Legislation to improve lives of egg laying hens

[GardenerGal]

Interesting, to me at least, is that up until just after WWII, it was very common for families to have at least a few chickens and a small vegetable garden in the yard, even in very urban areas. I've met a lot of people in their 60s and older who remember growing up with fresh eggs from their own hens, even people who had nothing more than a city tenement courtyard. There were even horses and dray-wagons in the city, milk goats, and pigs. New York City and many other big cities had mews -- urban stables tucked between the tenements. This, right up into the 1940s to the early 1950s.

But during the post-war boom, with the birth of mass-suburbia, keeping chickens and gardens started getting pushed out, being considered "old fashioned" and unhealthy - something only for poor rural people, not the new "middle class."

Now it looks like we are going the other way again, with people becoming disenchanted with their dependency on corporations for food, and the increasing powerlessness to control the provenance and quality of that food.

I wonder whether we'll see more push-back by "the masses" against the increasing restrictions on urban chicken and livestock keeping, more demands for accountability by food producers, and a greater development of small farming that supplies people with food on a local scale.

 

[chickened]

I can tell a freerange egg by where I find it... does that count?

Eggs are nutritious and uncomplicated as well as versatile. People swear they can tell a free range egg from a battery produced egg. People love the idea of chickens happily living in fields with adequate protection at night from the cold and foxes. They also love the idea of feeding their children a high standard product, as unadulterated as it was many years ago. It's what is known as the 'feel good factor' and it's effect on people's purchasing choices is incalculable. 10 years ago, free range, organic eggs were left on the shelf in favour of the much cheaper alternative. Now the reverse is true, and people would not own up to buying cheaper eggs even if they did. Really good eggs are a little luxury that even the less well off can afford, despite these challenging times we live in.

 

[deerman]

True free range chicken eggs will have orange yolks....not the light yellow from laying houses.

Has to do with their diet..lots of greens and bugs.

So easy for anyone to tell.

 

[newfoundland]

But really it's all about preference and consumer choice isn't it. In UK brown eggs outsell white ones by a massive margin. People used to believe that they were more nutritious. We now know this is not the case, but the consumer still prefers them. Maybe it is to do with looking healthy and suntanned who knows? Farming, just like manufacturing is consumer led. If the demand is for healthy looking brown free range eggs then the farmer must meet that demand or risk becoming unprofitable.

Consumers are turning away from thinking first about the price of the item, and more towards it's quality. They are beginning to ask how this animal was raised, and indeed in many shops the goods are labelled with how they were reared and which farm they come from. The farmers are rightly proud of what they regard as a high quality product. To pay $3 to $5 for a dozen free range eggs represents excellent value for money, and in my opinion can be afforded from the smallest budget.

 

[runsw/scissors]

Newfoundland, I would guess that the sheer hopeless mind numbing poverty we have here in the states is largely unheard of in the UK (that is where you are, correct?). Sadly we do still have horrendous poverty here. $3 - 5 a dozen is nearly out of reach for me. I can only afford chickens because I also eat my extra roos. The 20 dollars or so a month feeds my food... the eggs and chicken I eat; a real bargain!

 

[deerman]

Newfoundland, I would guess that the sheer hopeless mind numbing poverty we have here in the states is largely unheard of in the UK (that is where you are, correct?). Sadly we do still have horrendous poverty here. $3 - 5 a dozen is nearly out of reach for me. I can only afford chickens because I also eat my extra roos. The 20 dollars or so a month feeds my food... the eggs and chicken I eat; a real bargain!

wow sorry you are having that hard .of a time. $ 3 a dozen really.....reason most town have food banks, please don't be afraid to use them. they are there for a reason.

 

[newfoundland]

We do indeed have poverty here. Unemployment is growing all the time as companies struggle in this recession. The minimum wage for an adult is about £6 an hour. Petrol is about £6 a gallon and diesal is higher still. In my county it is estimated that 50% of households are in fuel poverty, which means they spend more than 10% of their income on fuel. Many have to spend as much as 25%. There are estimated to be up to 4 million children living below the poverty line. A significant proportion of families have £40 a week to feed a family of four. A dozen free range eggs would cost £3 -£4 here. But this is exactly why they are such an economical food. It would be impossible to buy a similarly nutritious amount of meat for that price. Of course it would be possible to buy cheap frozen burgers etc, but families want to do their best for their children and not feed them on junk food with poor nutritional qualities. Eggs and cheese are the great standbys when you are less well off, and it is possible to buy good local cheese and free range eggs for just a little more money. More people grow their own vegetables and fruit since WW2 It is all about giving the children a good start in life, and many succeed, as I'm sure they do in the US even on the most miserly budgets.

 

[chickened]

Producers know that any product that the average citizen can produce causes them to price their product near that level. That is why drugs are so expensive when they are cheap to make. Food needs to stay cheap not just for the poor but it diverts money from other areas and lowers you standard of living. I will say some do the opposite starve their kids with poor food and buy adult toys.

 

[AquaEyes]

Producers know that any product that the average citizen can produce causes them to price their product near that level. That is why drugs are so expensive when they are cheap to make. Food needs to stay cheap not just for the poor but it diverts money from other areas and lowers you standard of living. I will say some do the opposite starve their kids with poor food and buy adult toys.

Drugs are not really "cheap to make" unless you don't count the research and testing required before they are allowed for sale -- but they wouldn't be available if not for that long and expensive series of steps, so the sale price must generate enough money to recoup that investment.

 

[JD4570]

Drugs are not really "cheap to make" unless you don't count the research and testing required before they are allowed for sale -- but they wouldn't be available if not for that long and expensive series of steps, so the sale price must generate enough money to recoup that investment.

Don't forget about the legal staff that must be retained to defend against any litigation.