Where To Buy Real Free Range Eggs
Are free range eggs better? A MOTHER EARTH NEWS study on pastured eggs found that compared to conventional American eggs, real free-range eggs have less cholesterol and saturated fat, plus more vitamins A and E, beta carotene and polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids.
where to buy real free range eggs
Supermarket Guru did get one thing right, though. Free-range/pastured eggs are likely to be more expensive because production costs are higher. As usual, you get what you pay for. If you buy the cheapest supermarket eggs, you are not only missing out on the valuable nutrients eggs should and can contain, you are also supporting an industrial production system that treats animals cruelly and makes more sustainable, small-scale egg production difficult.
December 2016, we just bought 2/18 egg cartons of The Happy Egg Co. and are not happy. The store was out of the eggs we normally buy which has rich orange yellows. Happy Eggs were pale yellow. Last time we go for their bull.
What none of these companies address, however, is where they source their hens from, and what happens to all the baby male chicks that are unwanted because of their inability to produce eggs. Are they buried alive and thrown into grinders fully conscious as so often happens on other factory farms?
When you get the true backyard raised eggs you will note: orangey yellow yolks, the shells crack much easier (I wonder if commercial raised eggs are given something to harden the shell) and the whites are fluffy and actually raise up like a cake if you do fried eggs. They are also very juicy. Vital farms was our go- to but even now comparing it to back yard raised I have some doubts but we use in a pinch when we do not get them from the neighbor.
The free-range idea was to increase the nutritional value of the egg by virtue of the chicken roaming and eating worms, seeds, etc. That the chickens get exercise is one thing, that there is anything in that exercise yard for them to eat (grass, seeds, etc.) is another issue altogether. When chickens eat from the ground they acquire parasites. It may be better for them to eat from feeders.
Recently I purchased some free range eggs for the first time. What a taste difference !! Where can I find your product around here ? We live in southeastern NC between Wilmington NC and Myrtle Beach SC. Can I buy them from you directly ??
But for the moment, due to Federal concerns with food safety (and in particular, the threat of bird flu) all commercial flocks must come from certified hatcheries, where this practice is still happening. What little control we do have we use to source our pullets (teenage hens) from farmers who have purchased their chicks from hatcheries with the highest standards in the industry. And while we could not in good faith claim that any form of euthanasia can be considered completely humane, the methodology used, and the level of care taken to ensure that it is as painless as possible, is the best we can hope for until (which again, we hope will be really soon) some alternative form of in-ovo sexing becomes viable.
I sell brown eggs from pasture raised hens at a local state of MS Dept of Agriculture operated Farmers Market. I am State of MS /USDA National Poultry Improvement Plan inspected and hold a valid State of MS Retail Egg Licence. Someone remarked about strong egg shells, that can be accomplished by providing crushed oyster shell and crushed limestone free available access to the hens along with granite grit to supplement their calcium uptake and to aid in digestion of forage. Weak eggs are from older hens that do not have that access and are depleting calcium from their bones, leading to serious health issues. We supplement pasture and woods foraging with a soy and corn free NON GMO feed, Texas Naturals Elite Layer. You can find out who the shysters are by asking to tour their farm. If they will not let you visit, do not buy their eggs, who knows the real source or method of production. We welcome any and all who want to see our humane, sustainable and organic standards based operation. One last note, bright orange yolks can be artificially induced by adding Bright yellow Marigold Flower meal to confined and loose hens feed, thus faking appearance of access to forage and bugs and worms, seeds, grasses, etc..
Anyway, I tried out Vital eggs non organic and they had very orange yolks and the quality tasted like farmers market eggs. Then, bought their organic ones when I saw them at Whole Foods, well, the yolks were very pale yellow and the taste was lackluster.
I think it has to do with how much hens are allowed to forage (the omega 3s in the worms and bugs they eat yield a more orange yolk). Yolks with pale yellow color are likely from hens who just ate chicken feed. Vital Farms and many pasture raised eggs have that orange yolk and much better flavor!
Free-range eggs are eggs produced from birds that may be permitted outdoors. The term "free-range" may be used differently depending on the country and the relevant laws, and is not regulated in many areas.
Eggs from hens that are only indoors might also be labelled cage-free, barn, barn-roaming or aviary, following the animal happiness certification policies, also known as "happy chickens" or "happy eggs". This is different from birds that are reared in systems labelled as battery cages or furnished cages.
Legal standards defining free range can be different or even non-existent depending on the country. Various watchdog organizations, governmental agencies and industry groups adhere to differing criteria of what constitutes "free-range" and "cage-free" status.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) requires that egg producers be able to demonstrate that "free range" egg layers have access to the outdoors,[1] though there is no government oversight as to the quality of the external environment, or the amount of time the hen has access to it.[2] Many producers label their eggs as cage-free in addition to, or instead of, free-range.[3] Recently, US egg labels have expanded to include the term "barn-roaming," to more accurately describe the source of those eggs that are laid by hens which can not range freely, but are confined to a barn instead of a more restrictive cage.
Cage-free eggs have been a major cause of debate in the US. In 2015 there was an initiative proposed in Massachusetts that would ban the sale of in-state meat or eggs "from caged animals raised anywhere in the nation". This shift from caged to cage-free is concerning for egg industry groups because they believe that this will cause the price of eggs to increase to the point that consumers can not afford to buy them, thereby causing a decline in the egg industry overall. Animal welfare advocates argue that costs will not change as drastically as industry groups are expecting and that the price of eggs will remain almost the same because the housing of the birds does not make a huge difference to cost. Egg industry groups are making an effort to show or "educate lawmakers, voters and consumers about the merits and cost-effectiveness of cage use". Local farmers and producers say that the shift will occur if that is what consumers want, they will adapt to having birds in or out of cages. Not only are there debates between the egg industry and animal welfare advocates, but people are also debating whether this issue is one that has to be handled by the federal government or the industry.[4]
In the European Union, cage-free egg production includes barns, free-range, organic (in the UK, systems must be free-range if they are to be labelled as organic) and aviary systems. Non-cage systems may be single or multi-tier (up to four levels), with or without outdoor access. In the UK, free-range systems are the most popular of the non-cage alternatives, accounting for around 44% of all eggs in 2013, whereas barns and organic eggs together accounted for 5%.[5]
Case studies of free-range systems for laying hens across the EU, carried out by Compassion in World Farming, demonstrate how breed choice and preventive management practices can enable farmers to successfully use non beak-trimmed birds.[6]
In March 2016, Australian ministers voted in new national standards for the definition of free-range. The new standards allow for up to 10,000 birds per hectare, with no requirement for the hens to actually go outside.[11] Choice, Australia's largest non-profit consumer organisation[12] believes Australia's consumer affairs ministers made the decision to put the interests of large-scale Australian egg producers ahead of the needs of consumers.
In April 2017, the Australian Government finalised the law and decided to mandate a maximum of 10,000 hens per hectare in outdoor grazing areas, to which the hens must have "regular and meaningful" access.[13] Currently, the most popular free range accreditation schemes mandating roaming space at or below the standard set by the EU for its members, are the Free Range Farmers Association (750 hens per hectare),[14] Humane Choice (1,500 hens per hectare)[15] and Australian Certified Organic (2,500 hens per hectare under pasture rotation).[16] In July 2017, Snowdale was fined a record amount of $1.05m (including legal costs) for falsely advertising that its eggs were 'free range'.[17][18] This was substantially larger than the fines imposed upon Derodi, Holland Farms, Pirovic or Darling Downs Fresh Eggs; set at either $300,000 or $250,000.[19][20][21]
Many animal welfare advocates, including the Humane Society of the United States maintain that cage-free and free-range eggs constitute a considerable improvement for laying hens. This has led to the adoption of a cage-free eggs standard by most major food companies in the United States, although in 2017, it was estimated cage-free eggs represented only 10% of all produced.[23][24] Pundits and food commentators have described the 2016 shift toward cage-free eggs across the food industry as a "bold decision" and historic shift.[25] Several investigations, particularly by the animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere, have raised doubts about to what degree cage-free farms are an improvement for laying hens.[26][27] An investigation of a cage-free Costco facility in late 2016 purported to find cannibalism from the birds attacking each other, and concluded that neither caged nor cage-free facilities offered laying hens positive lives.[28] 041b061a72