Study: Organic, Cage-Free Eggs No Healthier Than Factory

[The Straight Story]

Study: Organic, Cage-Free Eggs No Healthier Than Factory

This year, like every year, has been a busy one for America's chickens. What the birds lack in smarts they make up for in work ethic, laying about 78 billion eggs annually (or 6.5 billion dozen), supplying a $7 billion industry. GM should be doing so well.

Like any other workers, hens turn out economy, premium and luxury products - known as factory, cage-free and organic eggs - and consumers pay accordingly. A recent survey conducted in one random city - Athens, Ga. - found factory eggs going for $1.69 per dozen, cage-free for $2.99 to $3.59, and organic for $3.99 to a whopping $5.38.

But it's worth it to pay more because you're getting a healthier product, right? Wrong. Most of the time, according to a just-released study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the eggs are indistinguishable. When there is a difference, it's often the factory eggs that are safer. (See pictures of chefs at work in the fields where their food is grown.)

The study, led by food technologist Deana Jones, was not designed to explore the question of which egg-laying conditions are best for the hens themselves - simply because there is no question. Factory hens are confined in what are known as battery cages, which leave them crowded and all but immobilized, reduced to little more than egg-laying machines. Free-range and organic chickens have different degrees of freedom to move and are raised on varying levels of higher-quality feed. There's no question what kind of life the birds prefer.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20100709/hl_time/08599200233400

[Maine-ah]

1. it doesn't matter to me if it's healthier or not

it's about the treatment of the animals.

[DCBob]

20. +1

I have seen chicken factories here in Maryland. Its horrific. They are jammed in cages so they can barely move.

[lukasahero]

22. No kidding

How do people not get that?

[mod mom]

38. egg-actly!

[LWolf]

50. +1,000

[undeterred]

63. +100

[Lucian]

70. That's the first thing I thought of when I read the subject of the OP.

[myrna minx]

80. Yes. n/t

[Liberal_in_LA]

108. +200,548

[superduperfarleft]

111. Since nobody's made it down that far....The Free-Range Myth.

http://www.peacefulprairie.org/freerange1.html

[boppers]

154. Bullshit on the "free range" article.

From that article: "There is simply NO way to humanely produce eggs for human consumption."

Uh, wrong. Coop, pasture, feed, oyster shell, etc.

[superduperfarleft]

164. Why is everybody focusing on one line and ignoring the rest of it?

How many people just purchase "cage-free" from Whole Foods, as opposed to seeking out a small farm or raising their own?

How many people just flat-out don't have the economic or other means to seek out a small farm or raise their own?

The point of the article, which no one seems to be getting, is that those cage-free eggs you get at whatever yuppie organic store you frequent were likely from chickens that were raised in equally inhumane conditions as the battery cage eggs.

[boppers]

176. I can speak for myself...

We used to farm chickens and sell their eggs to a local "yuppie organic store"... they were free range in the sense that the chickens got to roam the pasture from 5am to 9pm, they were fertilized because we kept 3 roosters, they weren't debeaked, forcibly molted, or any of that other crap.

The reason I think people focus in on it is that the article focuses in on it, creating a false dilemma, based on false premises.

[northzax]

137. correct answer

did this study take into account the health of, I don't know, the HENS?

[MajorChode]

139. Here is the USDA standard on "free range"

FREE RANGE or FREE ROAMING:
Producers must demonstrate to the Agency that the poultry has been allowed access to the outside.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/Meat_&_Poultry_Labeling_Terms/index.asp

So if the egg producer opens the gate for 5 minutes (whether the chicken goes outside or not), those eggs you are paying $2-$4 more per dozen may now legally be called "free range". The term literally doesn't mean anything and is used to dupe people into buying boutique products that are not fundamentally different from cheaper products.

[Knight Hawk]

143. Also

True free range eggs taste better.

[lightningandsnow]

146. My thoughts exactly.

[pauldg0]

159. I can tell the difference.

[Book Lover]

155. Word (nm)

[otohara]

166. Egg-xactly

respect the animal, respect to the farmers who choose a better life for their animals.

[Matariki]

169. you said it.

[Iggo]

174. Yeah, that's what I thought.

Seems simple enough.

[LostinVA]

2. I primarily care about the animal's living conditions

I also don't believe the article, because the "organic hens" eat WAY better food. Factory hens sometimes don't even eat FOOD.

I rarely eat eggs, but when I do, the animal's life is paramount in my buying decision.

[wickerwoman]

160. Yep.

I'm sure up until 1999 cows with BSE "posed no significant health risk to the public" and were perfectly healthy and just as good as cows not fed a cannibal diet. Except for the 166 people who died with Swiss cheese for brains.

We don't know enough about how prions work to say with any kind of certainty that it is safe to eat chickens (or their eggs) when the chickens have been fed other chickens (or feed made with bone meal from other animals).

It's safe until it isn't.

[LostinVA]

170. Exactly, and sometimes chicken excrement

WTF???

[scarletlib]

3. Right, I don't buy them for the health benefits to my family but for the

hens themselves.

[GreenPartyVoter]

17. Exactly

[Warren Stupidity]

4. It is the chickens and the environment that are healthier.

"The study, led by food technologist Deana Jones, was not designed to explore the question of which egg-laying conditions are best for the hens themselves - simply because there is no question. Factory hens are confined in what are known as battery cages, which leave them crowded and all but immobilized, reduced to little more than egg-laying machines. Free-range and organic chickens have different degrees of freedom to move and are raised on varying levels of higher-quality feed. There's no question what kind of life the birds prefer."

[rucky]

5. They didn't study the hormones?

That's the stuff the makes me sneeze when I eat factory eggs. I don't get that reaction when I eat hormone-free eggs (organic or not).

[LostinVA]

6. Yup

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Good catch.

They basically left out issues raised by modern industrial farming techniques and focused on evaluation criteria established in 1937.

I declare this study toxic bullshit.

[Ichingcarpenter]

42. evaluation criteria established in 1937 when they didn't have factory farms

And Organic farming was in its infancy.

I tell you what.... the Danish eggs that are not organic, the whites don't spread when put on a skillet, the yoke is huge, the egg doesn't smell like fish or other unknowns that you are use to.
Their normal egg is superb to even organics I've bought in the States.

Smell and taste your food and ingredients.....
Smell and taste your food.....

My health has improved because of it..... and I was ill in the states.

USE Your sense of smell people if its still alive after consuming all the contaminants in your system which deaden your system.

Now I'm gonna have a Danish beer which is not from Monsanto's crop .... then a joint that I got from Christiania.

[underpants]

27. "- at least compared with the cattle industry" (from the story)

That, at least, is all that's involved when it comes to egg nutrition. But what about safety? Don't organic eggs have the edge in terms of

antibiotics and other contaminants? Surprisingly, the USDA has not devoted a great deal of study to the antibiotic question, mostly because the drugs are used sparingly in the egg-laying industry - at least compared with the cattle industry, in which even healthy animals are kept dosed to prevent infections. (See pictures of what makes you eat more food.)

