EU Bans battery cages in 2012...will that ever happen in US? (photos)

[arianna]

I was talking to my sister today (who's a very devoted Eggland’s Best customer) and we were disagreeing on who's eggs are better. My back yard chickens, fed with grain, leftover vegetables, and grass (free range when I'm there), happy, and raised with lots of love,

or the "wonder" eggs from Eggland’s Best packed with vitamins.
So I went on Eggland’s Best website to read more about their cage free and "the other" eggs they sell that are so special.

My reaction was..... Are you kidding me?

This article is on Egg-Land Best homepage
Q. Where and how are the hens housed?
A. Eggland’s Best farms are located all across the U.S. Our regular Eggland's Best eggs in the white carton are from caged hens. Cages are the most prevalent housing system in the commercial egg industry because cages still offer the best sanitation, ventilation, and freedom from dust and ammonia. Cages offer the most disease-free environment

, since the hens do not have access to others' waste and there is no organic matter for bacteria to grow on. There are also fewer problems with hens pecking each other when they are caged in small groups with a rigidly defined social order , rather than the continual mingling and challenging that goes on in a large barn

Basically, is the Battery Cage chicken, fed with some extra vitamins, then add $2 extra per dozen and sell it as healthy eggs from happy hens.
And the "cage free"( that means they are allowed to be on the floor, not outside) chickens are the one that never see the daylight, or grass, or anything else except the floor of the barn/mill.

Here's some real battery cage photos posted on Wikipedia

(images removed by Staff)


I supposed my sister can keep her Eggland's Best, and I'll keep my happy hens.

I often tell myself, if most people in US, who own a house with a back yard (a small one will do) will keep 2 or 3 hens, good layers, they can get a dozen of eggs a week and the chickens can be pet for the family, I figure if you have room for a dog and a cat then you have room for a chicken as well. If more people will do that, then we wouldn't need a government to ban anything, this monster corporations will simply go out of business, or at least will eliminate a good part of their production (the meat demand will still be there) .

The good part is that I managed to “convert” one of my neighbors, after I give her some of my eggs, and she is getting chickens, RIR, as soon as her husband, will finish the coop.

....so, spread the good word fellow BYC'ers...

......And some more foods EU banned in Europe but widely available in US.
(activist link removed)

 

[Boyd]

No they will never ban them............. and those pics are not the majority of battery farm operations.. You have quite a few egg farmers on this board who don't shout out cuz they don't want to be lumped in with the worst as pictured here...

 

[GarlicEater]

When I was a kid we used to go to the Cackle Fresh Egg Farm and while in battery cages it was not anything like that. I think that's a picture of the worst of the worst.

There's a local egg place, it's really cool - they have a sign visible from Monterey Road/Highway, you turn in where it says and over the railroad tracks and another turn, and there's an air line across where you drive and it goes Ding! Ding! just like at a gas station, or how gas stations used to be anyway, and basically it's a drive-through for eggs. The guy keeps the whole place really squared away. I went there not to buy eggs, but because I wanted to look at his chickens, I wanted to see how he was doing his feeding and watering, but he said he doesn't let anyone in, because of the chance of disease. But we talked a bit, and if I ever have to buy eggs again I'm buying them from him and hang the price - although I think it's better than the supermarkets.

I talked to a gal at Tractor Supply today who has ..... 700 chickens! That's what she told me! She says they "give" the eggs to friends etc. Gotta be a gross of eggs a day BARE MINIMUM. Maybe they are selling them. They're free range, and divided into 3 flocks, each on an acre or so. That would be amazing to see.

If you've got 700 chickens, and the guy at the Ding! Ding! place may have 1000, who knows, things are gonna get poopy, there's an occasional one that's just going to pick that day to drop dead, etc. As squared away as the egg drive through guy is, I'm willing to bet his chickens are in fine shape. Conditions as horrific as in those photos are indicative of laziness and a poor grasp of economics, even if you leave the utter insensitivity to animal suffering out of it.

From the rules: 2. No discussions about animal rights organizations or Cock fighting​