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Egg Recall Drives Worried Customers to Farmers Markets
Small egg farms across the U.S. report selling out as recall grows
Jackie Dearing of Bloomington, Ill., sold all of her 50 dozen eggs at the local farmers market on Saturday, including carton after carton to new customers worried about a large and growing salmonella scare linked to millions of grocery store eggs.
"Almost everybody who came to our booth mentioned it," said Dearing,
whose family runs Dearing Country Farms, a small-scale meat and poultry
business. "Anytime something like this happens, people think a lot more
about where their food comes from."
As a recall of more than 550 million eggs tied to two industrial manufacturers widens , small egg farmers across the United States are echoing Dearing's experience. Sales of eggs at farmers markets, co-operatives and roadside stands reportedly spiked over the weekend as news of the outbreak linked to at least 1,300 illnesses reached shoppers.
"I think this is the consumer's way of saying, ‘Until this blows over, I'll get my eggs from another source,'" said Susan S. Joy, general manager of the Nebraska Poultry Industries, an agency based in Lincoln, Neb., that represents all branches of the turkey and egg industry including both small growers and large farms.
At a farmer's market in Redmond, Wash., Sue Martinell of Sky Valley Family Farm sold out of 80 dozen chicken eggs on Saturday, leaving only duck eggs to buy.
Customers lined up for eggs at stalls at the Inner Sunset Farmers Market in San Francisco from the time the market opened until they sold out, said Elizabeth Howe, regional manager of the Pacific Coast Farmer's Market Association.
"People are realizing that it's not the safest decision to buy eggs shipped from huge factory farms in the Midwest, where traceability and accountability is limited," she said. "At the farmers' market, you can shake the hand of the farmer who collected your egg that morning and I think that is much more reassuring."
Across the country, in Arlington, Minn., customers at Bar-5-Meat and Poultry wiped out a supply of 165 dozen eggs by 11 a.m., said owner John Wemeier.
"Instead of buying one dozen eggs they were buying two dozen to three dozen," he said. "It looked to me like they were kind of stocking up."
It's a trend that could well increase as federal officials struggle to identify the source and scope of the massive recall. U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg on Monday said that it could take weeks or months to complete investigations now centering on two Iowa farms, Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms. The firms share suppliers of chickens and feed as well as ties to an Iowa business with a history of violations.
In the meantime, mom-and-pop producers could step in, said Karen Blakeslee, a food scientist with the Kansas State University Research and Extension Service.
"This is making consumers more leery of what's happening with the big manufacturers," Blakeslee said. "I think the small farmers are really going to pick up business."
At least one official with the egg industry cautioned consumers to put the issue in perspective. Krista Eberle, director of food safety programs for the Egg Safety Center and the United Egg Producers, said that the recall of 550 million eggs affects only a fraction of the 80 billion eggs produced in the U.S. each year.
"It may seem like a lot of eggs, but it's actually less than 1 percent," said Eberle, noting that non-recalled eggs are safe to eat.
That argument might not sit well with shoppers like those who flocked to buy eggs at the Willy Street Co-op in Madison, Wis., said Lyn Olson, director of the store's cooperative services.
"Over and over I heard, ‘Thank God I already buy organic.'"
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18 Comments so far
Show AllThe best way to get eggs is to have your own layers. Chicken coops are easy to erect and a small number of hens - even as few as six - will produce all of the eggs any family can eat.
If you can't have hens in your yard (or don't have a yard) then find local suppliers as the article describes.
Also, the argument that these sources cannot meet the need for eggs is nonsense. If the demand for locally produced eggs increases then more local farmers will buy hens.
q
PS Yes, I know that you'll need a rooster, too. You'll get used to the crowing.
Actually you do not need a rooster. If you have one he will help protect the hens and keep the peace among them. But the hens will lay without him. Some claim the eggs taste better if there is a rooster, but I cannot confirm or deny this claim. What I can attest to is that the eggs you get fresh will taste a lot better than the three to four week old eggs that you buy at the large grocery store. And, better still, the eggs you get from your chickens do not have to be cooked to be safe to eat.
I'm just going by what I've heard several folks say. They claim that they get more and - as you point out - better eggs when they have a rooster.
q
Do eggs without a rooster's "input" have the white things on the yolks? And do you suppose eggs with a rooster's "input" have more protein, and it's that added protein that makes them better?
My big question is this - how safe is the prepared food in the stores that was made with eggs from the factory with all the recalled eggs? Eggs I buy from the stores have been making me sick for years, just like the strawberries I buy there. I have to cook them well before I can eat them, and I can only eat hard boiled eggs or ones that are scrambled to death.