[xchrom]

8. what i want is a cleaner more humane way

of raising farm animals and not consume chemicals i don't want in my food.

[RadiationTherapy]

9. My experience is that cage-free eggshells are much stronger

as is the inner 'skin' of the shell. Also, the albumin seems to be thicker. 'Regular' eggs have very thin shells and thin, 'watery' albumin.

[KeyWester]

16. I agree.

Also, when cracked open and put in a pan, they stand up tall and firm, where a factory egg slides and spreads out flatter on the pan.

Not so much about what is healthier, just what is fresher. I am talking about free range eggs from your own coup.

[postulater]

37. And the yolks are orange instead of pale yellow. nt

[KeyWester]

75. Yep.

orange and standing tall. :hi:

[Cassandra]

39. The thin albumin is from age.

Factory eggs take longer to get to you so you never get them fresh enough. Personally, I believe thin shells in factory eggs are from too much production. Perhaps the hens only have a certain amount of eggshell material to go around so each egg gets less (speculating here).

[Ichingcarpenter]

57. Its been proven that Genetic Stress can be passed down in the DNA

In Human babies and produce PTSD in the generation growing up
with the mother's trauma in the first 3 months of pregnancy
after the baby was in the womb the DNA was changed.

6 months? nothing.

That' s pretty major thought.

I know that Chickens are not mammals but I've seen it with
dogs and cats.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. 'food technologist Deana Jones from Georgia'

She came out with a study in 2004 that said old eggs were just as good as fresh

Tell that bullshit to any good chef.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3741/is_6_52/ai_n6081742/

Lets see who gave her that JOB?

Well what do you know she started in the Bush Administration in 2001.

[marmar]

12. Exactly. And if she started with BushCo, she probably came from the commercial food biz

nt

[SpiralHawk]

35. A BushCo 'researcher' - well that shoots her cred to crap in a nanosecond

She probably earned her 'credentials' at the University of Corporate Propaganda (R).

[Cassandra]

23. Depends on what you're using them for.

For hard boiled, older is easier to peel. For other uses, fresher is better.

[Ichingcarpenter]

25. Taste and Smell still Rules unless your senses are deaden

I work for restaurant in Copenhagen and they still use their senses when examining food.

Easier to peel....... think about that statement for a second, and why you don't consume peeling.

[Cassandra]

31. Only because the air space...

between the albumin and the shell increases (including in the cage-free, local eggs that I buy, from the farmer that gathered them).

[Greyhound]

71. Upton Sinclair said it best;

"It is difficult to get a (wo)man to understand something when her/his job depends on not understanding it."

[sendero]

11. Hmmm....

..... exactly what scientific method reached that conclusion? Let me guess, they measured the basic nutritional value and that was it. And probably not even very well at that.

They probably didn't bother with needless checks for chemicals and stuff like that. It's not important, all that is important is that we keep creating our food in the most inhumane possible way and expect no consequence.

More junk science bullshit.

[htuttle]

13. I'm sure they tested a factory egg that was free of salmonella, too

[Taitertots]

26. You could read the article

They used the Haugh unit. A totally bullshit measurement from over 70 years ago. They didn't test for antibiotics or other contaminants. It is junk science, but you would know that if you read the article.

[sendero]

54. I really didn't have to..

... I knew it was junk science because it is obvious that their assertion is false.

[Bill McBlueState]

91. that's what creationists say about evolution

Declaring something false just because you know it in your heart to be so is magical thinking.

[Taitertots]

122. Sounds like fairly unscientific thinking

There are tons of things in science that seemed obviously false before people did research.

How far would we have come if historic experiments were simply deemed obvious and not worth doing. The double slit experiment comes to mind.

[HughMoran]

14. 'peace of mind' is a health benefit n/t

[Ichingcarpenter]

19. 'peace of mind' is a health benefit' from a Bushite.

Yeah, nothing wrong with the food in America after the Bushies can in.

Geez.....Nice try..

[HughMoran]

49. What the FUCK are you talking about?

Would you care to translate that back into English?

Are you accusing me of something, because you've been wicked nasty toward me for some reason and I want to know what's up with that.

[Ichingcarpenter]

51. I'm saying that the "peace of mind' came from a Bushite.

in their federal talk to the public.


What is your piece of mind you are talking about?

Which came first? Your Chicken or my egg?

Your statement was rather ambiguous but I do know your tilt.

[HughMoran]

52. Post says they are no different. I say that a person's mental state is more important, so...

'peace of mind' is just as important, even if we believe this study, which I am dubious of.


What's all this 'bushite' talk - I'm still not seeing your wavelength, other than, as usual, you ascribe something negative to my post that was not intended. Again.

[Ichingcarpenter]

53. As you said to me before... and I never did to you but

'Thanks for playing"

You revealed how you move on this stage.


So now its not peace of mind?

I certainly hope not.

[HughMoran]

60. Bizarroworld

:crazy:

[SidDithers]

62. Well, THAT was a confusing exchange...

:hi:

Sid

[HughMoran]

65. Can you help translate for me?

What were they getting at, other than I'm some sort of promoter of 'bush-speak'?

[uppityperson]

72. Sure. "nothing wrong with the food in America after the Bushies can in."

See? :rofl:

[HughMoran]

79. Ahh yes, crystal clear!

:rofl:

[Ichingcarpenter]

84. I love your Crystal....systole clear....

NOw about your first comment that made this dialogue happen.

[POAS]

93. It's been years since

I did any "can-in", I don't even know where I stored those Mason jars.

[Ichingcarpenter]

98. 'peace of mind' is a health benefit

Care to explain?
YOU STILL ARE NOT ADDRESSING WHAT YOU SAID and now you are attacking me.

[HughMoran]

102. Still can't comprehend what I said?

I'll say it again in a different way: Even if we accept the argument that 'free range' aren't any better for you (which I don't necessarily), the psychology of good health might be helpful (i.e believing they are better for you), since 'state of mind' can be an important influence on a person's health (i.e., see depression.)

[Ichingcarpenter]

105. Love your science.

I can taste it and smell it from here.

Now you sound like you defend corporate farming.


Thank you for getting the Yolk which you are apart of

[HughMoran]

107. So you're going to attack me no matter what I say?

& your logic doesn't follow from what I said in any way.

What is your problem?

[Ichingcarpenter]

109. Explain you post

On your FDA opinion of egg thing..

Everyone asks that for the record.

[HughMoran]

110. How old are you?

[Ichingcarpenter]

112. Old enough to be your teacher... now once again answer

what did you mean in your first post?

[HughMoran]

113. Harassment

Stop it now.

[Name removed]

115. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

133. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[proteus_lives]

162. You've got a DU stalker!

:rofl:

[uppityperson]

119. "psychology of good health"= defending corporate farming?

:eyes:

[Violet_Crumble]

156. I got the opposite impression...

I read his initial comment as meaning that the peace of mind that comes from buying free range rather than cage eggs and knowing that the hens have much better conditions. At least the horrific conditions of caged hens and knowing that I'm not putting a cent in the pocket of anyone who cages them is what gives me peace of mind when I buy eggs. And if I've read what Hugh said correctly, then that's in no way at all a defence of corporate farming.

