs believe that cage-free eggs are of higher quality. But not all cage-free eggs are equal.
Mr. Puck wants all of the eggs used in his $360 million food empire to come from cage-free chickens that have been certified by Humane Farm Animal Care, an organization that makes sure farmers treat chickens according to specific standards.
In 2003, Humane Farm Animal Care had two clients and had certified 192,997 chickens. Now, 14 egg companies have signed on, and the program covers 1.9 million chickens, said Adele Douglass, its executive director.
"There is more demand than supply right now," Ms. Douglass said. "But as far as I'm concerned, that is exactly what we want. We want consumer demand up."
At Whole Foods, shoppers have no trouble finding cage-free eggs, which are the company's minimum standard. But there are not always enough for the Whole Foods bakeries and kitchens, which have used only cage-free eggs since 2005, said Perry Abbenante, the company's national grocery coordinator. Whole Foods sometimes has to scale back the amount of prepared food and baked goods it makes.
Burger King announced a cage-free policy in March that would be phased in gradually, with the eggs accounting for 5 percent of its total by the end of the year. But even that modest goal may be difficult to fulfill, said Steve Grover, a company vice president.
"We knew there would be a supply crunch," Mr. Grover said. "We're going to be able to make our commitment this year, but we're going to have to watch that very carefully as we go forward."
Eggs labeled organic and free-range come from chickens with access to the outdoors. But most cage-free chickens never peck in a barnyard during their lives, which last from 12 to 18 months. The term "cage free" is lightly regulated. Companies get approval to use it on their labels through the Food Safety Inspection Service of the Agriculture Department, which does not actually inspect laying operations.
Egg producers say that going cage-free does not always mean the chickens are living the good life.
Many farms that use cages are well run with healthy chickens, said Marie Wheatley, president of the American Humane Association, whose certification program is popular with larger producers like Eggland's Best.
"It's not black and white," Ms. Wheatley said, "but the consumers think it is."
Officials at Notre Dame turned down a request by a campus animal rights group to switch to cage-free eggs after investigating the issue for six months.
The university, which serves 16,000 meals a day in its dining halls, visited both cage and cage-free operations, examining animal welfare, food safety, environmental impact, taste and other issues. Both operations they toured appeared to take equally good care of their chickens, said Jocie Antonelli, nutrition and safety manager.
The university decided that its current source of eggs, which uses a cage system, had the edge in food safety.
"There are pros and cons to each system," Ms. Antonelli said. "Either way, these are not free-roaming chickens living out in a pasture."
But to people pushing for change, getting rid of battery cages is a start.
"While cage-free certainly does not mean cruelty-free, it's a significant step in the right direction," said Paul Shapiro of the Humane Society.
© 2007 The New York Times
25 Comments so far
Show Allthe meatrix isn't an anti-meat toon.
it's anti factory farm. anti corporate owned farm.
http://www.poclad.org
(democratize your workplace. the only way your truly going to stop global warming. it's not something we can buy our way out of. let's not be delusional)
i eat chicken only sometimes on the chinese buffet when they don't have enough hot veggie dishes. lettuce just sucks. and other meat only when it is free.
while going veggie might have the most, immediate effect on global warming, the number one cause is still, as always the auto mobile engine. it's just going veggie is the most practical and most effective short term solution.
i don't know how to cook. what can i do. they do not teach this survival skill in school. so i eat cheese pizzas with fresh veggies chopped up on top.
besides, animals exist for their own reasons.
and chickens reason for existence is to be eaten by wolfs, dogs, humans, etc...
not everybody who read commondream.org is middle class-with their own homes and backyards to grow their own garden. although i recognize that is probably the case. there's a ton of us who live in apartments.
who can afford to take a journey to a far away fruit field? especially those of us who cannot afford a car.
We use pigeon eggs, have a large fock of Kings mixed with some Tumblers. The're allowed to go wherever they please, they always come home to be fed and roost for the night.
The roosts' are high off the ground and no skunks, cats or racoons can climb the greased poles. Their straw beds are changed weekly and are wonderful garden fertilizer. The eggs are about half the size of chicken eggs, but have a better flavor, about once a week we have four of the birds for dinner.
Yum-Yum Better than chicken, which actually has no flavor at all unless seasoned with battered bread crumbs and spiced sauces. That's why a lot of other meats, like frog legs and rattle snake for example are said to taste just like chicken.___ It's the spiced sauce being tasted. A half starved veggie can have the sauce on toast, tofu or fried eggplant, same thing, except no dead bird and no blood.
Quality of life for chickens lends to their flesh and their eggs a quality that anyone who has grown up on a small farm will immediately notice is missing from industrial-produced products. And this missing quality is not an esthetic je ne sais qua, it is an essential nutritional element, a taste. The human body discriminates among better and lesser quality food by means of taste.
The taste of a chicken's eggs and flesh is a direct translation of the environment from which it comes. A high quality of life translates into a high quality of nutrition and it tastes so much better.
Industrial food production is made necessary to support the huge masses of the human population. Small family farms can not supply the demand for human food especially for Our Way Of Life in the good ole USA where Wolfgang Puck can't satisfy demand as it is. Therefore agribusiness industrial production techniques become necessary. Mass production of chickens and eggs destroys the quality of life for the chickens. Chickens in an enclosed barn jammed together like Mahattanites at rush hour may be technically cage free, but one can't credit them with a good quality of life.
And here's some news Wolfgang: those so-called cage-free eggs really don't taste better.
Human overpopulation is largely to blame for the loss of animal quality of life and the consequent reduction in the quality of human nutrition. Vegetables, too, need a good quality of life ( which doesn't involve free-roaming, thank goodness ) which agri-business mass production also destroys with the accompanying loss of human nutritional value.
The problem with food quality is a problem of human overpopulation.
gandydancer,
Many home food preservers use sealing glass jars to pressure cook tomatoes, which can explode and scald. I witnessed such an accident that nearly killed a member of my family, and since there are safe alternatives, I advise avoiding food preservation which certainly kills vitamins in the process. Instead, a greenhouse with hotbeds in winter can provide fresh vegetables and herbs year round.
A quick note on pressure canning: There is nothing dangerous about pressure canning if it is done proberly. I have no idea where entelechy got that idea. The only way I can imagine that it could be dangerous would be if one would buy a used canner and the gauge would not be working properly. Years ago the county extension office used to do a free check for you but I doubt they do it anymore. If it were me and I was in doubt I would check it against a cooker that I knew worked properly.
I am a New Mexican and I own chickens.
Did you know that only one rooster is required to "service" 8-12 hens? Every spring half of all hatchlings are roosters. Do the math.
The following spring these roosters turn upon each other and fight to the death without training or prompting. They do not fight over food; they fight for the right to breed.
Usually the old established bird kills all the younger ones until the year when he becomes too old. These grueling fights last for days into weeks. Only the old rooster has spurs (yes naturally grown sharp spurs) long enough to kill more quickly and efficiently.
Metal spurs can only serve to hasten this Darwinian process and hence could be thought of as more humane.
I suppose that if I was brave enough, I could copone the roosters and kill them myself for the freezer. I raise chickens primarily for the eggs and the pleasure of tending them.
Having direct knowledge of the nature of these creatures, I am pro-cock fighting.
I do not attend the cock fights but I had the experience as a child. It is deeply a part of my culture. I suggest that unless you tend to a flock of your own and at least attend a cock fight that you can not possibly presume to judge my culture.
Gov. Richardson wants to put down this ancient New Mexican cultural activity for his own craven self-serving ends.
Do we “free†Americans really want MORE prohibitions placed upon the citizens. What are we going to throw MORE erstwhile productive citizens into the Prison Industrial meat-grinder?
Will I be arrested when my roosters turn upon each other in the Spring?
For you folks that buy your chicken in a bag, the way THAT chicken is tormented in mass produced industrial conditions should be against the law.
In outlawing cockfights all over the country, goody two shoe well intentioned short sighted meat eaters have relegated all breeding of chickens to the big factory farms.
The big corporate farms don't breed for beauty, strength or spirit. They are breeding passive slig meat.
Enjoy your slig meat grown in drawers.