Ah yes, roosters. Back when I lived in CT our neighbors had chickens and a rooster. His land ran behind our house enabling him to put his chickens about 200 feet behind the master bedroom in OUR house, and conveniently beyond ear shot of his place. To keep the chickens happy and cool he kept the coop door open, which again pointed directly at our bedroom. This in effect created a giant rooster sub woofer, no make that a giant rooster amphitheater.
At the time I got up pretty early for work, around 4:30 to 5 AM, but this did me no good because Mr. Rooster was apparently an acute insomniac and would start crowing anywhere between 1 and 3 AM on most days. Until the critter finally woke me up, I would subconsciously try to work his crows into my dreams. This would sometimes result in the people in my dreams crowing at me when they talked. A wee bit amusing or disturbing depending on who the character was in my dream.
It was the first time in my life I actually fantasized about going "medieval" on a farm animal, but I finally came to my senses and explained the situation to my neighbor and the rooster went bye-bye.
Well, You don't need a rooster to get eggs - hens will lay eggs without a rooster - but if you want fertile eggs, perchance to raise more chickens, then you must have a rooster. Just like us.
One does get used to the crowing, but sometimes neighbors don't. Just offer them some free eggs and don't let the rooster out until after 7am when everyone should be up and about and all will be well.
Google chicken hatcheries and you'll get lots of choices. Get a breed that's rare or in danger of dying out - they're all beautiful - instead of the standard lay as many eggs as you can and die early sex links chickens.
They're fun and surprisingly intelligent - good pets, too, for kids. They'll lay for years and when they get too old you can either eat them or keep them as pets because they've done you so much good over the years.
Most towns will allow some chickens - some don't allow roosters so you have to either change the law or do as the law requires...........or move to a little chunk of land where you can also grow some or all of your own food.
My son and daughter-in-law have a couple of Araucanas. They lay green eggs.
q
What about the ham? :-)
This recall is precisely why we bought chickens this spring.
5 hens who have just started laying.
We are now collecting the $30 eggs...........(see the $64 tomato for accounting practices)
Hopefully they will come down in price.
Also bug and weed control for the yard , high nitrogen for the compost pile.
The freshest most natural eggs you will eat from very happy chickens
Same here at our local farmers market. Eggs, peaches, corn, and tomatoes are the big sellers. Grass fed beef and free range poultry are also popular. Smart people are turning away from industrial ag products. Locally grown is fresh and safe. Plus, people enjoy getting out in the morning in a colorful environment that is filled with like minded people. Socially, it's a place that people enjoy being a part of. Our market is in a park next to a river and people enjoy the location too. There is no comparison.
Where I am in NC there are lots of local farms. This year I picked my own blueberries and peaches. We even have a local farm that grows hydroponic tomatoes all winter. They are delicious and give a nice taste of summer in the middle of winter because they are picked ripe, not like the ones in the store that are picked green and then artificially ripened after being shipped a thousand plus miles.
Organic is the only way to go, IMO. The extra attention paid to the production assures clean, tasty food.
Industrial farms are the equivalent to BP. Messy, dirty, and poorly regulated.
not to mention the undue suffering to the hapless creatures.................
i hope they all go out of business........................
BUY LOCAL
In your urban city, support an ordinance to allow homeowners to keep up to five hens and no roosters.
I once lived in a 3-family with a pit bull upstairs who terrorized four burglars. The dog was also menacing to me (at first) and once he almost got my cat. A current neighbor has a huge box turtle. I've heard of people who have huge Burmese pythons that get loose, escape down through the toilet bowl, eat rats in the sewer, then pop up out of some other person's toilet bowl when they flush because the poor python can't breathe during the flush.
Chickens are nothing compared to pit bulls. And, at least you'll know if your eggs are raised with safe chicken feeds (or local bugs) and not raised in plague-inducing conditions.
I try to buy local also. I have learned to get local eggs, milk and chicken. The chickens are really tasty. Local fruit & veggies, etc. Salmon from AK. I shop at the quality grocery store in my town and watch for sales.
I won't be buying any Gulf seafood for the rest of my lifetime. I had a Marie Callender's chicken pot pie recently and could taste the sodium in my mouth the next morning! I just don't trust our food.
Interesting to see how others handle things: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/business/25vaccine.html?src=busln
I'm one of those local organic farmers,and I appreciate the positive comments and support. Just a word of caution,though. There have been incidents of contamination of various products on both large and small organic farms. There is no guarantee of an absolutely perfectly safe food system.
Yes, but salmonella is endemic in the industrial factory farms, due to the filthy and inhumane conditions, so the chance of food borne illness is five times higher in the battery cage production model than in the organic free range models.