[HughMoran]

167. Thank you

It's when a poster has already assumed the worst motivations of the person that they're replying to that thwarts any attempt at a clarification. For my part, I was not highly interested in bending over backwards to state what should have been the assumption of any compassionate liberal on this board. :hug:

[uppityperson]

118. Gee, "peace of mind is a health benefit" isnt that difficult to understand

Lack of stress is a health benefit. Is it really that difficult to understand or are you just having fun snarking and etcing?

[Ichingcarpenter]

138. I like how YOU know what another poster meant

And come to his defense like a DOG

I wasn't talking to you but now you have an opinion of the EGG STUDY or your friend?


Maybe you guys should ban me, rather than talk about whar the OP said.

I liike how you guys keep on subject.

[uppityperson]

141. Good grief.Yes, I am exceptional at being able to understand basic concepts

This is a forum where people jump into conversations all the time. You can take your snide insults elsewhere.

[depakid]

15. Now let's just pass out the candy cigarettes to children shall we?

:rofl:

I mean really- how far off the deep end does one have to go in their attention seeking?

[WhiteTara]

18. well, there may not be a difference nutritionally

but the taste is certainly different. I choose free range local. I'm hoping for so local they come from my back yard soon.

[PuraVidaDreamin]

29. The color is different too

Pale straw colored yolk/ compared to a rich orangey yolk-
I'm thinking there is a major difference.

Bt what I'm really thinking is that TPTB are becoming nervous about we small people
going out and growing our own clean organic food.

[WhiteTara]

163. I think you might be very correct that they want us to stay asleep

and eat bad food, call it good and learn lies for truth.

[northernlights]

21. that may or may not be so...but I'll the hens lead one hell of a lot happier lives

and just because the USDA study couldn't tell the difference in the eggs doesn't mean I can't. The place where I used to get my organically fed, cage free eggs, the eggs were huge, with thick strong shells and much bigger yolks than factory eggs. The eggs were fresher and tasted better too.

But mainly, the hens didn't have their beaks cut off or lead miserable, hellish lives. Looking forward to when I have the time to keep my own hens.

[Taitertots]

24. Where is the link to the study in the article? What junk reporting

They claim a study shows that free range chickens have 100 times the PCB levels of factory chickens. Ok, where is this study?

[izquierdista]

28. USDA certified bull shit

This is just more watering down of the word "organic" and the phrases "cage free" and "free range". What I don't see here is the word "pasture". All you have to do to distinguish an egg from a pastured chicken from one of the above is to crack it open. A pale, urine-specimen colored yolk is from a chicken raised on "higher-quality feed". A nice orange yolk is from a pastured chicken which eats bugs and weeds and has completely different levels of omega 3s. Here's a reference to get you started: http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs.aspx

And my survey, not too far from Athens, GA? You can find lots of places to buy pastured eggs for $2 a dozen. Try craigslist.

[mmonk]

30. It boils down to if you want eggs acquired in a cruel or humane manner.

[Honeycombe8]

32. There is an attack going on right now against organic foods.

I'm seeing stories all over the place.

The attack goes something like, "Breaking News! FDA studies discover that organic foods do not contain more anti-oxidants than nonorganic foods!"

Here's the catch: Whoever said or believed that organic foods have more Vitamin C than nonorganic foods? I've been reading about organic foods for years; I have NEVER seen anything to lead me to believe that they contain more nutrients. If anyone thinks that, they are woefully uninformed.

What organic foods have that nonorganic foods don't have:

Lack of growth hormones
Lack of nonorganic pesticides
More animal-friendly methods

So, no, these things do not make something healthier, so to speak. It makes organic foods LESS HARMFUL than nonorganic foods. That's a different thing.

Toxins are building up in our bodies, esp. children because they have little bodies. A lot of the toxins are coming from what we eat. CNN did a series of stories on this last year. Anderson Cooper was tested and surprised to find he had an unhealthy level of mercury or something in his system. (BTW...that level is permanent; once there, it doesn't leave.) The drs. surmised it was from eating fish from the Hudson River.

So organic foods wouldn't have made Cooper "healthier," so to speak. But it would have resulted in him being "less harmed" by the food he ate.

Plus, let's not forget the cruelty involved in the caging process of chickens. It's a good thing when things are as natural as possible.

Having said all that, organic foods are very expensive. The average person can't afford them. I make a good living, and I can't afford to eat an organic based diet. The most I can do is buy certain things organic, and splurge sometimes on other things.

But the organic food business has exploded in recent years. So there is a concerted effort by the corporate food industry to put a stop to that.

[Cassandra]

34. Actually, factory food is also expensive.

You just pay for it at the doctor's office rather than at the supermarket.

[Ichingcarpenter]

43. The Toxic Farms don't deal with the Shit produced

from the hundred of thousands of animals. in that so called 'farm'....... Hugh problems

[izquierdista]

41. And to co-opt the word "organic"

It really doesn't mean anything. A small farmer who uses only compost for fertilizer and chickens to keep down bugs may not qualify to sell "organic" produce, but the large producer who knows all the loopholes does. The most "organic" food I eat comes from my back yard.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

104. Um, lots of people claim that organic foods have more antioxidants.

http://www.drweil.com/drw/u/WBL02077/Organic-Foods-Have-More-Antioxidants-Minerals.html

Furthermore, if you agree with the finding that organic foods don't have more anti-oxidants, why the hostility?

[HysteryDiagnosis]

33. Read Diet for a New America, don't forget the kleenex. n/t

[Radical Activist]

36. When the next epedemic breaks it will be in the factory farms.

No question about it. What a useless study.

[Bluenorthwest]

40. The reasons I use organic eggs are not about nutrition

but about the treatment of the birds and the quality of the eggs. The superior nature of the product is apparent to the eye, the pallet, and in the outcome of dishes, particularly baked goods. They are in a word, better.
So they are not indistinguishable, I can tell the difference without cracking the shell. When Jones says 'nutritious' she is speaking only of the protein content in the white, not about other elements of nutrition, Cholesterol levels for example, which vary greatly from several factors, feed being the biggest.
So if an egg with the same amount of protein but twice the cholesterol strikes you as 'equal' in nutrition, take a statin and order up a factory scramble.

[Tsiyu]

44. I don't believe this study

As one who has cooked for a living as well as one who has raised chickens, I know just from looking at the eggs which is healthier.

Yolks are supposed to be orange, not sickly yellow.

Factory eggs are not worth a crap in baking, they taste like crap and they are loaded with hormones/antibiotics, etc.

I think it's a bullcrap study, but that's just my opinion. If people want to keep eating inferior eggs from tortured hens you can't stop them.

Thanks for this thread SS

[Oregone]

47. a highly specialized egg-quality metric developed by food technologist Raymond Haugh in 1937""

Sure, according to a 1937 metric it may be believable

[skygazer]

45. A lot healthier for the chickens though

I'm willing to pay more for a happy chicken. I think that should be included in any cost/benefit analysis. Prominently.