The government has a stangelhold on the small famer- you sould have plenty of eggs, from local farms, but no-o-o-o-o. The agri-monsters want to rule the world. They support the very new, and very bad idea put forth by our agriculture department, which is to make all farms animals require a special tag- ostensibly to protect people, you know, so they can track potential disease outbreaks- but it will be the overcrowded, nasty agri-monsters with the outbreaks, not the healthy, small, American family farm. It will cost way too much for the tags- and HUGE fines for those who break the laws. We are talking about ALL farm animals, folks, even those who just want a few chickens pecking at the bugs in the barnyard. This isn't the only way they screw the small, family farms.
What about the fact that in many states, they have made it impossible for the small famre to raise animals and then process them on their own property- they say, if they sell ANY of the meat, they are then treated just like the big boys, and then have to have it processed somewhere else,- THEN, once it goes off the property (for processing), a big catch-22, they are subject to a whole host of requirments and restrictions, and treated as if they were Walmart. Does anyone remember, when they used to be able to go to a local farm which maybe had a little stand or even a small shop, and buy fresh butter, milk, eggs? Neighbors frequenting their local famers- that used to be part of the American way of life for many; no more. A beautiful way of life, killed by the government, to benefit the agri-monsters (oh, how I loathe them). I want that stuff BACK!
If we get a trigger-happy prez, woman or not, we will need to learn how to feed ourselves, perhaps by growing chickens and such after the dust settles.
Personally, I have been buying free-range chicken eggs and find that making a lemon meringue pie with the egg whites ensures a higher, fluffier meringue.
Caretaker,
Your lifestyle is beautiful in all aspects but one. Preserving foods at home is extremely dangerous if it involves pressure cooking. Instead, a greenhouse with hotbeds in Winter can produce food year round. As a boy my family once had 3.5 acres, which with garden, hen houses, nut and fruit trees fed us very well. But today, being a diet-conscious vegetarian is the best I can do, along with trying to spread the word.
The people who have said that so-called "cage free" chickens are little or no better off than caged birds are exactly right. We used to raise our own hens and once took an offer for free "year old laying hens". We just could not believe the conditions of the "hen house" when we picked them up--one actually would almost *prefer* a cage. And the hens, compared to our perky girls who were actually much older, looked more dead than alive. Their combs were pink, not healthy red like our hens, and they fell over to one side. Their legs were ghostly white, not yellow as they should be. They all had large areas where their feathers had been pecked off. Some of them had ruptured vents. In fact they looked so awful that when the first night came and they didn't know enough to go in the hen house I was afraid to touch them! But I called my farm raised neighbor friend and she came down and did it for me. Some died in a few days, but most of them perked up--I suppose they thought they had died...and gone to heaven!
Have you seen The Meatrix? The PLAY buttons are in the upper right hand quarter.
http://www.themeatrix.com/inside/
© 2007 The New York Times - keeping in mind the NYT basically sold us the Iraq war with trumpets horns and bugles!!!
There are 2 important pieces to this article;
"Eggs labeled organic and free-range come from chickens with access to the outdoors. But most cage-free chickens never peck in a barnyard during their lives, which last from 12 to 18 months. The term “cage free†is lightly regulated. Companies get approval to use it on their labels through the Food Safety Inspection Service of the Agriculture Department, which does not actually inspect laying operations."
The reality is that the USDA description of "cage free" simply means that a 1 foot square "gate" is opened for 2 weeks during the admittedly short life of 12 to 18 months of the chicken. One post mentions the roosters being toosed in grinders - this is what they put in pet food labeled as "mechanically seperated" or chicken "parts". What is missing is why the life span if a chicken is so short. Basically they are slaughtered as teens. chickens in "caged" facilities are de-beaked with pliers to prevent cannabalism and killing each other. The facts are very simple - overcrowding any of species leads to violent crimes.
“While cage-free certainly does not mean cruelty-free, it’s a significant step in the right direction,†said Paul Shapiro of the Humane Society.
The understatement of the article. If our grandfathers and their fathers saw how we raise our meat today they would scream out in protest.
Caretaker - I'll add one more thing to your list. Get to know a farmer and make a long-term commitment to buy their food. Better yet, start a small coop that can share the work of driving to the farm(s) and can offer a market to a farmer who wants to farm sustainably. Many know how, but few have a dependable market that will allow them to put a cow on pasture or let chickens run around outside. It costs a little more, but so what? Stop giving your money to the cable company or ATT.
I'll add that the S is about to hit the fan. If you don't own land, you better get your supply lines in place, and fast.
When I was a boy I worked on a chicken farm where I was required, among other odious tasks, to dispatch upside down chickens by severing the blood vessels in their necks. Yet, I could sing to them when at peace in the hen house and they gratefully settled down to listen. Thus forms our global paradox. When properly fed and cared for, chickens give us the healthy eggs we need for protein. Yet, the human lust for ever-growing wealth and power drives them to enslave all other animals, turn everything to profit and destroy the Earthly foundations of our own existence - a mad exersize in futility. I too am a vegetarian, but one of few in a World where omnicidal psychosis rules the World to its end.
Being or becoming a vegetatarian does not even begin to address the real issue which is this: most people are more interested in cable television, sports, golf, fishing, etc. than they are interested in what they put into their bodies as "food".
There are far greater amounts of poison residues on fruits and vegetables than in most meat and dairy products including those produced in "factory farm" environments.
Those who care about what they eat will continue to do as they have done for years:
1) plant a garden - all natural, organic, etc.
2) keep a few chickens - entirely free - no cages and confined to a pen only at night. THIS REQUIRES THAT NO POISONS WHATSOEVER BE USED ANYWHERE THE CHICKENS CAN ROAM. Three hens will easily provide more than 1 dozen eggs per week.
3) pick your own fruits and vegtables from natural and organic "pick your own" producers
4) use home canning and freezing to preserve food for months when it's not in season
5) patronize local producers you know and trust where you can learn how the food you eat is produced.
6) eat most meals at home or at the home of friends who have similar concerns
7) cook from scratch - no "hamgurger helper", etc.
8) make your own bread - and no, I don't like the bread that comes out of the automatic bread makers, but if you put in good ingredients, then that's OK
9) plant trees in your yard that produce good food - nuts, fruits, and berries - and please - no poisons on your yard!
10) pack your lunches from the above foods - not processed junk from the store.
We do all of the above "10 commandments of healthy eating" and have for all of my sixty years, while my wife and myself have raised a family and worked full time jobs almost the entire time we have been married. Recently my wife dropped back to 24 to 30 hours/week from 45 to 50 hours. I still work about 50 hours a week at my off-farm job. While we do have a small farm, none of the above requires a farm. The small flock of chickens might not be possible for city and suburban residents, but these days it's not hard to find a producer of truly free range, natural/organic eggs if you take the time to look.
With all this we still find time to read, serve in public office, serve in various roles in our local church, host picnics on our small farm, and even watch an hour or two of television several times a week. Not to mention spending time on the internet ...
This is the life style in which I was raised (except for the internet part, of cours). It's a good, healthy life style. But make no mistake - it is a life style.
Where can you find out how to do these things if you've never tried them? We like "Countryside and Small Stock Journal" - a magazine written entirely by its readers who actually do these things and offer advice born of first hand experience. Just Google it.
Happy eating!!
I have seen where those caged produced eggs come from. I avoid the grocery store aisle with eggs and dairy. It turns my stomach.
When you eat that stuff you are making connections with hens, the growers, the barns, the cages---and unspeakable lifelong pain.
If there were not growing billions of hungry, greedy people there would be no need for mass production of anything and all food could be raised in family and community gardens.
Right. Chickens will mercilessly pick each other (down to bare skin and sometimes death) in close proximity without barriers.
Anyone who has ever raised chickens knows that to get truly happy chickens, free range and low density are required. (Hmm, might this be true for most animals, including ... humans??)!
Given the price of eggs, producers need a second income to pay for the land required for raising happy chickens!
Cage free or not, they're still factory farm chickens. I like to eat animal products but I'll only consume them if I know they were humanely and sustainably raised. This means I rarely eat out and when I do I eat like a vegan. It can be done.
