Should I feel okay with eating 'cage free' eggs?!
Answers:
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
Yes. There's nothing wrong with cage-free eggs.
'Free range' usually means they are given a large outdoor area to move around in. It is almost never done with eggs simply because if you give too much activity to chickens they lay less eggs and its harder to collect the eggs.
'Cage free' means that they aren't placed in small cages while waiting for eggs. They are given larger areas, with hundreds or thousands of hens in it, and allowed to sit on various nests. Every so often, people come, scare the birds off the nests, and take the eggs.
Whether you feel better with this or not is up to you.
IMO, it's kind of bizarre to say that not caging a chicken isn't 'bad' when you have still killed half them (all males), boxed them, raised them in cages as chicks, burned their beaks off (so they don't kill each other), made them run around a dirt floor warehouse in their own poop, feed them a single source diet, allowed them to fight and/or injure each others, stop you from mating, scare you away from your future offspring, etc., etc. Either you decide that chickens don't feel/suffer to the same extent as humans (they are fine running in their own poop, fighting, they don't care about their diets as long as they aren't hungry, etc.), that they are somehow better off than in the wild, that you don't care, that it just isn't practical to raise eggs for billions without some suffering for the chickens, or you stop eating eggs.
http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/conf…
all cage free means is that they arent battery farmed, however the likely hood is that they are crammed into a barn and still unable to move around properly.
There was a tv documentary on it by Hugh Fernly Whittingstall and its really interesting.
The only chickens that are able to wander around freely with plenty of space whilst enjoying a happy life is free range however you can't really trust the labels on that.
stuff that is RSPCA freedom food endorsed does give the chickens a better quality of life than hey would of other wise had, but all that freedom food endorsed means is that the there are limits to the number of chickens per square meter.
http://www.chickenout.tv/
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/20…
I work for a supermarket on the meat counter and have been on a course about this stuff
Unfortunately most cage-free eggs are laid by hens who have never seen the light of day. Most of the time these birds are allowed to roam around the inside of a large building, like a warehouse, instead of being cooped up in tiny cages. It's better, but far from perfect. These birds also have the tips of their beaks cut off and cauterized, so that they don't peck each other to death in such close conditions. It's natural for birds to kill weak members of their flock, but it cuts into a farmer's profit margins when he has hundreds of dead birds to throw in the bin. That's where the term "hen-pecked" is derived.
The only way you can get 100% healthy, free-range eggs (which is not the same as cage-free, btw) is to buy them straight from a farmer where you can actually see the conditions under which the hens are kept.
You're doing your best in trying to eat smarter, good for you :)
Lol it doesn't mean anything close to "they get to roam around on a nice farm." It simply means that instead of six chickens being locked in a cage, hundreds of them are locked in a dark, filthy shed all day and have minimal access to the outdoors once in a while.
Nobody is trying to make you feel bad, so relax. If you want to eat eggs, find a small family farm that you can visit unannounced whenever you want to make sure the chickens are actually treated humanely. Btw, eggs are not dairy.
Here is an image of a certified "cage free" farm: http://www.blog.farmusa.org/egg-producer…
It looks neither healthy or happy for the chickens...these ones don't even have access to sunlight.
I've never heard of any type of health problem that requires dairy, as you can get all essential nutrients elsewhere, but I would suggest buying locally from a farmer that you can actually communicate with, if you must have it.
Cage free is often deceptive. Often times it means they get to get out of their cages for an hour and roam around. Look at the vegan videos on youtube. Once you find out what really happens with dairy cows, you'll probably stop the milk and cheese.
If you must have dairy, get it from local farmers, and not from grocery stores. Do the same with the eggs. Small time local farmers only have a few animals that produce milk or lay eggs.
Something you can do is switch to soy, almond, coconut, etc. milk.
If you want to reduce the amount of cruelty you support then cage free is a better option than battery eggs. However the best option is only consuming eggs from hens owned by a friend where you know they are looked after and the chicks aren't killed by being thrown in a blender because they are male and worth more as fertiliser or pet food because they can't produce eggs (see this footage if you haven't already (warning: graphic) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JJ--faib7… )
The other little problem is that you also will need to avoid products containing eggs unless you can be sure they use eggs to your standard. Many vegetarian processed foods contain eggs from battery farms. A company in Australia ran by the 7th Day Adventist Church claimed only to use free range eggs and had a certificate from the provider to say so, but we investigated the provider and there was no way they could guarantee their eggs were free range. This is because the type used in that sort of cooking are graded as low quality due to weakness in the shell, so they aren't sold on shelves but instead go to food processing companies.
SO you already know the best option is to go vegan, and don't worry if you can't do that straight away. It took me 7 years to complete the transition from vegetarian to vegan, so I don't judge anyone vegetarian who is at least considering taking the next step. In the meantime try and avoid processed foods containing eggs if you aren't sure the company uses cage free eggs; and try and find someone who has hens in their back yard you can get your eggs from and that way you won't be contributing to an industry which grinds male chicks to death and debeaks the females with hot iron blades when they are only one day old.
to be honest idk how to tell
I know i had a friend who had chickens, and they never slaughtered them, and also didnt abuse them or lock them up or anything, they still ate/sold the eggs, so i know that there are eggs out there that didnt come from abused chickens
but you dont know these days every company will twist words and say things to make themselves sounds better its tough to decipher whos telling the truth
In England we have 'free range' and 'battery'. Free range is self explanatory, battery means they live in a cage. I'm guessing cage free is your countries version of free range. However, you should take it literally unless you know otherwise. The chicken did not live in a cage, that's all you are told, there's no reason to assume it was wandering around a farm more likely it lived a short life in a dark shed.
I'm not sure if this is true, but I heard that the chickens who are cage free are actually caged most of the time, and only get 5 minutes a day with the cage open. But don't take my word for it, it may just be a rumor.
cage free is 100 times better than regular eggs because the chicken are treated better....they don't have a perfect like roaming around in a Field but its better than them being cooped up in a little box
Cage free is better, but honestly the best way is to buy from a local farmer.
of course, theres nothing wrong with that, if you like eggs and the chickens had a healthy life then go ahead and eat the eggs,nobody is going to sue you
One person can't tell another person how to feel.