[here_is_to_hope]

68. You would love my hens eggs then...

They got into my outdoor marijuana grow a few days a go and stripped the sugar leaves 2 feet up.
I am a bit afraid to eat today's eggs.
Happy? A few hens actually thought they could fly... :hippie:

[niyad]

46. thank you for posting this--don't believe anything coming out of usda, fda, anything.

[Jakes Progress]

48. Have to consider the source.

Corporate Foods have learned lessons from Corporate Energy. Put out a lot of studies from paid "scientists" and you can even make people questions climate change. I think we are only beginning to see the Agra-Biz publicity campaign against anything other than factory food.

[donco6]

55. I dunno. *I* feel better after eating them.

That's worth a lot in my book.

[janx]

165. So do I.

That's a point that should be obvious. :hi:

What is that avatar, by the way? :rofl: It looks like a beaver with glasses or something!

[alphafemale]

56. Clothing made by Union labor nearly indistinguishable from that sewn by child slaves in Bangladesh

Which would you rather?

I'd buy eggs from a local source where I could be certain the yard birds lived a happy a life as possible if I knew of one.

[iris27]

177. EXACTLY.

*almost wrote egg-zactly, but that's too corny a pun even for me!*

[superduperfarleft]

58. The Free-Range Myth.

http://www.peacefulprairie.org/freerange1.html

Sadly the public is led to believe that "Cage-Free" hens live a happy, natural life. This is simply not so!

"Cage-Free"/"Free-Range" hens come from the same hatcheries that battery hens come from, all of their male brothers are killed by suffocation or being ground up alive, the girls themselves endure the same bodily manipulations and mutilations, and they ALL ultimately end up at the same slaughterhouses when their "production" declines.

...

It is like asking if I think strangulation is better than suffocation. My answer is: Neither is an acceptable option. There is simply NO way to humanely produce eggs for human consumption.

[Tsiyu]

73. All the folks I know who raise chickens would disagree

their chickens may be free-range or let out as a "chicken tractor" where their fence is moved around so that they can peck and scratch a wider area, or they may be in permanent fencing with a little house, but ALL of those chickens are treated humanely and are happy.

And their eggs are awesome.

There may be no way to mass produce eggs for humans, but plenty of folks have happy chickens giving eggs.

I honestly think some people never get out into the country to see how people live...

[uppityperson]

82. There is a big difference between commercial and homegrown

Commercial "free range" can mean they can only move around a little, have access to the ground, not that they actually get outside. "Fertilized" means they have access to a rooster, not that the rooster actually has mated with them.

It pays to know where your eggs are coming from, if possible, so you can know what those terms mean.

I agree that There is simply NO way to humanely produce eggs for human consumption. is false. Mass produce inexpensive eggs, true. But there are ways to humanely produce eggs for human consumption.

[superduperfarleft]

86. As I said below...

People always bring up raising their own chickens in these threads as if that's even remotely commonplace. I don't have any numbers handy, but really, how many people raise their own laying hens as opposed to buying eggs at the supermarket?

All those people upthread who say that they are willing to pay more for eggs that were produced "humanely" aren't buying them from small farmers for the most part, they're buying "organic" eggs from the supermarket. And clearly they are misinformed as to how those eggs were actually produced.

[Tsiyu]

88. You said there was "no way' to humanely produce eggs

no qualifiers.

I did not know you really did not mean it!

i realize that what it says on the egg carton does not necessarily match our vision of where the hen actually lives, but you said "no way" and there is a way.

Where I live, and in communities across the country, many people are growing their own chickens for eggs.

It's a big deal these days. I don't know where you live, but I guarantee there are people not too far from you raising homegrown eggs and selling them.

[superduperfarleft]

89. I didn't write it, for starters.

"but I guarantee there are people not too far from you raising homegrown eggs and selling them."

That's great. How many are there compared to the average consumer of eggs? And don't you think the people upthread who pay more for these eggs at Whole Foods deserve to know that "cage-free" doesn't necessarily mean more humane?

As far as the people that buy homegrown eggs - do they ever eat out? Do they ever eat something with eggs or egg byproducts in them? If so, they're probably consuming either battery cage eggs or the greenwashed "free-range" eggs that WF sells.

[Tsiyu]

101. I agree with you on the labeling

though at least the 'cage free' hens live a better life than their battery-bound sisters

as for the 'did not write it" your post was unclear as to that being a clip from someone else there at the end.

But you posted it as something you believe and I had to challenge that statement.

There aren't adequate statistics on homegrown egg production, but it's growing in popularity.

If more people - like yourself if you eat eggs - will seek out the homegrown eggs, maybe the factory farmers will catch a clue. but if you don't believe that many folks are growing their own eggs, i guess you won't look for them or purchase them.

We get eggs from friends who grow them - dozens of my friends have hens. And they are far superior to store-bought in every way.

[superduperfarleft]

106. You're right, I thought about using the quote tag, but was too lazy.

I don't eat eggs. I believe that as long as people continue to eat animals and their byproducts, people will continue to demand enormous quantities of cheap products.

I'm enjoying my Saturday far too much to start a pro/anti-vegan subthread, so my only point was to the people upthread who say they buy these eggs out of concern for a hen's welfare, and that they are most likely not getting what they paid for.

[nadinbrzezinski]

136. This is not what free range in a commercial sense means

the hens are brought young to a large coop where they are allowed to walk around. The coop may have 5,000 birds, a little crowded, hot and noisy.

These hens are free range by the way.

And yes I have worked in a chicken coup operation that had both battery and free range... in a commercial setting.

What you are talking about is HOME grown, not commercial free range.

[uppityperson]

83. There is no "acceptable option" to butcher animals? I disagree with your last sentence...

There is simply NO way to humanely produce eggs for human consumption.

There are ways to humanely produce eggs for human consumption. Or do you mean mass produce for sale at cheap prices?

[superduperfarleft]

85. Eggs will always be demanded in great quantity at cheap prices.

Even the people who are willing to pay more by buying "free-range" "organic" eggs at Whole Foods are supporting an incredibly cruel industry.

People always bring up raising their own chickens in these threads as if that's even remotely commonplace. I don't have any numbers handy, but really, how many people raise their own laying hens as opposed to buying eggs at the supermarket?

[Tsiyu]

90. It's a trend

Check it out:

"Many cities and towns are now allowing city dwellers to have as many as five or six hens in their own back yards inside the city limits. This is a new trend that some are calling the "urban chicken movement" and it is making the news almost on a daily basis"

http://www.backyardeggs.com/



Another on city chickens:

http://www.nhpr.org/node/33166

"Rachel Bess has a good sense that the numbers are increasing. Bess, 29, has 10 hens in her backyard. She teaches a class called "Raising Chickens in Your Backyard" through the Phoenix Permaculture Guild.

"I thought I would teach a class or two. Maybe 20 students in each class," Bess said. "For the last year and a half, we've been teaching one of two classes a month, and it's at least 30 people per class."



