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Sat 17 Aug, 2013 08:33 pm
Out of sheer boredom, I was reading the label on a jar of Hellman's Lite mayo. I noticed in small print that the mayo was made with cage free eggs. What exactly are cage free eggs? I know about free range chickens and grass fed cattle, but isn't it more important that the eggs are refrigerated. Can you even tell the difference between cage free v caged eggs? I would call the phone number, but my Spanish is not very good anymore.
It's pretty grim if you accept what this link has:
http://www.humanemyth.org/cagefree.htm
@Kolyo,
But they didn't call it free range, they called it cage free. Eddie, I'm afraid to view your link. I won't be able to sleep.
@Kolyo,
Eggs don't have wings.
I have to fess up, I do know what they are trying to say. I'd bet somebody coined the term "cage free eggs" because it has fewer letters than "free range . That would mean the cost to print the label would be lower. It's all about saving money and higher profits. When I first heard the term free range, I had no idea that chicken farms raised their chicken in such a horrible way. I actually am a little worried that it could be overused like the term "all natural" , which can be misconstrued or misleading. All natural is not a guarantee the product is safe, and I hope "cage free" won't be used to mislead anyone about the condition the chicken coops are in.
@edgarblythe,
Not hungry now. First it was okra; now this.
@glitterbag,
glitterbag wrote:I have to fess up, I do know what they are trying to say. I'd bet somebody coined the term "cage free eggs" because it has fewer letters than "free range . That would mean the cost to print the label would be lower. It's all about saving money and higher profits.
You're right: it is all about money and profit. It's not a question of saving label printing costs by having fewer letters (the cost per label would not be affected by something like that). Egg producers are aware that many customers don't like to think of all those poor hens in poultry jails so they would like to persuade the readers of packaging that they are not cruelly treating them. However there are levels of chicken care - "free range" is the top, and to qualify for that the birds must have access to outside space, but that doesn't need to be very big. Next down is "cage free". This costs less. The definition for this is quite literal: all it means is that the hens aren't kept in cages. It doesn't mean they're treated well. They can still be cooped up in large industrial chicken houses with no room to walk around. Finally comes, I guess, no mention at all, which means, most likely, that the hens are like the ones dying in their own **** in those horror pictures that green activists publish. Of course they can still put a picture of a grinning cartoon hen wearing a check shirt and holding a pitchfork on the box.
It is possible to find eggs from humanely kept hens, you just have to look around.
Why the snide remark about Spanish?
Hens on egg farms in the United States can lawfully (that is, in compliance with USDA regulations) be kept in a cage which is a nine inch square (9" x 9" x 9"). However, thanks to Congress (and their industry cronies), if you increase one dimension of the cage by at least 3" (9" x 9" x 12") you are legally entitled to call the product "free-range eggs." Over the last little while, people who disapprove of egg farm conditions have come to learn that the term "free-range eggs" is essentially meaningless. The term "cage-free eggs" is an attempt to reassure the buyer that the producer is not playing word games while keeping their hens in deplorable conditions.
By the way, chickens not kept in cages are not necessarily living in better conditions. Typical egg farms which don't cage their birds simply keep them in large, low ceiling shelters where they are, laterally, packed in as tightly or more tightly than they would be if caged. Birds **** wherever they happen to be standing at the time, and if the producer does not run the birds out of the shelter and hose it down, clean it, every day, the incidence and prevalence of avian diseases increases dramatically. That may or may not affect the eggs--it certainly affects the hens.
@glitterbag,
Quote:What are cage free eggs?
a marketing tool to make you feel better - similar to range-fed, grass-fed, free-range
http://www.humanefood.ca/pdf%20links/cage-free-eggs-new-logo-v4.pdf
hunh
interestingish
Burger King and McDonald's hold their egg suppliers to higher standards (for space allowance per chicken) than general food standards. So the egg on your egg mcmuffin comes from a minimally freer chicken than the chickens who supply the eggs to grocery stores (unless they come from very specifically certified programs)
@ehBeth,
In the EU, that's all regulated ... (and has to be stamped as code on each egg)
Carole and I have a nearby friend with chickens you can see outside. When they run short, we have had good results with Organic Valley. Don't know if they are available in your area, but:
http://www.organicvalley.coop/products/eggs/
@ehBeth,
commercial chicken farming is an ugly business all around.
my hens have a paradise compared to them.
and my eggs taste substantially better...
@Rockhead,
I believe that.
My parents used to get eggs from friends with a small poultry farm. Those eggs tasted the best.
@ehBeth,
every time I work at the arena I get asked if I brought eggs. free samples do wonders.
it's funny how bland commercial eggs have become. and brittle...
@contrex,
contrex wrote:
glitterbag wrote:I have to fess up, I do know what they are trying to say. I'd bet somebody coined the term "cage free eggs" because it has fewer letters than "free range . That would mean the cost to print the label would be lower. It's all about saving money and higher profits.
You're right: it is all about money and profit. It's not a question of saving label printing costs by having fewer letters (the cost per label would not be affected by something like that). Egg producers are aware that many customers don't like to think of all those poor hens in poultry jails so they would like to persuade the readers of packaging that they are not cruelly treating them. However there are levels of chicken care - "free range" is the top, and to qualify for that the birds must have access to outside space, but that doesn't need to be very big.Next down is "cage free". This costs less. The definition for this is quite literal: all it means is that the hens aren't kept in cages. It doesn't mean they'retreated well. They can still be cooped up in large industrial chicken houses with no room to walk around. Finally comes, I guess, no mention at all, which means, most likely, that the hens are like the ones dying in their own **** in those horror pictures that green activists publish. Of course they can still put a picture of a grinning cartoon hen wearing a check shirt and holding a pitchfork on the box.
It is possible to find eggs from humanely kept hens, you just have to lookaround.
Why the snide remark about Spanish
It wasn't meant to be snide, the only phone number on the jar was just for Spanish speakers. But I can certainly see why you could have thought that. My Spanish really is poor, I can read it much better than speaking or understanding native speakers. I was in an immersion class for Romanian, and even though its a Romance language, it screwed up my French and Latin.
When i was a child, and my grandmother still kept chickens, there were several differences which i noticed only later when relying on store-bought eggs. Eggs from your own chickens, even if the rely primarily on chicken feed, do taste different, and i suppose it's just preference, but taste better. They are also a different color, with darker yokes. If you don't wash immediately after collection, they keep longer, even without refrigeration. The shells were thicker, and even though we didn't keep fancy chickens, the shells were not a uniform bright white.
I knew a lady who made really good money on her eggs. She had French hens of some description, and they laid green eggs--from a pale green do a dark olive color. She also kept Rhode Island Reds (hers were black--there's no uniformity in the color of those birds) who laid brown eggs--again, the color varied widely. What didn't vary was the superstition among buyers, particularly the "whole foods" crowd, that brown or other colored eggs are healthier. She got top dollar for her eggs--which eggs were no more or less tasty and nutritious than would have been the case if the shells had been white.
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