Tag: Organic Eggs

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Egg Production – Part 2

Researchers are apparently going to research whether chickens are happy in cages or not?  Sadly, I think that Benjamin Franklin was right when he said, “nothing is more uncommon than common sense.” I have raised chickens and they do like to keep close quarters, but only when they are Roosting (sleeping), not all the time.  I also know that chickens love being chickens. They are created to scratch and eat bugs. 

So we, the tax payers, are going to pay a researcher at some university to study if the chickens are really happy in cages or not!  I can save us a lot of money and answer the question.  The answer is quite obvious, the chicken is not happy.  Sadly, the research is not about chickens, it is about egg production.  If we respected the design and nature of a chicken, it would be easy to conclude  they are not happy.  Chickens wouldn’t choose to live in a cage with 9 other birds, never seeing the light of day, never being able to stretch their wings and never scratching for some delicious bug!  Organic and cage free chickens get to live more like they were created.

Join the good food revolution, vote with your dollars.

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Egg Production – Part 1

Something happened along the way that has changed agriculture from farming to food production.  It is a subtle shift, but nonetheless profound and impactful.  Farmers have always been interested in increased production and efficiencies.  Farming is like all other business, you have to have a profit to stay in business or in the language of today “sustainable.”

Let’s take egg production as an example.  94% plus or minus, as quoted in a recent Capital Press article, comes from chickens that live in a 24 inch by 25.5 inch cage that contains 9 chickens.  Doesn’t that seem a bit crowded? Somewhere in the past a researcher or farmer or both discovered that chickens can produce eggs in close confinement, never seeing the light of day. It doesn’t really matter if the chickens see the light of day because they are destined for the stew pot at some massive soup manufacturer in 24 months anyway. 

But why does the egg producing industry (I have purposely shifted from using term farming) choose small cages?  It is simple, it’s more efficient.  The closer the birds are in proximity to each other, the easier it is to harvest eggs, feed them, clean up after their messes and ultimately catch them when it is time to butcher.  Pretty straight forward and the consumers are letting the egg producers continue on with this production model simply because they are buying the eggs raised that way.

So why should the Egg producers change their manufacturing (farming?) practices?

What is going to cause the industry to change?  Profits!!! If the consumers choose to only buy eggs from chickens that are cage free or Organic then the egg producing companies will change their practices.  Pretty strait forward, it really is that simple.

Join the good food revolution, vote with your dollars.