Klerifying Facts:
The Leghorn Chicken is the most common bread of hen in the USA. Each hen typically lays 280 eggs per year! Combined the American egg industry lays over 108 billion eggs per annum. That’s a lot of omelets.
An Eggsellent Way to Start Your Day
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. So why not start your day with ethically, sustainably produced eggs?!
After all, eggs pack a huge protein punch with essential, complete amino acids to power you through your day, or help recover from that A.M. gym session.
Pasture raised, free range, and Organic labelled eggs are the best way to make a positive contribution to a better world each morning. Pasture raised and Organic are preferred. We know, however, that you can’t always find these. Additionally, cold weather in many states prevents raising pasture raised hens. Eggs with these labels are typically:
More nutritious
From hens that are well treated
Protect nature and the Earth using fewer or no polluting pesticides and fertilizers
Help farmers make a better living
We recommend the following ethical, sustainable brands:
Organic Valley Eggs
Philz Pasture Raised Organic
Vital Farms Pasture Raised Organic
Kirkland Organic Eggs (at Costco)
Read on to find out why we recommend these brands…
Pasture raised and Organic is better for the Environment and your HEALTH!
Studies show that pasture raised hens produce eggs with better levels of macro and micro nutrients – less cholesterol and more vitamins for you! Typically eggs are more nutritious when they have a rich orange or gold color yolk.
On top of the health benefits from these eggs produced by better treated hens you help protect the environment.
Eggstra Cheap means Eggstra Bad Impact
The really cheap eggs at the store typically come from large, unsustainable egg operations create public health problems. The giant egg factory farms pollute the air with harmful ammonia that can cause early death and respiratory problems. Additionally, the amount of chicken manure leaches into the water ways to harm fish, the ecosystem, and our drinking water!
The corn and soy fed to these hens require a lot of pesticides and fertilizers. This feed crop production causes significant water pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, and harm to nature. Buying pasture raised and organic eggs when possible makes a positive impact on the environment by promoting sustainable farming.
Don’t you feel better eggscerising daily?
So it stands to reason that chickens feel better when they can move around. Pasture raised and free-range eggs have more room to roam about. Eggs that are on pasture can hunt fortheir food and behave naturally. Chickens are highly intelligent creatures and deserve a quality lifestyle like you and me. Happier hens produce better eggs, it’s pretty logical.
Check out this video from Vital Farms to inspire you to buy sustainable, ethical eggs:
They call them battery cages for a reason…
Chickens are highly intelligent animals that can outperform dogs and cats (your dear pets) at cognitive tests. Sadly, 95% of all chickens that lay eggs in the US are produced in conditions that are horrendous to hens. The majority of eggs are produced on farms that raise hens in “battery cages” which are so small the hens have about the size of a sheet of paper to stand on for their entire lives. Does that sound like a good life for a creature that produces food for you?
This lifestyle causes severe mental anguish to hens. For about two years, hens inhabit battery cages that are so small, they cannot behave naturally, suffer severe injury, and are significantly stressed. Do you want that treatment to be served on your plate? There’s nothing like starting your day with eggs from mentally and physically battered chickens.
Better EGG-Onomics
When you go to the store eggs, make up a weekly purchase and cost very little, especially when you think about the total amount you spend on groceries versus everything else in life.
Egg farmers in general have a tough business. There is little margin for error to make a living raising hens and keeping them healthy for you to enjoy an over easy breakfast. Even farmers who raise the really cheap, unethical eggs, they are subject to the whims and control of a large corporation that typically controls everything about the hen laying operations.
You can, help farmers treat the hens well, by rewarding proactive, sustainable farmers who treat their hens ethically and show it with credible labels on their egg cartons.
$5-$7 for a dozen eggs might seem crazy. But you’re paying for eggs that are more nutritious, provide farmers a better livelihood (i.e. they’re not going broke), and the hens are treated and eat sustainable meals. What is the price you’re willing to pay for your ethical eating?
Don’t Get Scrambled by those Labels, We Crack their Code for you…
Now that we’ve convinced you to pay attention to your egg choice, we will help you decode the labels. Egg cartons are notorious for having a lot of different and sometimes misleading labels. The important labels to look for are:
USDA Organic
Pasture Raised
Certified Humane
Animal Welfare Approved
Cage Free
Free Range
These are good guidelines to reduce pesticide use, chemical fertilizer application, and assure that the hens are treated better than those that are inhumanely treated to produce most of our eggs in battery cages.
YOU Can Make the Choice to Buy The MARVELOUS, ETHICAL EGG!
Follow this Sustainable Buying Guide:
Green:
Vital Farms Organic – (https://vitalfarms.com/find-pasture-raised-eggs-and-butter/)
Phil’s Pasture Raised Organic – (https://www.philsfresheggs.com/where-to-buy)
Phil’s Free Range Organic – (https://www.philsfresheggs.com/where-to-buy)
Kirkland Organic (at Costco)
Yellow
Phil’s Cage Free, Certified Humane
Nellie’s Free Range – (https://nelliesfreerange.com/buy/)
Red Brands:
Eggland’s Best
Land O’Lakes
Regular, cheap store brands
We did not make this up...
http://www.poultryscience.org/docs/ps_877.pdf
https://www.motherearthnews.com/real-food/free-range-eggs-zmaz07onzgoe
http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/amino-acids-egg-whites-2688.html
http://extension.uga.edu/publications/detail.html?number=B1214
http://cherthollowfarm.com/2012/01/economics-of-small-farm-pastured-eggs/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-friedrich/eggs-from-caged-hens_b_2458525.html
http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/7/1/706/htm
https://www.coursera.org/learn/chickens/lecture/UD1Wi/egg-production-free-range
http://ufdcimages.uflib.ufl.edu/IR/00/00/30/35/00001/PS04700.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4880845/
http://www.humanesociety.org/assets/pdfs/farm/mortality_cage_free.pdf
http://www.aeb.org/farmers-and-marketers/industry-overview
https://www.purelypoultry.com/white-leghorn-chickens-p-467.html
http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/usda/current/PoulProdVa/PoulProdVa-04-28-2017.pdf
Photo of Battery Cage system:
By Secretaria de Agricultura e Abastecimento do Estado de São Paulo Agriculturasp [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
