Food ethics is becoming big business in America, an influence of our affluence. When you are worried about where your next meal is coming from, well, you just don’t worry so much about how it came to be. Vegetarian and vegan cuisine have been with us for some time, growing in market share enough to receive at least tokenary service in even national chain restaurants. Now, to satisfy the food conscience of even those who have a taste for meat, the terms “organic,” “pastured,” and “free range” are beginning to appear even in Walmart.
But these terms don’t always mean what people think they mean, and some producers are taking advantage of ambiguities in the law to attract a market willing to pay top dollar to ease their conscience.
Recently, I was looking through our grocer’s egg case, trying to get an idea for how much we might be able to sell our eggs for. The highest priced eggs there cost twice as much as the eggs we normally buy and for only half a dozen. “Some egg,” I thought. And read the label.
It had such feel good phrases on it as “100% organic,” “cage free” and “Fed a 100% vegetarian diet.” And then I knew. They were taking advantage of this socially conscious market, selling them a product that isn’t quite what they think it is.
See, “cage free” simply means “raised in a large shed with a thousand birds on the floor and no outdoor access.” If there were, they’d claim “pastured” or “free range.” Being that chickens can be aggressive when kept in close confinement, I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire flock had its beaks trimmed to prevent pecking.
And vegetarian? That’s like raising your dog on a vegetarian diet, though I’ve heard their are people who try to do that as well. Chickens are omnivores and are happiest chasing after crickets and earthworms. Restricting their diets to suit our dietary preferences is not really fair to the chicken. It also proves that these birds have no outdoor access, even if not confined to cages. If allowed outside, they would enthusiastically chase every thing that moved.
I commend the market for its increasing diversity, with greater choices appearing regularly. But think about the labels for a moment, especially if you are paying higher prices for goods based on the promises it makes.
Dana Hanley is a homeschooling mother of five, living out her dreams on a small acreage in the country. You can learn more of her family’s adventure at Roscommon Acres, as well as her chicken adventures.
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Sam Pierce on March 6th, 2010
1
I had never considered what some of these “feel good” labels might encompass. I don’t look for such when making a purchase, but it is interesting to think about how many people might be paying more because of what they interpret the label to say.
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Chad T. Everson on March 8th, 2010
2
LOL! It is amazing! I have about 45 chickens mostly rare breeds but we love them and interbreed them to attempt to find that much lusted after….The Raku Chicken! We have geese and ducks and honestly, we have so damn many eggs that many go to waste. We try to utilize all we can but even though the egg can be made a thousand different ways, it is hard to eat them over and over again even though they are the crem da la creme of eggs. Rare Breed, free range, and anything other label you want to throw on them. We even feed them flax seed to get great amino acids in our eggs and manipulate their feed and change it up through the year depending if they are beak deep in insects and worms or holding close to the coop like they have been this last three months.
Conservation is essential and I applaud the capitalists that are ripping off the yuppie Socialist Squirrels but I just don’t have the stomach for it. I can’t hold my nose and play the Socialist Squirrel nut games.
However, it is truly prosperity when the golden eggs go to my egg suck’n dog and the hens that love to chase each other around my backyard as they love the calcium in their own egg shells. Go figure!
Vegitarian Chickens? Dana that is a new one! I don’t go that far! Those damn Chickens will eat everything and anything: Mice, snakes, gecko’s, salamanders, insects, road kill, each other, if I fell and cracked my head you know damn well they would be sampling the delicious morsel of grey matter before I could wake up! They are nasty little feather and beaked beggars!
I love them, but if you really want to understand how to manage people, get a coop of chickens.
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Dana on March 12th, 2010
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Yeah, they can be quite the little hunters. I don’t get into the labels too much (I like our chickens because I know they’re happy!), but I’d never buy eggs from a chicken restricted to a vegetarian diet.
That is a human choice we all have every right to make, but we can’t impose that on animals which aren’t built for it.
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