so what does "cage free" REALLY mean anyhow?

[Colored Egg Farmer]

Yea that looks a bit better we already have a number due to the fact that our eggs go to NYC. Mine which will be done at the processing plant will have the number of the plant but have my name on the carton. If any one wants to ask about what huge producers just send me a question. We have been in busness since 1924 and I hope my and my parents, and grandparents have enough experience. I'm just here to learn some stuff about incubation and other stuff. So if you have any questions about huge Commercial Egg producers just give me a message. I can tell you one thing. You will be quite glad you have your own eggs.

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Quote:
I completely understand that, and agree. I was just wondering what exactly the label meant.

There are a lot of people that look at a label that says "cage free" or "free range" and think that those chickens live like mine do when I say that they are "cage free" and "free range"

Yup! That's why the eggs are advertised like that. That's also why Battery farms have such names like "Sunny Meadows"(**NOTE: I am NOT singling out this brand, I do NOT know whether they use battery systems. It is purely an example of advertising..**). Such advertising produces mental images of the "good ol' days on the farm" and thus make people want to buy them more. LOL. Who wants to buy eggs whose brand-name is "Overcrowded Warehouse" and labeled "machine collected" "cage produced". LOL

-Kim

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

We are now just reading the Omnivore's Dilemma and it's a REAL eye opener I have to say. This is the reason we will only by meats from a organic free range farm in our area! It's pretty scary stuff!

 

[hooligan]

Quote:
I completely understand that, and agree. I was just wondering what exactly the label meant.

There are a lot of people that look at a label that says "cage free" or "free range" and think that those chickens live like mine do when I say that they are "cage free" and "free range"

Yup! That's why the eggs are advertised like that. That's also why Battery farms have such names like "Sunny Meadows"(**NOTE: I am NOT singling out this brand, I do NOT know whether they use battery systems. It is purely an example of advertising..**). Such advertising produces mental images of the "good ol' days on the farm" and thus make people want to buy them more. LOL. Who wants to buy eggs whose brand-name is "Overcrowded Warehouse" and labeled "machine collected" "cage produced". LOL

-Kim

There is a battery facility with the name Sunny Meadows? Really?

 

[Wolf-Kim]

Hooligan, I think this is the brand you find at Walmart and Food Lion. I can't find anything saying Cage free or free-ranging. So process of elimination?

I did a college presentation on battery hens and the class got a laugh out of it as well.

-Kim

 

[chickenannie]

A good standard to use for buying healthy meat is:

1) Am I allowed to freely visit the farm and see how the meat is being raised?

2) When I am at the farm, is it a pleasant experience and a place I enjoy being?

This would naturally exclude all windowless, confinement operations with manure problems and cages and upset animals, and would gravitate toward small, grassfed, pastured, in-balance farms.

These wonderful farms DO exist -- we've just been fooled into thinking they don't, or that they can't provide this country with enough food, but that is a fallacy.

 

[hooligan]

I agree CA, we have gone off milk until a local dairy gets more available and if we ate meat we would get it from them as well. People are way too dependant on supermarkets for everything and don't realize the difference in taste and quality of good food. My big thing is tomatoes, supermarket tomatoes taste like water compared to home grown ones (I loves me some 'maters)

 

[Beekissed]

I'm wondering why, even with 60,000 or so chickens, someone couldn't put these birds on a large pasture? With some livestock dogs and inside roosts for nighttime, why couldn't someone pasture chickens? Yes, it would take more land, but, so what? If one truly wanted to produce chickens commercially and still offer a healthier life for the bird and healthier meat for the consumer, why couldn't they do this? Rotating the pastures in a large wheel or half-wheel around these buildings, why couldn't this be an alternative? Around here I see these buildings full of chickens and the pastures around them full of cows. Greed would be my guess?

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
I agree entirely with #1 and #2. It's why I farm. I want to ensure animals used for meat (or eggs) which I consume were treated with the dignity and to standards I myself would apply. I find satisfaction in all of it, regularly let people tour my farm (even though there are 100's of things I would like to do better), and sell out of every product I produce. I believe tranparency within a food system which has alwys been "anonymous" is a great marketing tool allowing my farm to be sustainable (i.e. profitable).

As far as production, I don't think farms on my scale could collectively feed our country, let alone the vast billions of tons of grain which are exported. But, I have my niche I am filling to the best of my ability.

 

[greyfields]

Quote:
I got to see a free range / cage free production facility in Yelm, WA. There are very large stationary sheds with ample pasture outside for the birds to use. The stocking rates were very dense by my standards, but hell it's hard to fault people who are doing something which gives the animals a better standard of living than they would in an egg battery.

The largest issue is that even given all the freedom in the world, chickens are flock creatures an generally will not stray more than 100' from the bard where the food and warmth is. At some level, we are projecting our human emotions onto birds which don't desire "Freedom" as we experience it. But, I do not think that is any excuse or justification for egg battery farms.

My chickens regularly intermingle with cows, sheep, goats and pigs, because they make awesome use of the spilled feeds/grain which other animals don't utilize.