Modern Marvels - ALL ABOUT EGGS! ON now

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Its on again right now on the History Channel!!

I dont really like some of the things they are saying. "White Leghorns are naturally cannibalistic, so their beaks must be trimmed after hatch."


and "Beak trimming doesnt hurt, according to...." Well how in the !@$# does he know?


I like the guy with the red barns, and the free range birds though.
 
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Yeah, I couldn't watch when they had the part on about beak trimming. And I have found that my chickens aren't naturally cannibalistic
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Maybe we're just lucky
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I couldn't believe that guy gets $8 for his eggs!!!! Holy cramolies! Definitely a different part of town from what I live in
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They didn't even talk about green eggs like they mentioned in the beginning... But, there were definitely some interesting facts to be learned - it's TV... need I say more?
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Well, I learned I've been giving away eggs that go for $8/dozen. They said the egg nutrition was no different from battery cage hens and bug/grass eating free range backyard----maybe so, but the taste tells me otherwise.
 
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Some facts crossed and some crossed out all together. Not one mention about the steroids, hormones and antibiotics the big houses pump into the caged birds to get them to make an egg. Anyone notice how floppy the combs were on the caged birds? They don't look like Herbs Happy Hens to me. I'm sure they egg producers of had their heavy hand into this episode of Modern Marvels. The show was interesting up to the point where they tried to say free range isn't any healthier than mass produced. The show did mention how a free range may taste different than caged because diet effects taste. OK, that being said, I wonder what does the egg taste like that comes from a bird that has to eliminate and eat in the same small space?
 
It was interesting but your right it was biased, toward the big egg producer, who would buy $8 a doz eggs, but that fellow also said you have to be a member of his CSM ? (do I have the right letters) to get his eggs, so how does he come up with $8 a doz. and you ever see a big chicken house the clean.
 
RE: the 8$ doz eggs.

The pastured farm featured, Eatwell Farm in Dixon, CA is a member of what is called 'Community Supported Agriculture' or CSA which, I'm going to quote LocalHarvest.org here:
http://www.localharvest.org/csa/ :

Over the last 20 years, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) has become a popular way for consumers to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer. Here are the basics: a farmer offers a certain number of "shares" to the public. Typically the share consists of a box of vegetables, but other farm products may be included. Interested consumers purchase a share (aka a "membership" or a "subscription") and in return receive a box (bag, basket) of seasonal produce each week throughout the farming season.

It's a simple enough idea, but its impact has been profound. Tens of thousands of families have joined CSAs, and in some areas of the country there is more demand than there are CSA farms to fill it.

Eatwell Farm's particular CSA program is outlined as:
http://www.eatwell.com/community/index.html :

Boxes of fresh, organic produce can be delivered to a site near you either every week or every-other week! This is an economically-and environmentally-sustainable way to grow, deliver, and eat food. We deliver to the locations listed below; we are not a home-delivery service. Subscribing for a box provides you with great produce and a direct connection to where your food is grown and the people who grow it. Eatwell Farm members have opportunities to visit the farm, meet the farmers and other members, and learn more about sustainable agriculture.

You may also sign up to receive our pastured eggs! They will be delivered on the same schedule as your produce boxes and must be purchased in advance. They cost $4 per half dozen or $8 per full dozen

How much does it cost? We recommend you start with a 4-delivery trial subscription, which costs $108 (produce only) or ($124 with a half dozen eggs per delivery or $140 with a dozen eggs per delivery). The prices are the same for every-other-week service, as is the size of the box. The difference is simply that a four-box trial would take 8 weeks to complete, 13 boxes would come over 26 weeks, and so on.

Paraphrasing Nigel (the farmer with the silly hat), they deliver over 900 boxes of produce a week, with the 8$/doz eggs being an additional box to check on the 'subscription form'. (box of produce + 8$) He mentioned that they had *at time of filming*, a waiting list of over 200 people that wait a good 5 to 6 months before receiving any deliveries. His market (San Francisco and surrounding areas) can more than support 8$ a dozen, and good for him! Not all of us live and sell eggs in this type of environment and I hope we can take this into mind when we make the
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face when reading about people who 'overpay'.​
 
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Not exactly.

There are three types of eggs available:
1 - Eggs from the Caged birds shown at Rose Acre Farms in Iowa, the overcrowded caged birds with floppy combs, ratty feathers, and that have been debeaked. These eggs are sold wholesale to your grocery stores and this particular farm houses up to 1.5 million hens, in their 6 barns. (~3$ per Modern Marvels - these may be less or even more in your individual markets)

2 - Eggs from the 'Cage Free' / 'Free Range' type shown at both Rose Acre Farms and Peteluma Farms in Northern Ca, who live in a large barn, are still debeaked, but are allowed to roost and dust bathe. These birds do not venture outside as the following category does. These eggs are sold wholesale to your grocery stores and the farms hold around 60,000 hens. (5$ per Modern Marvels - again, these may be less or even more in your individual markets)

3 - and Eggs from the Pastured type as shown at Eatwell Farms in Dixon, CA. These were the 8$ eggs - and the ones most comparable to the ones we ourselves produce. These birds go outside in the sun, eat grass and bugs, frolic and live happy lives. These can be wholesale if a big enough company, but are usually smaller productions that *can* supply local grocery stores. Eatwell says they have 20,000 hens but I believe only sell through their local CSA.

'Cage-free' as written on egg cartons in the stores come from the second category. There are NO government regulations on the terms 'cage free' and 'free range' for eggs - although they do exist (with poor stipulations in my mind) for chicken meat.

When Francine Bradley, Poultry Specialist from UC Davis said:
In terms of nutritional value, there is no nutritional difference, so the egg laid by a hen who is maintained in a cage is going to be the same as the nutritional value from an egg laid by a hen that was on the ground.

She is comparing category 1, the caged birds, to category 2, the 'free range/cage free' birds. These birds both consume the same type of feed, in the same type of environment, although category 2 is much better off. This is further reinforced as the footage in the episode cuts from the caged birds at Rose Acre to the 'cage free' barn birds (again at Rose Acre or Peteluma Farms) and not the pastured birds shown at Eatwell Farms who are scratching in the grass. (Not to mention that Eatwell feds theirs on actual grains in addition to natural foraging, whereas both Rose Acre and Peteluma freed powdered all purpose 'vegeterian' mixes.)

It's easy to assume that large scale producers of 'cage free' eggs are claiming they have better eggs than actual pastured or backyard eggs, but you have to look at their exact wording. They know they can't compare with the lovely golden yolks we get - taste or nutrition wise. So they stick with being *better* than the caged birds in category 1 and prey on the same philosophical reasons that Francine Bradley mentioned:
I know people who pay several dollars more a dozen for the eggs because they don't want to buy eggs from hens who were kept in cages; that's a philosophical decision, and they have the ability to pay more for it, and I think that great.

*Google is awesome - 'Modern Marvels Transctipt Eggs' gives up this page: http://www.livedash.com/transcript/modern_marvels-(eggs)/71/HISTP/Thursday_January_21_2010/141364/ and a few more google searches for the actual places mentioned gives the rest of the links and quotes.​
 
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