Eggs: Presenting Problems, and Solutions

With Easter season upon on, heightening the awareness of the cruelties of egg production is vital. In 2007, consumption rose from an average of about 94 million dozen eggs weekly to 115 million dozen the week before Easter and almost 136 million during Easter week, according to the National Egg Council.

In a world where people are so disconnected to where their food comes from, providing a visual is so crucial. Artist, web developer, and animal advocate Mark Middleton created animalvisuals.org to do just that. This is his brainchild, The Virtual Battery Cage.



Among the shocking statistics we advocates are familiar with:
1) In the U.S., some 95% of egg-laying hens are intensively confined in battery cages.
2) As of December 2008, about 300 million birds are confined in battery cages, almost one for every U.S. citizen.
3) Each cage confines 5 or 6 birds on average, but sometimes up to 10 birds.

In addition to presenting the problem, he provides viable alternatives to eggs. These include applesauce, bananas, and commercial egg replacer powder (such as Ener-G Egg Replacer), and others. Too often, I read animal rights literature speaking about the horrors of factory farming, but not leaving the reader with another option. They must walk away with a sense of what they can consume instead, otherwise the point will have been lost.

Check out alternatives to eggs on About.com and Bob's Red Mill Vegetarian Egg Replacer.

Think cage-free are better? Not necessarily, according to the Humane Society of the United States. Most cage-free hens live in very large flocks that can include thousands of hens who never go outside, they say. Here are more facts from the HSUS:

-Cage-free farms usually purchase their hens from the same hatcheries that supply battery-cage farms. These hatcheries kill the male chicks upon hatching - exceeding 200 million annually in the U.S.
-Most cage-free hens have part of their beaks burned off, a painful mutilation.
-Hens are often killed at less than two years old, less than half their normal lifespan. They are typically transported long distances to slaughter plants with no food or water.

Learn more about cage-free egg production vs. Battery-cage egg production

A reality check. This sign hangs outside of the hen house at Farm Sanctuary's Watkins Glen, NY, shelter.

The ideal. Chickens enjoying a dust bath on a sunny autumn day in Watkins Glen.

Freedom rings in this hen house

Sweet solitude.

If you haven't already, please send an e-mail to your legislators asking them to end cruel confinement of farm animals, including battery cages, using this form from Farm Sanctuary.

Jamie's Fowl Dinners: The Unseen Price to Cheap Eggs and Chicken

British chef Jamie Oliver is not as big a name as Rachael Ray or Emeril Lagasse in the United States, which is a shame. While our celebrity chefs seem self-obsessed and always looking for the next marketing deal (Rachael Ray-branded garbage bowls anyone?) Jamie does what no American chef has the courage to do - enlighten the masses to where their food actually comes from. His "Jamie's Fowl Dinners" special exposed the truth to how Britain's chickens and eggs are produced, very much in factory farm conditions widespread in the U.S.

On the egg and chicken business, he bemoans, "the industries behind which I believe have been pushed, pushed, and even bullied at times, to produce cheaper and cheaper food. I believe if we give you, the great British public, the credit and show you where your cheap eggs and where your cheap meat comes from, next time you go shopping you'll make better choices."



"You're talking about a living machine when it comes to modern chickens. It's not a real bird at all," naturalist Bill Oddie observes. Jungle fowl lays 5-10 eggs a year. Industrial hens lay 300 eggs a year.



"There's 20 million battery hens in sheds in the UK alone. And in my view, they are out of site and out of mind," says Jane Howorth of Battery Hen Welfare Trust, whose group has rescued 60,000 hens in four years and relocated them in homes.



Enriched cages, or "small bird colonies," will still be allowed in 2012 when battery cages will be banned in the UK. Astroturf is their nest. When Oliver asks Andrew Joret of the British Egg Industry Council "What would you say to people that felt there shouldn't be any caged birds at all?" The reply, "The question is what do customers want. It is all about price."

"It's simple. You get what you pay for. Cheap eggs means lower welfare and worse conditions for the hens. In the end, it's your choice," Oliver remarks.



What happens to spent chickens? Pass the MRM (Mechanically reclaimed meat)


"Roughly around one third of a grown man's body weight a year we eat in chicken," Oliver says of the Brits' consumption.


From birth to slaughter? A shocking 5 1/2 weeks. Part of the problem, Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall notes, is that "the supermarkets are fighting a price war on chicken."



The slaughter. Unlikely this quick and humane.


When an audience member prefers the tastes of the caged chicken, Oliver seems to agree with the opinion the man's palate is too used to junk food. "I can picture what you showed me earlier," another woman remarks. Precisely the point of this special.



The pork industry is Jamie's next target, as "Jamie Saves Our Bacon" debuts in the UK on January 29.

Resources:
Jamie's Fowl Dinners
Battery Hen Welfare Trust
Compassion in World Farming
RSPCA: Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals