Exposing the Fraud of Grocery Store Organic Eggs

[User395221]

but are most people willing to pay $6 a dozen for that or are they content with blah eggs for $2.99 a dozen from Wallyworld?

Unfortunately, some of us have been paying the premium for "free range" eggs, but the chooks haven't really been given free range. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has taken several producers to court over misleading claims about "free range" eggs.
http://www.accc.gov.au/media-releas...to-provide-clarity-on-‘free-range’-egg-claims

It seems that where there's money in it, people will just make stuff up.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Good for Australia and the EU for having better regulations.

In the US, all you need is for that little 2'X2' door for 10,000 hens to go out onto a barren dirt patch between buildings to be able to call them free range eggs.

Most people expect cage free to mean something. The hens still never see the light of day or a blade of grass.

 

[User395221]

Good for Australia and the EU for having better regulations.

No, we don't, it isn't actually prescribed what it means, just that locking them inside isn't free range....

 

[Teila]

Interesting Read [Subscribing]

When my girls were not laying due to moulting, being broody etc, I purchased top dollar organic free range eggs from the supermarket to scramble and feed to them .. yes, I see the irony but they are my pets/babies

Anyways, I got such a shock when I cracked them into a bowl .. I have never seen such pale yolks ever; even before having chickens of my own and buying eggs for over 25 years before that and eating eggs for even longer.

I am definitely not convinced that my definition of organic free range and the conditions in which these chickens were probably kept are the same thing.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The dark yolk comes from ingestion of carotenoids. Truly pasturing the chickens will do that. The yellow in commercial eggs is mostly from consuming yellow corn in the diet.
In Africa, the corn is mostly white and often the yolks will be very pale, almost white.

I don't think the color of the yolk definitely means they are healthier, just that the hens' diet consisted of more or less foods containing carotenoids.

 

[Teila]

Yep, totally agree with you there ChickenCanoe and using those facts can only guess that the high priced, organic, free range eggs I purchased in Aus were from chickens free ranging not in a pasture.

Just me, but I think the labelling should probably be more specific as to what they are ‘free ranging’ on.

Granted, free ranging, if it means a decent area and not a tacked on patio, is far better than being locked up but free ranging in a pastured area is much better than free ranging on a totally barren, grass and bug free dust bowl.

With the egg yolk colour I experienced, I can only guess that they were 'free ranging' on cement or concrete

 

[User395221]

but free ranging in a pastured area is much better than free ranging on a totally barren, grass and bug free dust bowl.

From the mammoth effort my 4 little girls put in to clear my weeds and dig over me vege beds, I can't imagine that any pastured area occupied by the numbers of chooks on a commercial egg farm would stay pastured for any length of time.

 

[Teila]

From the mammoth effort my 4 little girls put in to clear my weeds and dig over me vege beds, I can't imagine that any pastured area occupied by the numbers of chooks on a commercial egg farm would stay pastured for any length of time.

True but if done properly, they could rotate the pastures.

It would not be easy and would probably cost them $$$'s they are not prepared to spend. If I am buying high priced, organic, free range eggs I guess I would like to think that the chickens are running around doing chicken stuff, scratching in grass, chasing bugs etc .. I will change my thinking as there is more chance of that than any actual definition as to what 'free range' means

Luckily I do not buy eggs often .. I will look next time to see if it mentions 'free range' or 'pastured' and also what company it was; might be interesting to check out their web site if they have one.

 

[jimbob86]

Quote: Being an "urbanite" is a choice: there are vast swathes of this country that had people, indeed functioning communities, in them, just a few decades ago ..... and now are full of ghost towns and scattered farms tended by old men ...... the kids by and large moved away chasing the almighty dollar and entertainment in the cities..... There is not an "overpopulation" problem ..... just a excess of people concentrated in urban areas that haven't got the sense God gave geese.

Ag policy in the United States is geared to provide food for these people as cheaply as possible, regardless of the cost to the people themselves ...... it makes them dependent, and easily controlled.

They get cheap (and often FREE) food, and free entertainment ..... but it's not good food, and to look at the majority of them the amount of they eat is debilitaing them .......

You get what you pay for, when you are dealing with reputable people. Corporations are NOT people.

 

[User395221]

they could rotate the pastures.

It would depend on the location I think. You'd be lucky to get any pasture, let alone several, over here in the drought-affected areas. You'd need a lot of water, which we don't have.....

Luckily, I no longer have to buy eggs or worry about what I'm getting in the shops.