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I hope you didn't eat an egg for breakfast
Is an Egg for Breakfast Worth This?
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: April 11, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/12/opinion/kristof-is-an-egg-for-breakfast-worth-this.html?_r=1
Supermarket eggs gleam with apparent cleanliness, and nothing might seem more wholesome than breaking one of them into a frying pan.
Think again. The Humane Society of the United States plans to release on Thursday the results of an undercover investigation into Kreider Farms, a major factory farm that produces 4.5 million eggs each day for supermarkets like ShopRite.
I?ve reviewed footage and photos taken by the investigator, who says he worked for Kreider between January and March of this year. In an interview, he portrayed an operation that has little concern for cleanliness or the welfare of hens.
?It?s physically hard to breathe because of the ammonia? rising from manure pits below older barns, said the investigator, who would not allow his name to be used because that would prevent him from taking another undercover job in agriculture. He said that when workers needed to enter an older barn, they would first open doors and rev up exhaust fans, and then rush in to do their chores before the fumes became overwhelming.
Mice sometimes ran down egg conveyer belts, barns were thick with flies and manure in three barns tested positive for salmonella, he said. (Actually, salmonella isn?t as rare as you might think, turning up in 3 percent of egg factory farms tested by the Food and Drug Administration last year.)
In some cases, 11 hens were jammed into a cage about 2 feet by 2 feet. The Humane Society says that that is even more cramped than the egg industry?s own voluntary standards ? which have been widely criticized as inadequate.
An automatic feeding cart that runs between the cages sometimes decapitates hens as they?re eating, the investigator said. Corpses are pulled out if they?re easy to see, but sometimes remain for weeks in the cages, piling up until they have rotted into the wiring, he added.
Other hens have their heads stuck in the wire and are usually left to die, the investigator said.
?These allegations by the Humane Society are a gross distortion of Kreider Farms, our employees and the way we care for birds,? Ron Kreider, the president of Kreider Farms, told me in a statement. He acknowledged that three barns had tested positive for salmonella but said that consumers were never endangered.
?The reality of food processing can be off-putting to those not familiar with animal agriculture,? added Kreider, the third-generation family leader of the company. ?When dealing with millions of birds, there is always a small percentage of dead birds. Older-style chicken houses will inherently contain a level of fly and rodent activity.? Kreider added that his company was leading the industry in replacing old barns with state-of-the-art ones.
Like many readers, I don?t particularly empathize with chickens. It?s their misfortune that they lack big eyes.
As a farmboy from Yamhill, Ore., I found our pigs to be razor smart, while our geese mated for life and our sheep and cattle had distinct personalities. The chickens were the least individualistic of the animals we raised. (I?ll get letters from indignant chicken-lovers, I know!)
Industrial operations like Kreider are dazzlingly efficient at producing cheap eggs, so they save consumers money. Still, I flinch at a system in which hens are reduced to widgets. Many of us do, which is why Burger King, Denny?s, Quiznos and Hardee?s have started buying more cage-free eggs.
Last year, the main egg industry trade association, United Egg Producers, joined with the Humane Society of the United States in an agreement to support new federal standards that would provide more space for hens. That was a landmark: farmers and animal protection activists agreeing on a way forward.
But Kreider Farms is not a member of United Egg Producers, and some industry outliers and cattle and hog farmers are trying to kill the deal. They fear a precedent of federal concern for animal welfare, so the legislation faces strong resistance.
For those who are wavering, think for a moment about the arc of empathy. Centuries ago, we humans amused ourselves by seeing other people executed or tortured. Until modern times, we considered it sport to see animals die horrible deaths. Now our sensibilities have evolved so that there is an outcry when animals are abused ? unless it happens out of sight on farms.
The police would stop wayward boys who were torturing a stray dog, so should we allow industrialists to abuse millions of hens? Shouldn?t we agree on minimum standards?
Granted, it is not easy to settle on what constitutes cruelty to animals. But cramming 11 hens for most of their lives into a cage the size of an oven seems to cross a line.
Somehow, fried eggs don?t taste so good if you imagine the fetid barn in which they were laid.
Re: I hope you didn't eat an egg for breakfast
*lovingly strokes local farm eggs*
preshus chicken fetus, you are delicious.
"?The reality of food processing can be off-putting to those not familiar with animal agriculture,? added Kreider, the third-generation family leader of the company."
Not to defend these practices at all, but the mentality of people who live and/or work on a farm can definitely be different. My MIL was raised on a farm in Ireland with 8 siblings and they all view animals as something to be utilized to meet human needs.
You are going to love having chickens, they are so much fun and so easy (oh and they lay eggs too).
I miss you lite-brite!
That mentality feeds millions of people every day.
It's easy to judge when you (the larger 'you') are well removed from the process. The difference between boys torturing a dog and a chicken getting its head cut off by a feeding machine is obvious.
Many people would become vegetarian if they saw (and smelled) how commercial farms are run.
Chickens produce about one egg per day. Lots of local farmers selling (hobby farmers will practically give them away) for as cheap as the grocery store.
I have eggs for breakfast many days a week. Great way to start the day.
Seriously, I am eating my 2 egg white bagel thin breakfast right now and I've been so good about it recently. It is such a struggle for me to eat breakfast, and this has been working.
I should find a local egg dealer. lol.
It's better than regular commercial eggs, IMO.
The different standards AFAIK are cage-free, which means there are no cages. The hens are just packed onto a floor in a barn instead. And free-range, which means there is "access to the outdoors," which can be a door that's open for 2 hours a day, but doesn't mean the chickens actually leave the barn. Much more rarely you might see something like "pasture-raised" which is the Joel Salatin, totally outside, eating grass and bugs type of system.
Trader Joes has all the fancy types of eggs (including grain-free, vegetarian, organic feed), but I usually buy eggs from the Farmer's Market. Then you can ask the people about their farming practices. BUT I realize I'm lucky enough to have a farmer's market year-round and most people don't.
40/112
Same. Otherwise, you'd have to pry my beloved eggs from my cold dead hands.
<a href="http://www.thenest.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Home DI really do love eggs. I have them on a low carb tortilla with cheese and salsa almost every morning. On the weekends sometimes I go bigger and make a full egg breakfast, like huevos rancheros. I love eggs.
Buuuut, that doesn't really have anything to do with the animal cruelty aspect.
Kind of like when vegetarians have people tell them, "Oh. I love meat." Yeah, well, most vegetarians aren't vegetarian because they hate the taste of meat, so that's not really relevent.
40/112
We'd like to get chickens, but it's not a go with our landlord. We do buy eggs from our local farmer, who is cruelty free, but they sell out a lot. A lot of times we're stuck with grocery store eggs, although we do buy the ones with the highest standards as far as cage-free, vegetarian fed, etc., that we can find.
I felt bad about it, the kids wanted to dye white eggs this year, and the only ones we could find were the cheapo regular ones. The shells were so ridiculously thin and the eggs tasted so much less flavorful compared to what I'm used to
.
Moxie gives Scout the side eye
*makes mental note to visit chickens and thank them for their service*
Seriously, though. I'm thisclose to going veg anyway. I figure a few more articles like this and a new Sarah McLachlan comercial and I'll convert.
I ate eggs for breakfast from my ducks.
For reasons just like this.
Not everyone on a farm thinks that animals should only be "utilized." I know that isn't what you said, but many (and most) of us are people who love animals.
I don't believe animals should ever be treated cruelly or with no regard for the fact that they are living, breathing and feeling.
Exactly this minus the Ireland part.
I had to do a double take when I received my latest William & Sonoma magazine. They sell chicken starter kits, with baby chicks, coops and everything. It is so tempting but we're going to rent for awhile.
How hard is it to raise chickens?
I just watched "Food, Inc" a few nights ago and I actually think it turned me full vegetarian. I had already given up red meat awhile ago, but now I think I am done with chicken, too.
Ick.