"

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/05/09/20090509urbanchickens0506.html

[superduperfarleft]

92. See #89. n/t

[Mulehead]

95. Superduperleft:

"There is simply NO way to humanely produce eggs for human consumption."

My 8 healthy free range cruetly-free chickens would like to differ with you.

Mulehead

[superduperfarleft]

99. You know, there's a whole subthread going on where I've addressed that twice.

Your edit aside...

[Gormy Cuss]

114. Free-roaming has no legal meaning for laying hens, and "Cage-free" doesn't mean the hens get to roam

They're terms that are about as useful as "natural" when it comes to assessing food.

Free-roaming is defined for chickens raised for meat however.

Despite all of the "organic," "free-roaming," and "cage-free" labels popping up on cartons, there are essentially no supermarket eggs that come from hens who roam around a yard foraging freely.

If one wants eggs from hens who live in the best possible production situation, one either needs to know the grower (or visit the farm) or have a coop in the yard. There aren't many other options.

[Madam Mossfern]

116. Eggs for human consumption-humane

I know my title sounds weird but, I wanted to make sure that you knew which post I was responding to.
Yes there is a humane way to produce eggs for consumption....keep them yourself or support a local farmer that has real hen houses - not factory farms. Your post makes it appear that eating any egg is being complicit in horrible torture.

[superduperfarleft]

117. Do you eat out? Do you eat anything with eggs or egg byproducts in it? n/t

[Madam Mossfern]

124. Yes, I eat out

I am not vegan and I don't live on a farm.
I must be a chicken 'terrorist'.

As far as I'm concerned (and this may seem harsh to some), when the problems of all the PEOPLE in the world who are suffering bitterly are resolved. I will turn my compete attention to chickens and the treatment other farm creatures.

As long as people are killing others in the name of some ideology, that will be my focus. When companies like Montsanto are no longer able to manipulate food production, I will be concerned about the chickens.


When all the world uses clean and sustainable energy sources, then I will freak out about the source of my eggs.

[superduperfarleft]

125. Who's asking you to freak out? I certainly didn't (although you kind of did anyway).

(1) People upthread are saying that they buy cage-free because they believe that the chickens are treated humanely. I posted a link showing that this is not always the case.

(2) Most people are capable of caring about more than just one thing. Sorry that you evidently are not. And if you give so little of a shit about how farm animals are treated, why are you posting in this thread?

[Madam Mossfern]

129. Obviously I care about lots of things

I just have priorities as I stated in my post. Chickens are not on the top of my list.
There is no need for personal attacks. My first post had nothing personal in it yet you asked ME if I ate out. Since I had made not claim about what I personally purchase, your response was uncalled for as it implied that I was a hypocrite.

Listen, if you're going to get all bent out of shape maybe you should monitor your own posts for appropriateness.

[superduperfarleft]

130. Oh for the love of...

I did not engage in any personal attacks and all I did was ask a couple of questions. It's clearly not me that's getting bent out of shape here.

I wasn't calling you a hypocrite, I was pointing out that even if one makes an effort to buy more humanely-raised eggs, it's impossible to avoid factory-farmed eggs, and it might be a better idea to stop eating them altogether. That's all. It's called a discussion. I was trying to engage in one.

[Madam Mossfern]

134. Is that why you said

that I couldn't care about more than one thing at a time?

Again, you made it personal, not me.

"(2) Most people are capable of caring about more than just one thing. Sorry that you evidently are not. And if you give so little of a shit about how farm animals are treated, why are you posting in this thread?"

Just sayin'
Do you usually dump on people who have different priorities than you do?

[superduperfarleft]

135. If you're determined to be offended, there's nothing I can do to stop you.

Have fun with that. I have other priorities.

[Catherina]

127. Sure there is

http://www.polyfacefarms.com/products.aspx


I agree with what you wrote about cage-free hens but there is a better way to do it. Polyface is just one of many farms that's gone back to old-fashioned farming. It can be done.

[superduperfarleft]

131. Already addressed this. n/t

[lazarus]

145. they don't kill the males

I know, I used to work in a chicken slaughterhouse. We got an equal number of males and females. Tossing the males would be stupid and not cost-effective.

[flvegan]

150. You're wrong.

Many places do.

Dare you to watch this:

http://www.mercyforanimals.org/hatchery/

[dana_b]

151. wasn't that part of Food Inc. too?

I seem to remember a part where they talk about throwing the males in a grinder or something like that.

[flvegan]

152. Food Inc did touch on it, IIRC

but I don't think it's the same footage. The battery farm I raided got animals from a hatchery that suffocated them. Just dumped them in garbage bags while still alive. Horrid, evil fucking people.

[dana_b]

153. oh my...

how sickening. To be honest, I can't watch the footage. The descriptions alone are enough to make me nauseous.

BTW - thanks for doing what you do.

[lazarus]

168. explain to me

how I got half males and half females every time I culled twenty out to process for yield, then. If all the males were killed, then where did they come from?

[flvegan]

175. Maybe the ONE place in which you have experience

didn't practice that. Congrats on having worked in a slightly less shitty and cruel place.

[blueworld]

59. Always the same old smelly red herrings. Organic is about what's MISSING, not what's added

I grieve the loss of critical thinking unaffected by corporate $ - the first casualty is truth. Not healthier for whom? Factory hens are cruelly caged & debeaked, therefore dosed with antibiotics that pollute our water & ultimately create resistant germs.

Pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers & weed-killers are petro-based. Healthier for our soldiers?
The USDA is infested with agro-chemical lobbyists & execs. Healthier for our children? Our planet?

Organic is healthier for people, animals & the planet. It builds soil, doesn't destroy air/water, doesn't murder civilians or kill soldiers...fosters better land use laws. It's easier to detect water problems & easier to clean them up if they occur. Instead of taxing every toxic food item available & bragging about how we'll all lose weight, grow organic & local - seasonal quantities & slightly higher prices will make us lose weight too.

Organic is about what's LEFT OUT, not about what's added. There are natural pesticides, herbicides etc. not petro-based. Let's not turn to the USDA for studies about organics - they're corporate sponsored.

[Pisces]

66. I second your post.

[SidDithers]

61. Amazing that an actual study from the USDA is unrecc'd to high heaven...

but DU'ers just love woosphere nonsense about aspartame from Mercola.

Science literacy at DU is in the fucking toilet.

Sid

[Tsiyu]

76. ooooHHHHHHooooH1

an ACTUAL STUDY!!!!!!!!


from the USDA!!!!!!!!!



we should quiver with awestruck admiration and trust for a study using criterion developed in 1937!!!!!!!!!

If it was good enough for my great grandma it MUST be good enough for me, 80 years later!

In 80 years, no better nutrition tests have been developed and the science holier-than-thous are PROUD of this? And try to ridicule those who aren't buying the bullshit?????

You gotta love the worshippers of all things OFFICIAL and ACTUAL.

They are so in love with bullshit they can't even tell the difference between a good egg and a bad one!

[Bill McBlueState]

100. criticizing the study for an actual reason isn't 'woo-woo'

For example, if their conclusions are based only on a method from 1937, that might be cause for criticism. (On the other hand, Einstein's theory of relativity is older than that, and it's legitimately used in modern science.)

But posts in this thread like, "I knew it was junk science because it is obvious that their assertion is false" are exactly the type of things Christian extremists say about evolution. I think those are the posts people have in mind when they criticize the lack of scientific literacy on DU.

[Tsiyu]

142. 'Scientific evidence"

is obtained by accumulated research and data.

"Scientifically" i know that many USDA "Official Studies" are not worth the effort it took to type them. They are props for subsidized huge agri-biz.

So i am going to be skeptical of them and so are others who care about their food supply.

After all, it's "scientists" telling us the fish in the Gulf are safe to eat and oil mixed with dispersants are fine for swimmers to bathe in.

To equate mistrust for "official science" with religious fundamentalism is a desperate act by those who know that science may never be "wrong or right" but that scientists are definitely weak, fallible humans often with an agenda.

[GoCubsGo]

64. That article should be subtiltled: "No Shit, Sherlock."

Nutritionally, I wouldn't expect them to be any different. That goes for the studies they do on meat and produce, as well. Perhaps Ms. Jones should try eating those eggs, rather than running them through some analyzer. Free-range eggs taste like eggs. Can't say the same for the factory farmed ones. All those stress hormones produced my hens living miserable lives may not affect the nutritional quality, but they DO affect the taste of the product. These idiot "food technologists" just don't get it, to they? Maybe we should pack THEM into cages for a few weeks. Perhaps they will understand it then.

[flvegan]

67. There is no more widely abused animal than the battery/cage egg hen.

Just something to think about.

[Greyhound]

69. Like almost everything I read from Yahoo! "news", this story establishes a false premise

and proceeds from there. Cage-free or free-range eggs are not claimed to be "a healthier product" at all. They cost a little more because they do not utilize the monstrously cruel "factory" model. And while the article does mention one difference between these methods of acquiring eggs, it leaves out the abominations performed on these hapless creatures in order to conform them to the factory. Things like having their beaks amputated shortly after birth and deformation of their feet from squatting on steel mesh for their brief lives. Chicken are tortured to an extent that would make Dr. Mengele take pause.

All for the convenience of the factory owners.

[Agony]

74. Read stuff (not bullshit from Time) and make up your own mind

for example
From a small Penn State study...

Over a six-week period, Karsten, Patterson, and undergraduate assistant Gwendolyn Crews rotated 25 chickens from grass, to red and white clover, to alfalfa, grazing them for two weeks on each species. To facilitate rotation, they designed a mobile chicken coop with help from students from the Agricultural Systems Management Club. The coop, which could be trundled around the field on wheels, provided the chickens with food and water, protected them from predators, and served as a nest box. During each rotation, egg samples were taken and analyzed for levels of unsaturated fat and vitamins in their yolks. The researchers then compared eggs produced on each section of pasture to eggs taken from chickens raised in commercial cages on a typical grain diet.

They found that the pastured birds produced about three times more omega-3 fat in their eggs than did birds raised on an industrial diet. Regarding the best pasture mixes, “On average across all these periods, the mixtures highly dominated by legumes — clover and alfalfa — produced 18 percent more omega-3 fat than grass alone,” Karsten says. Eggs from the alfalfa pasture had 25 percent more omega-3s than grass-produced counterparts. “In absolute amounts, this was not a very big increase,” says Karsten. “But with more research and some different feeding regimes, it might go higher.”

Pasturing also boosted levels of vitamins A and E. “On average, we saw about twice as much vitamin E and 40 percent more vitamin A in the yolks of pasture-fed birds than in the caged birds. The longer the animals were on pasture, the more vitamins they produced,” Karsten says.

“From this study we confirmed three nutritional advantages of raising hens on pasture as compared to on an industry diet in cages: the increases in omega-3 fatty acids and in vitamins A and E. We also found that differences in omega-3 levels in plants have an effect on the eggs. And we learned how to manage chickens on pasture.”
--->http://www.rps.psu.edu/0305/poultry.html

The following is the kind of stuff that Jones does, which may be valid as far as it goes... the real bullshit is the Times article featured in this post.


Research Project: EFFECTS OF PROCESSING TREATMENTS ON SAFETY & QUALITY OF RAW AND COOKED POULTRY PRODUCTS
Location: Egg Safety and Quality

Title: Measuring Haugh Units

Author
Jones, Deana
Submitted to: National Egg Quality School Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings/Symposium
Publication Acceptance Date: April 26, 2002
Publication Date: March 1, 2003
Citation: Jones, D.R. 2003. Measuring haugh units. National Egg Quality School Proceedings. p. 288-289.
Technical Abstract: The Haugh unit is revered as the "gold standard" for interior egg quality determination. This method was developed by R. Haugh in 1937 and is based on the relationship of egg weight and height of the thick albumen. USDA Agriculture Marketing Service (AMS) have published specific guidelines for Haugh unit readings and egg grades (AMS 56.210). Haugh units are determined with the aid of a micrometer, balance, and level, flat surface (such as an egg break-out table). A break-out table can be useful during measurements because the mirror allows the operator to determine exactly when the micrometer comes in contact with the thick albumen surface. The selection of the sample site on the thick albumen surface is important. Care should be taken to prevent contact with the chalazae or placement of less than 1 cm from the yolk. Both of these conditions can lead to elevated to values. The operator needs to take care when cracking eggs for analysis to ensure the thick albumen is not broken. There are also more technologically advanced instrumentation that connect to a PC and allow for "real time" results.

http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?SEQ_NO_115=134403

[Tsiyu]

78. I'm glad you brought up omega-3

The studies i've read (one was reported in Mother Earth News)have all indicated that free-range and pastured chickens produce more omega-3 - the "good' fat in eggs - than factory hens.

But the USDA does not seem to be aware of this. Nor do the worshippers of all things OFFICIAL and ACTUAL

The USDA is merely an arm of Big Ag.

but don't tell the science worshippers

[johnaries]

77. Studies are limited by what they are looking for.

First of all, there is no guarantee the bleaching process doesn't allow chemicals to penetrate the shell through osmosis. Plus, I've pretty much given up eating anything that's been injected with hormones, antibiotics, or fed GM corn.

I fully support scientific studies, but as Schroedinger's Cat tells us the results of the most careful experiment (or study) ultimately depends on the scientist conducting it. That's why experiments/studies are peer-reviewed and independently verified.

Besides, like so many others here, I prefer the more humane process. That alone makes them taste better to me. :)

[shockra]

81. I can guess why this propaganda is coming out now.

New law against battery cages in CA, and it will affect other states.

"A new California law is likely to have repercussions on Iowa’s huge egg industry. The law, signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday, will require all eggs sold in California to come from hens that have room to move, lie down and spread their wings without touching each other. That mirrors the standard set for California farmers by a ballot measure passed overwhelmingly by the state’s voters in 2008."

http://blogs.desmoinesregister.com/dmr/index.php/2010/07/07/california-law-could-change-iowa-farms/

[FedUpWithIt All]

87. There is a definition problem here.

Cage free organic are still possibly raised indoors and are most likely on an organic, but very similar diet to caged birds. Technically Free range simply mean birds have access to outside, even if they never actually see it.

Pastured birds, birds allowed to (AND KNOW HOW TO) forage, create a different sort of egg than the types above. They eat a diet made up largely of insects and fresh natural greens, even an addition of cracked corn can be added. Their eggs have a bright orange yolk and have been tested as MUCH healthier than feed raised birds, either caged or organic.

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/05/pastured-eggs.html

I have a pasture chicken (run in a tractor) but she does not know to forage insects. Some birds have lost this instinct. She will eat grass, treats like watermelon and grapes, and feed. Her eggs are no different than store bought in yolk color or taste (the white is distinctly different). Other pasture ranged chicken's eggs i have had are very different. They have the dark orange yolks, cook fluffier and taste unbelievably good.

[FourScore]

132. I buy local pastured eggs. They are fantastic and cheaper. n/t

[Mulehead]

94. the Organic Center

Conducts research and publishes peer reviewed reports on the benefits of organic food production and the dangers of conventional industrial agrobiz production: http://www.organic-center.org/science.tocreports.html

The Jones report is disingenuous at best, and like most studies produced by industry-funded hacks like Jones starts with a subreption (a set of truths based upon a fundamental lie) or a set of limited assumptions, and then goes on to support the dubious subreption or limited assumptions, ignoring larger questions. The MSM then picks up the story and uncritically reports it and expands on the assumptions to throw the entire organic baby out with the bath water. The conclusion thus derived by the non-conscious eaters of America then is that organic food is a scam designed to separate rich yuppies from their money, and that industrially produced factory frankenfoods are safer, just as nutritious, cheaper, etc.

Proposition 1: Organic foods are no healthier than conventional factory produced foods.

Reality: Organic production is vastly better healthier for the environment and the organisms that live within it, including the 8 chickens that live cruelty-free in our back yard. Compared to industrialized, "conventionally" produced food, organic food production uses less water, pollutes less water, sequesters more carbon in the soil, harbors vastly less e coli strains than non-organic produced foods. National organic production standards ensure the quality and safety of certified organically-produced foods, and typically preserves the identity of the crop or product, and the producer. "Conventionally" produced foods are largely produced with limited health and safety standards, which are largely written by industrial concerns which have administratively captured the USDA and the FDA. Most food scares involve conventionally produced foods, but the MSM typically blames organics instead of the factories. See the e coli spinach issue of two or three years ago to see how this works in practice. Also the use and subsequent banning of Alar in apple production approximately 20 years ago. Conventional production creates a huge pollution load of nitrogen, ammoniates, pesticides, antibiotics and animal fecal wastes on local watersheds, depletes soil, causes erosion, introduces pesticides which concentrate up the food chain and ends up in human livers. It is also currently increasingly implicated in stress on pollinator populations, particularly bee colonies, and is the leading suspect in colony collapse disorder. Most industry sponsored comparative studies between conventional and organic foods, like Jones', do not take into account the process of mychorrizal activity and nutrient absorption of organic versus conventionally grown vegetable crops. Organically grown plants have been demonstrated in peer-reviewed studies to have far superior nutrient uptake and stronger root structures than conventionally grown plants which are typically fertilized only with bulk nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorous, and in which most of the beneficial bacteria have been killed off by pesticides and herbicides. Organically grown food is healthier for the planet because it typically is produced and consumed using far less food miles, and preserves biological diversity in direct contrast to industrial monocropping. Organic production is also vastly healthier economically for organic growers, as more of the cost of production is returned to the grower and kept within the local foodshed than conventionally grown, industrially produced food. "There is a lot of money in food, provided you are not a farmer" is a sad truism for most conventional farmers, as most of the profits from conventional production goes to the middlemen, distributors, and processors, and not to the growers. Organic production turns this on its head, with most of the profits going to the growers.

Proposition 2: Organic food is too expensive.

Reality: Conventionally produced industrial foods are simply too cheap because the industry is subsidized by government corporate welfare, paid for by taxpayers. See http://www.watershedmedia.org/foodfight_overview.html, for a good introduction to food politics in the US. Industrial food producers typically receive in excess of $40 billion plus each year in subsidies from taxpayers, making them one of the largest recipients of corporate welfare in the country. The subsidies to large corn and soybean producers allows for cheap commodities which allow conventional foods to be sold under their true cost of production. When exported to Mexico and central America, US grown subsidized corn and soybean depresses prices which forces millions of farmers from these countries to go bankrupt, leading them to migrate to the US in search of work. If the true cost of production and distribution of conventionally-produced foods were passed on to the consumer directly instead of hidden through higher taxes, it would be largely a wash vrs. the cost of organic foods.


Mrs Mulehead and I own a quarter acre of suburban land, upon which we have eliminated the grass which most Americans are obsessed with, and replaced it with an intensively cultivated organic minifarm, upon which we produce probably half of our food, including eggs produced by our 8 free range heirloom hens. They collectively produce approximately a half dozen eggs a day. We notice a huge difference in the color of the yolks during the summer (when they free range and eat a diet in which their organic feed and scratch is greatly supplemented by insects such as Japanese beetles, grubs, slugs, and deer ticks, grasses, and kale and cabbage leaves and other vegetable scraps and waste from our organic garden), and the color of the yolks in the winter when their diet is largely limited to organic feed and scratch alone. This color level is largely related to the increased beta carotene levels in their summer vrs. winter diet. The ladies are very happy to use their beaks to eat and their legs to move around. They live long, happy, and largely stress free lives. The omelet we had today for breakfast consisted of six very large, very orange-yolked free range organic eggs that were laid by our chickens yesterday, filled with sautéed nettles that Mrs. Mulehead picked this morning, onions and garlic that we grew this year, and ham that we bought from a neighbor who raises his own organically-raised, free range pigs, covered with habanero hot sauce made by my wife from peppers we grew last year. Total cost? Probably less than a dollar, minus labor, which we and our chickens seem quite happy to provide.

We just finished eating and freezing more than 5 gallons of organic strawberries, 30 pounds of snap peas, and have been eating organic salad greens since March. Early onions and garlic are now being harvested. Zucchini and summer squash are now producing, and tomatoes and sweet corn are fruiting and should start ripening in the next few weeks. I think we paid less than $100 for seed last year, and spent zilch on fertilizers or pesticides, and incurred zero food miles. I compost maple leaves, kitchen scraps, and weeds in my homemade composter (made from free, recycled oakwood pallets) and have build up our soil in 10 years from grass covered clay into organic soil two feed deep in our raised beds. We save our open pollinating heirloom seeds so we don't have to support Monsanto's efforts to dominate the world's food supply. I can't remember the last time my wife, daughter, or I had a cold. Mrs. Mulehead and I are both in our early fifties and do not take maintenance drugs for high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, or any other diseases caused by malnutrition caused by eating a nutrient poor and pesticide rich conventionally grown and processed diet. Our 12 year old daughter is skinny and healthy, doesn't have self image issues (we blew up our TV when she was born) and loves raising her chickens and making her own clothes.

If anyone is interested, please visit the Rodale Institute's Transition to Organics on-line course http://www.tritrainingcenter.org/course/ to learn how fun and easy it is to begin producing your own food organically, even if you have no more room than a flower pot or windowsill.

Peace and Health,

Mulehead

[WhoIsNumberNone]

96. I don't eat organic cage-free eggs for my health, I eat them for the chickens' health

[ohheckyeah]

97. They may not be healthier

(which I don't believe) but the fresh ones I get locally are from chickens that have the Taj Mahal of chicken coops and a nice, large outdoor area. I pay $1.00 a dozen and the shells are harder, the yolks darker and richer and they just plain taste better. The chickens look healthy and well tended and I hope I never have to buy another egg from a factory.

[Hannah Bell]

123. yes, i can buy free-range eggs at a decent price just from people who raise them for their own use.

corporations could produce a decent product with a reasonable profit.

but the systematic competitive nature of capitalism drives toward a shitty product because of the need to constantly cut, cut, cut.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

103. Well, duh.

http://www.cracked.com/funny-5412-organic-food/

[SunnySong]

120. Organic fruits and vegatibles are not healthier either I am not sure why this is a surprise. nt

[chaska]

121. And brand of shampoo has virtually no effect on SAT test scores...

Organic (in this case) is about environmental and animal cruelty issues, not health.

[Catherina]

126. Unmitigated bullshit

•In 1974, the British Journal of Nutrition found that pastured eggs had 50 percent more folic acid and 70 percent more vitamin B12 than eggs from factory farm hens.

•In 1988, Artemis Simopoulos, co-author of The Omega Diet, found pastured eggs in Greece contained 13 times more omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids than U.S. commercial eggs.

•A 1998 study in Animal Feed Science and Technology found that pastured eggs had higher omega-3s and vitamin E than eggs from caged hens.

•A 1999 study by Barb Gorski at Pennsylvania State University found that eggs from pastured birds had 10 percent less fat, 34 percent less cholesterol, 40 percent more vitamin A, and four times the omega-3s compared to the standard USDA data. Her study also tested pastured chicken meat, and found it to have 21 percent less fat, 30 percent less saturated fat and 50 percent more vitamin A than the USDA standard.

•In 2003, Heather Karsten at Pennsylvania State University compared eggs from two groups of Hy-Line variety hens, with one kept in standard crowded factory farm conditions and the other on mixed grass and legume pasture. The eggs had similar levels of fat and cholesterol, but the pastured eggs had three times more omega-3s, 220 percent more vitamin E and 62 percent more vitamin A than eggs from caged hens.

•The 2005 study Mother Earth News conducted of four heritage-breed pastured flocks in Kansas found that pastured eggs had roughly half the cholesterol, 50 percent more vitamin E, and three times more beta carotene.

•The 2007 results from 14 producers are shown here.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx?page=4

The eggs Deana Jones wants you to eat are full of pesticides and hormones, unlike organic eggs. There's a health concern right there that they're conveniently overlooking.


I understand the game playing with terms like cage-free, raised without cages and advocate finding independent growers to get your eggs from. Or best yet, raise your own so you have pastured eggs. Those are the best tasting and healthiest. If you can't raise your own, find a local egg farmer and speak to your egg farmer, find out how he washes his eggs because that's important too. Raising your own is so easy that a child could do it.

New test results show that pastured egg producers are kicking the commercial industry's derriere when it comes to vitamin D! Eggs from hens raised on pasture show 4 to 6 times as much vitamin D as typical supermarket eggs. Learn more: Eggciting News!!!

RESULTS FROM OUR PREVIOUS STUDY: Eggs from hens allowed to peck on pasture are a heck of a lot better than those from chickens raised in cages! Most of the eggs currently sold in supermarkets are nutritionally inferior to eggs produced by hens raised on pasture. That’s the conclusion we have reached following completion of the 2007 Mother Earth News egg testing project. Our testing has found that, compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:

• 1⁄3 less cholesterol
• 1⁄4 less saturated fat
• 2⁄3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene



RESULTS FROM OUR PREVIOUS STUDY: Eggs from hens allowed to peck on pasture are a heck of a lot better than those from chickens raised in cages! Most of the eggs currently sold in supermarkets are nutritionally inferior to eggs produced by hens raised on pasture. That’s the conclusion we have reached following completion of the 2007 Mother Earth News egg testing project. Our testing has found that, compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs, eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:

• 1⁄3 less cholesterol
• 1⁄4 less saturated fat
• 2⁄3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

http://www.motherearthnews.com/eggs.aspx

[varelse]

128. Did they test for arsenic?

[apocalypsehow]

140. I wish I'd thought up that "buy organic" scam before it really took off - the dude that did is a

gazillionaire, and laughing his ass off all the way to the bank.

[bemildred]

144. Simplisitic, unscientific crap.

The best you can do with this, scientifically, is "Haugh unit measure does not distinguish free range from battery cage eggs", and also "chickens with polluted feed lay polluted eggs".

[conspirator]

147. BULLSHIT STUDY payed by food inc n/t

[Odin2005]

148. LOL, I see the Woo-Woos are out, engaging in fallacies.

:rofl:

[Tsiyu]

149. See posts 74 and 126

Many scientific studies make this Jones tripe look like a fifth grader wrote it.

Or do you only believe the scientists who agree with Big Agri-Biz?

Are all other scientists just woo-woo freaks?


See, with your kind on DU : That's the real deal.

The science worshippers here only worship scientists who repeat the OFFICIAL status quo and aid the corporations. All other scientists, no matter their training, are woo-woo.

That makes YOU look pretty woo-woo, actually.

I'll trust the scientists who took the time to measure eggs using MODERN research methods and nutrition knowledge, not one who uses a methodology from 1937. We've learned too much about nutrition since the thirties to trust a measurement developed back then.

Edit to add, see also Post 94 for more "woo-woo" science

[sabrina 1]

157. Who cares? It's about the cruelty of those chicken farms and

also pig farms. I wonder how much was paid by the Chicken Farm Lobby to get that study out?

[peopleb4money]

158. Its definitely more humane for the hen and helps support small scale farmers though.

[Touchdown]

161. 160 virulent and combative posts... about eggs

:rofl:

[LostinVA]

171. Go eat your spaghetti and garlic bread!

[SpiralHawk]

172. Well folks get touchy when someone tries to shove Republicorporate pseuedoscience

'findings' down their gullet.

Folks about had it with this kind of poisonous propaganda; "Eat our crappy, chem-soaked industrial mutant shit rations, and like it. We have stooge 'scientists' who say it's ok. Smirk." - Republicorporatistas

[Touchdown]

173. Ok! I wasn't looking too close.

RW prop gets to me as well, so you're in the right to get upset. I was just having a little fun. :hide: