
Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be - x0054
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/12/23/370377902/farm-fresh-natural-eggs-not-always-what-they-re-cracked-up-to-be
======
archagon
The description in "The Omnivore's Dilemma" of egg yolks from idyllically
pasture-raised chickens is forever stuck in my memory.

 _" Between stops, Art mentioned that Joel’s eggs usually gave him his foot in
the door when trying to land a new account. We stopped in at one such
prospect, a newly opened restaurant called the Filling Station. Art introduced
himself and presented the chef with a brochure and a dozen eggs. The chef
cracked one into a saucepan; instead of spreading out flabbily, the egg stood
up nice and tall in the pan. Joel refers to this as “muscle tone.” When he
first began selling eggs to chefs, he’d crack one right into the palm of his
hand, and then flip the yolk back and forth from one hand to another to
demonstrate its integrity. The Filling Station chef called his staff over to
admire the vibrant orange color of the yolk. Art explained that it was the
grass diet that gave the eggs their color, indicating lots of beta-carotene. I
don’t think I’d ever seen an egg yolk rivet so many people for so long. Art
beamed; he was in."_

I've yet to find an egg like that, though I've heard you can get them if you
raise backyard chickens.

~~~
Aloisius
The color of an egg yolk is based on what the chicken ate and has no bearing
on how idyllic their lives were. There are plenty of pasture raised chickens
without the deep orange color because the plant material around them (you can
get nearly white colored yolks from a hen that has literally miles of pasture
around them).

If there a lot of capsicum peppers around for instance, the yolks will turn
almost red.

How firm it is relates directly to how old it is and how it was treated,
regardless of how they are raised. You can get an ultra-firm egg yolk from a
factory farmed hen. The eggs you get in a supermarket however are typically
several weeks old - long enough for the egg yolk to start to lose its
firmness.

~~~
archagon
Well, yeah, but I imagine "what the chicken ate" and "how idyllic their lives
were" are pretty closely related. In any case, I've never once found a firm
orange yolk in my eggs — supermarket, farmer's market, or otherwise. Joel is
probably doing something right here. (Or maybe his eggs are just really fresh,
I don't know.)

~~~
jmhobbs
Good pasture and good nutrition helps for the firmness. If you want a rich,
golden yolk, feed them marigold petals. It doesn't take much to really darken
the yolk, and our birds seem to like them.

~~~
Loughla
We get a deep, rich golden color from simply giving them cracked corn. That
holds all winter as well, as we supplement heavily with cracked corn to help
them stay warm.

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
Yes. I feed mine extra scratch in winter (cracked corn, wheat and something
else I forget) to keep their body temperature up in the cold and it does keep
the yolks looking good.

Also chicken scraps make a difference.

I picked up a dozen at the feed store last time I was there and except for the
fact that the shells were brown or green, the eggs themselves were just like
supermarket eggs in appearance and taste. Typical for being raised on the
cheapest feed out there.

------
zedpm
One of many benefits of living in a semi-rural area (western South Dakota) is
easy access to truly high-quality foods like actual farm eggs. I've walked
around the two farms I buy eggs from and I've seen the chickens wandering
around. They get ordinary feed, of course, but also scavenge insects and other
things, resulting in gorgeous orange yolks and tasty eggs. I pay $2 a dozen
(as long as I promise to return the egg cartons to be reused), or sometimes
just trade some fresh produce for the eggs.

Almost all of my meat (beef, lamb, goat, and pork) is similarly purchased from
small producers I personally know; often my family and I butcher the animals
ourselves. This approach is a win in terms of quality, cost, humane treatment
of animals, and satisfaction.

Having a connection to my food and the people who produce it is, to me, reason
enough to prefer living in fly-over country vs. San Francisco. All the fresh
air, open land, and lower stress environment doesn't hurt either.

------
debacle
The study is funded by the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply [1] which is
"facilitated" by the Center for Food Integrity [2], which is run by a PR firm
on behalf of ConAgra, Monsanto, Tyson, and others.

It makes me sad that NPR is slowly turning into just another mouthpiece.