I don't know what the picture accompanying the article is supposed to imply.
The reason I opposed caged chickens is so that they didn't live in crowded inhumane conditions. The picture, which is supposedly cage free, is no better than 'caged' chickens. It is just a bigger cage.
Will make me rethink when I buy supposedly 'cage free' chicken eggs. When you go to a local organic store (as opposed to a chain like Whole Foods), I see them following not only the letter of the 'organic' law, but the intent, which is that the animals are treated in a humane manner.
This article, and the ones recently about Horizon 'organic' milk show that corporations have already subverted the organic label for their economic advantage at the expense of the people who are looking for wholesome, organic foods that are sustainable, healthy, and humane.
so it goes
Friendofvoltaire:
You are 100% correct; there are humane ways to get eggs from chickens, just as there are humane ways to raise cows for milk. People like your grandfather who raise eggs to sell, or people who have 10 cows on their small farm are all treated humanely, I am sure. But the fact of the matter is that none of you eat those "humane" eggs or "humane" dairy exclusively. How many times do you go to a friend's house and eat a piece of cake or some cookies made with store-bought factory farmed eggs and butter? How many times have you gone to a restaurant and eaten something from the menu with factory-farmed eggs or cheese? What about that cereal you buy? The whey in it came from factory-farmed cows. What about yogurt from the store? What about candy? What about pizza? Unfortunately the list really just goes on and on.
I ABSOLUTELY do not mean to belittle your wonderful efforts of eating humane eggs and dairy, but I must point out that you still consume factory-farmed goods in your daily lives and contribute to the inhumane practice you wish to change. Therefore, the most sensible solution is to completely forgo all animal products, unless you can guarantee that outside of those humane eggs and dairy you will eat NO other animal product.
They've had about ten varieties of free range barn eggs in the supermarkets such as Tesco, here in the UK, for years. They're far more popular than the battery hen variety.
I think shopppers generally prefer to pay extra for knowing the hens led a happy life pecking away at worms and bugs. They also taste a lot better, of course.
My grandfather raised chickens for eggs; they weren’t free range, but they weren't as crowded as those in the picture accompanying this article. There was a lot of floor space in the enclosures for the animals to walk around: thus no pecking problems. The result was eggs (brown from the Rhode Island Reds) with firm shells whose yolks did not burst at the slightest disturbance, in other words, healthy eggs from healthy chickens. Vegans can moan all they want about it, but there are humanitarian ways to raise animals for eggs and dairy. They don't yield the same profits to a money hungry world and are unlikely to be employed by large commercial outfits. The chickens Ben and Jerry's are getting eggs from hardly look like they are being raised in healthy conditions. So they are probably pumped full of antibiotics. But bedroom communities have plowed rural America into chic sublots, and we rely on large agribusiness because, frankly, there wouldn't be enough food for all of us without it. Not, at least, unless more of us are willing to raise our own food on a little plot of land -- plots which are becoming increasing expensive to buy. If we want an urban life-style on an over-populated planet, large, commercial operations will continue to have to provide us with food, much of it compromised by agricultural practices that increase profit, not healthfulness or decency toward animals. Welcome to capitalism and the commodification of everything.
Many of my friends have chickens. They let them out during the day to eat bugs and they sleep in the coop at night.
I think this is the more humane of the animal products, especially when they are “happy chickensâ€.
I don’t have chickens because raccoons and such find a way into the coop, so until I build a fortress for them, I’ll pass.
Yeah what a waste of resources and needless suffering-they dont mention that male chicks are tossed into a woodchipper. Or that chickens are starved to induce forced moulting so they can get a few more eggs out of them before being sent to slaughter. There was an author in the Uk who challenged people to live in battery cage conditions for a week--the constant sound was too much alone--the volunteers gave up after 12 hours.
And to think the answer is simple--dont eat em. i have been a vegan for 20 years--and I dont need eggs for any of my cooking.
I think they were put in cages to keep them from pecking each other to death. Then they started cutting off the beaks, another humane practice. I think with the increased demand for cage-free eggs there will probably be a market for chicken muzzles...
From a vegetarian : )