[Pinky Tuscadero]

A lady I know works for the gov't as a poultry inspector. She travels around the country checking out the big chicken farms. She told me the other day that she would never eat a pastured chicken or egg as they are exposed to so much disease. Then she proceeded to tell me she had just inspected a chicken house that held 94,000 chickens.

She honestly feels that those chickens are healthier than the ones that spend there days outside in the grass. That just doesn't make sense.
My egg farmer said that there are chicken houses that hold 150,000 chickens.

None for me, thank you.

 

[member]

This does not hold to much logic much less traditional knowledge.

 

[gardenmommy]

I used to work in an egg factory (ok, *they* called it a chicken farm). We would process, on a slow day, 45,000 dozen eggs. Since I quit, they have more than doubled their factory output. During the Christmas and Easter seasons, we would run as many as 75,000 dozen per day.

Yes, there are factories that size. It is disgusting. It took me a LOOONG time before I would touch eggs again (even straight from the farm), and even longer for eggs from the store. It was a dirty place to be. Not the egg processing plant, but the barns where the hens were housed. We would occasionally get chicken parts on the conveyor belts that we just tossed to the side.

The men who worked in the hen barns had lots of yucky things to say about it. How that inspector could say that those places are cleaner... she must be firmly in the land of denial!

All I can say is, I love the eggs we get from the farm. The hens are actually much happier, the eggs are cleaner, I think it's just a better set-up all the way around! I am very picky about what sort of eggs I eat.

 

[Leilalu]

ary as far as chickens are concerned.The scariest thing I EVER EVER saw- it was a ginormous truck full of chicken cages. Dh and I were driving iin Oregon, on our way back from this waterfall and a trail, and this truck passed by us. These chickens were stuffed in ther so tightly, and their feathers and necks and heads and claws were all sticking out the sides and they were screeching like crazy. And the wind was making them flap like crazy.

They were seriously stuffed in there tight. i was so glad to get back to MIL's and eat her duck eggs

 

[JaneS]

Then she... like all members of gov't and mainstream medicine, apparently... does not understand that it's not merely "exposure" to disease that confers health, but proper diet and also other healthful factors to develop a strong immune system. Like eating bugs and being in sunshine and fresh air for chickens. Besides the fact that if there is disease on a pastured farm they are not doing something right. From what I've read, there is much LESS disease b/c the animals are healthier.

Like that horrible right wing org. that is trying to spread the idea that organic farming is less healthy b/c it's more likely to use manure for fertilizing.

 

[Leilalu]

yep. Animals are much more likely to get sick from being around other sick animals! Much like children. And sadly, when one does not get fresh air, proper diet, sunshine, etc, the odds of beating it are stacked against ya. I wonder if the eggs most americans eat are really all that healthy

:

 

[member]

Quote:

Originally Posted by JaneS Like that horrible right wing org. that is trying to spread the idea that organic farming is less healthy b/c it's more likely to use manure for fertilizing.

:

 

[zjande]

And there's also this:
Eggs from pasture-raised chicken were also found to be nutritionally superior to their factory farmed counterparts; compared to eggs from caged birds, pastured eggs had 10% less fat, 40% more vitamin A, 400% more omega-3s, and 34% less cholesterol.20
(from here: http://www.sustainabletable.org/issu...pastured2.html)
I just read about the studies that have proven pasture raised eggs are far healthier for us than the factory farmed ones in Mother Earth News.

Something else to keep in mind though is that you can't always trust the labels on the boxes at the grocery store. Even if the egg's box is printed with "cage-free", this may very well not be true unfortunately. I just did a quick google & found this:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1027/p15s01-lifo.html
http://www.peta.org/mc/factsheet_display.asp?ID=96

A way to find hens raised outside in the sun & dirt where they are happy is to search for a local farm or farmer's market near you. You can start here: http://www.localharvest.org/

I just say No Thanks to grocery store eggs!!