[1]
[http://www2.sustainableeggcoalition.org/](http://www2.sustainableeggcoalition.org/)

[2]
[http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Food_I...](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Food_Integrity)

~~~
bkirwi
One additional note: this is a survey article, not based on a single study.
This seems to be the case of NPR staff using a questionable reference, not
just rewriting a press release.

~~~
logn
The day the Senate torture report broke, NPR referred to torture as enhanced
interrogation.

------
schmichael
Backyard chicken farmer here! If you have a bit of yard space and time they
make wonderful pets. About as difficult to care for as cats and what they lack
in cuddles they make up for in hilarious/idiotic behavior.

I doubt it saves me any money, but it's fun and provides lots of "organic
pasture-raised" eggs and compost.

~~~
codingdave
They are also a great way to reduce your waste. We send all of our kitchen
scraps to the chickens, and they give us eggs in return. They also keep the
area under our apple tress fairly clear for us, eating all the insects that
otherwise would be in our trees, and keeping the mice away. And they get to
munch on any fallen apples.

Works out well for the chickens and for us.

~~~
pimlottc
> And they get to munch on any fallen apples.

Hmm, I wonder if they like lemons...

~~~
schmichael
Be careful with birds and citrus. Do some googling.

------
jack-r-abbit
My first real job (25 years ago... at age 15) was collecting eggs at a medium-
sized commercial egg farm. Maybe I didn't care about "organic" or "cage-free"
at age 15 or nobody cared 25 year ago, but we were one of those "battery cage"
farms. It was long buildings with 5 rows of double stacked cages. The floor of
the cage was slanted so that the eggs rolled out into a trough in the front.
We'd push a narrow cart down the row and collect the eggs into trays. It was
brutal for both humans and chickens. I didn't eat eggs or chicken for awhile
after that.

~~~
iso8859-1
How could you start again if you didn't forget?

~~~
jack-r-abbit
Knowing that some eggs come out bloody and birds die is one thing. Handling
those bloody eggs and dead birds every weekend is an entirely different thing.
I moved on from that job and after a while just _knowing_ was not as
"traumatic" and eggs/chicken was no longer repulsive to me.

------
steven2012
I'm usually not one to care much about where my food came from, but the one
thing I pay attention to, for some weird reason, is eggs. I think the idea of
trapping chickens in cages for their entire lives and having them produce eggs
for us is revolting, a real-life Matrix situation. I'll pay a few bucks extra
to make sure that the chickens get at least a modicum of better life than
being trapped in a cage for their entire lives.

~~~
Luc
And for the male chicks, death in the high speed grinder. I wonder if they
ever even get to see the daylight in their miserable short lives?

------
shalmanese
Given how much HN loves to bring up the studies that show people fail at
tasting wine, it's surprising that nobody has talked about how double blind
studies consistently reveal that there's no perceptible taste difference
between different types of eggs (once color is controlled for):

Washington Post:

> The egg industry has been conducting blind tastings for years. The only
> difference is that they don't use dish-towel blindfolds; they have special
> lights that mask the color of the yolks. "If people can see the difference
> in the eggs, they also find flavor differences," Curtis says. "But if they
> have no visual cues, they don't."

> Only one factor can markedly affect an egg's taste, and that is the presence
> of strong flavors in the feed. "Omega-3 eggs can sometimes have a fishy
> taste if the hens are fed marine oils,"

[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2010/06...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060100792.html)

Serious Eats:

> It was pretty clear evidence that as far as eggs go, the mindset of the
> taster has far more bearing on the flavor of the egg than the egg itself.

[http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-
ca...](http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-cage-free-
organic-omega-3s-grocery-store-brand-the-food-lab.html)

Journal of Product and Brand Management:

> Respondents indicated that darker yolk color results in better taste,
> whereas results of a blind taste test indicated that consumers were not able
> to distinguish any significant difference in the taste of different types of
> eggs and yolk colors (Fearne and Lavelle, 1996b). Similarly, respondents
> indicated that brown regular and specialty eggs are tastier than white
> regular eggs. Fearne and Lavelle (1996b) reported that in a blind test
> consumers could not make a distinction between the tastes of regular and
> specialty eggs.

[http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/90/5/1088.full](http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/90/5/1088.full)

It's an extremely potent example of confirmation bias since even people who
are normally quite science minded and skeptical somehow find loopholes that
exempt their personal experience as not conforming to the data when confronted
with evidence that their fancy eggs taste no better.

~~~
abecedarius
Richer taste would be a nice bonus, but I get pastured eggs for nutrition and
ethics.

------
atourgates
The article somewhat pans Certified Humane, but apart from raising your own
chickens or buying from a farmer you trust, it's far and away the best
alternative that you can find at many grocery stores.

Their comparison chart gives a good overview of the program[1], but here are a
few key facts:

* It's a completely independent organization, that maintains that independence very intentionally.

* It has rigorous compliance and inspection requirements, and everything about the program is transparent and available online.

* The birds are required to be out of doors at least 6-hours per day, every day, year round, with 108 sq. ft. per bird.

Animal Welfare Approved is another good, independent and transparent program,
but I've never actually seen them in a grocery store.

[1] [http://certifiedhumane.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/05/Laying...](http://certifiedhumane.org/wp-
content/uploads/2014/05/Laying-Hen-Comparison-Chart.-1-1-14.pdf)

------
eggman47
Most of the time we use eggs, it is just needed as "glue" to make things stick
together, or for leavening, moisture etc. This can easily be replaced by
tapioca flour and water, flax and water, or some other substitute. It'probably
cheaper as well. Save the eggs for your quiches, omeletes and the like where
it actually makes a difference.

[http://www.wikihow.com/Replace-Eggs-in-Your-
Cooking](http://www.wikihow.com/Replace-Eggs-in-Your-Cooking)

------
dlau1
Shameless plug, the company I (just started) working at connects producers
with consumers. We handle the logistics of getting the fantastic products from
our producers to you.

If you are in the sf bay, nola, la, or nyc, check it out at
[http://goodeggs.com](http://goodeggs.com)

Here is the SF egg section (we deliver to sf, east bay, and the peninsula)

[https://www.goodeggs.com/sfbay/dairy/eggs](https://www.goodeggs.com/sfbay/dairy/eggs)

------
anatoly
I was shocked to read that eggs generally have pleasing deep-yellow or orange-
red yolks because the egg industry spends a lot of money to put special
additives into chicken feed just for that purpose. There's no other benefit
from those additives.

[http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/375927.html](http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/375927.html)

I think about that now every time I see a pleasing, healthy-looking, tasty-
looking deeply yellow yolk on my plate.

~~~
13
Mine have that colour because they eat a lot of weeds and vegetables. The only
thing they eat which isn't food scraps or something that's lying around the
garden is shell grit, quite literally ground up sea shells to make sure they
have enough calcium for their egg shells. Don't always assume that it's an
artificial thing, what they're emulating is a natural process. It really is a
pleasure to see happy hens roaming around too, even if they didn't lay
breakfast and cake material.

~~~
jmhobbs
Feeding marigold petals will darken a yolk pretty well, nothing artificial
there.

I've cut down on my calcium supplement usage by drying and crushing the
eggshells and giving those to the birds.

~~~
wtbob
> I've cut down on my calcium supplement usage by drying and crushing the
> eggshells and giving those to the birds.

Seems like there's potential to get prion diseases there. Are chickens
susceptible to prion diseases?

Maybe compost the shells, then grow collards, kale and turnips in the soil and
feed the less-appetising greens to the chickens?

~~~
sdenton4
Prions are in brains, not eggshells. Mad cow disease was caused by cows eating
the crushed up brains of other cows, which is in itself a charming
illustration of the ethics of our industrial food system.

~~~
wtbob
Prions are misfolded proteins; while prion diseases occur in the brain, I do
not know of any evidence that the prions themselves are not found throughout
the nervous system. Are they in fact isolated to the brain?

~~~
sdenton4
(Long after the fact, so probably missed the boat. Also, I'm Not An Expert on
This, so grains of salt, etc.)

My understanding of Mad Cow was that the prions involved were ones which were
allowed to pass the blood/brain boundary, which keeps arbitrary chemicals in
food from having a big effect on our neurological state. (Drugs like MDMA
imitate certain chemicals used by the brain and are thus allowed to pass by.)
One of the reasons cannibalism - especially when brains are involved - is that
the brain proteins look like your brain proteins, and are thus expected to be
on the 'brain' side of the boundary. So when cows eat dead cow brains, they
get serious neurological diseases, just like human cannibals are known to.
Prions may be arbitrary bad proteins, but they're especially problematic in
the case of eating brains.

------
aabajian
The most informative thing for me was that "organic" actually has a definition
by USDA:

[http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=t...](http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=organic-
agriculture.html)

Up until now the med student in me had the jerk reaction that "organic" meant
carbon-based (+ nightmares from ochem), which applies to almost everything we
eat.

~~~
SloopJon
Although I knew that "organic" is regulated, I did not know that it implied
free range, which is theoretically better than the cage free that I usually
buy.

An additional note from the organic egg scorecard, linked from the article, is
that store-brand eggs tend to come from farms with poor conditions:

[http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-
scorecard/](http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/)

~~~
MattGrommes
I would guess that to have the scale to sell eggs to a chain store you need
the more industrial conditions that scorecard doesn't like. All that special
treatment means less chickens and higher prices.

------
jere
I've know these for a while and always look for pastured eggs but never find
them outside of a farmer's market.

>No Hormones... It's like putting a label on a cereal box that says, "No toxic
waste."

[http://xkcd.com/641/](http://xkcd.com/641/)

~~~
zorpner
Many farmer's markets in SF have actually banned non-pasture-raised eggs
(which, as it turned out, only affected one company based out of Petaluma
which markets their eggs under 4-5 different small-sounding brands in the Bay
Area): [http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/pasture-raised-
industria...](http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/pasture-raised-industrial-
organic-egg-cellent-stakeholder-engagement-lesson/)

~~~
maerF0x0
Where do you recommend to get good pasture raised meat and eggs in SF?

------
ndespres
Of course an article on our food system is in all of our interests (Soylent
customers, perhaps, excepted) but I'm always happy to see an article like this
at the top of hn. I feel that this industry is particularly ripe for
innovation, and it's where I'm presently working. Though it turns out, feeding
and watering all the animals every day takes up all that time I thought I'd
have to design new systems to track egg consumption and greenhouse
temperatures with my Arduino.

Turns out all that work outside is just as gratifying without the electronic
hassles I imagined I'd bring to it.

I sell eggs from chickens which I believe have the best possible life, and I
hesitate to use most of the terms listed here, even the most positive ones,
because of their lackluster connotations. I know what "free range" means in
the minimal application of the spectrum, so where my birds have acres to
forage for food, someone else may not be so generous. I don't want us
classified under the same umbrella. So I invite all my customers to come and
see where their food is grown, in the environment where I believe it should
all optimally come from.

And yes, the eggs are healthier, firmer, and last longer (not refrigerated)
and vary depending on what the chickens have foraged that day. Not to mention
the beautiful rainbow of their shells, which vary depending on the breed.

[http://homestead.sevenarrowseast.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012...](http://homestead.sevenarrowseast.com/wp-
content/uploads/2012/12/somanyeggs.jpeg)

~~~
HeyLaughingBoy
_systems to track egg consumption and greenhouse temperatures with my Arduino_

That's funny! I planned on doing exactly the same thing when I started keeping
chickens about 6 years ago. I got as far as building an LED lamp to add extra
light to keep them laying in winter. Never used it (except to check up on them
at night).

I guess if I was doing this commercially it would be worthwhile, but for a
hobby flock of a dozen it hardly makes sense.

------
xacaxulu
It's so wonderful to now live in a forthright European country that cares for
their citizens and doesn't permit this kind of fraudulent advertising of
unnatural and unhealthy modifications of foods. Firms like Monsanto are barred
from the country as are GMOs in general and you'd be hard-pressed to find
anything other than natural eggs from free-range chickens, untreated with any
hormones or antibiotics. It seems the inverse is the case in the US.

~~~
heydenberk
Why do you support banning GMOs? I don't mean to be snarky, but I don't know
of any good scientific case for doing so. In my estimation, GMOs are one of
the most promising technologies for increasing quality of life around the
world.

~~~
debacle
There are logical reasons for being against GMOs. Many of them have nothing to
do with the fact that the product is GMO:

* GMOs tend to promote monoculture and pesticide use.

* Studies have shown that the same developments that make GMOs more insect resistant can also make them more difficult to digest.

* When it comes to animals, GMOs tend to have much poorer quality of life and tend to be completely incapable of surviving without constant support (chickens who can't stand on their own, cows who can't go more than 48 hours without milking, etc).

* GMOs almost never focus on the true value of a food item, but rather the sell value. A food that looks nutritious is more valuable than one that actually is and GMOs make it easier to create that false association (deep red tomatos that taste like wall paper glue, etc).

It's important to note that all of these things are really a byproduct of
industrial agriculture, but many people associate them more directly with
GMOs. I think the development of GMOs is a completely normal part of our
agriculture and has been for thousands of years, we just need to make sure
we're responsible about it.

~~~
dubfan
> * GMOs tend to promote monoculture and pesticide use.

That's true for industrialized agriculture in general and not specific to
GMOs. Growing GMOs doesn't promote monoculture or pesticide use any more than
growing conventional crops do. In fact the same farmers that grow GMOs often
grow conventional crops at the same time, or switch from year to year, with
very little change in their practices.

> * Studies have shown that the same developments that make GMOs more insect
> resistant can also make them more difficult to digest.

Without knowing what studies those are, it's impossible for me to rebut or
defend it. I will say, the record on studies that claim to show that GMOs have
safety issues is not a good one
([http://academicsreview.org/2012/09/scientists-smell-a-rat-
in...](http://academicsreview.org/2012/09/scientists-smell-a-rat-in-
fraudulent-study/))

> * When it comes to animals, GMOs tend to have much poorer quality of life
> and tend to be completely incapable of surviving without constant support
> (chickens who can't stand on their own, cows who can't go more than 48 hours
> without milking, etc).

I am not aware of any GM livestock in use. Monsanto, the bogeyman of anti-GMO
activists, does not research or produce GM animals. AFAIK the only GM animals
on the market are things like glowing goldfish.

> * GMOs almost never focus on the true value of a food item, but rather the
> sell value. A food that looks nutritious is more valuable than one that
> actually is and GMOs make it easier to create that false association (deep
> red tomatos that taste like wall paper glue, etc).

Again this is a broader symptom of industrialized food production and is not
related to GMOs. Yes, there are GM traits that are meant to do what you expect
(e.g. the Flavr Savr tomato which was a commercial flop, and the Arctic Apple
which is just recently rolling out) but this is a trend that goes back
decades.

~~~
sdenton4
Funding for GMO seed development is a hard problem, so the only people really
doing it are the monsantos of the world. Which pretty much guarantees that the
product is going to be fubar. You can bet that industrial seed research, if it
were subjected to any rigorous safety standards, would go much the same way as
industrial drug design, with all of the falsified studies you care to count.
As it is, it's easier to ban the practice than trust the big producers.

The Open Source Seed Initiative is doing some really cool work to change this,
and sits at an interesting place in the GMO debate. But barring a huge amount
of institutional and policy support, I'm sticking on the side of banning
GMO's.

~~~
dragonwriter
> Funding for GMO seed development is a hard problem, so the only people
> really doing it are the monsantos of the world.

This is emphatically not true, unless you mean it in the trivial sense (where
"monsantos" are "any companies funding GMO seed development".)

Its not _quite_ as inaccurate as saying the microsofts of the world are the
only people really funding software development, but its the same _kind_ of
inaccurate.

------
kalleboo
In contrast, here are the regulations in Sweden (probably similar elsewhere in
the EU):

* Battery cages: Banned

* "Caged hens": Cage size must be at least 750 cm^2. Must have sand, a nest, and a stick to sit on.

* "Free range indoors": Floor space must be at least 1,111 cm^2 per hen. 1/3 of the floor area must be sand or similar. Must have access to a nest, at least 15 cm of stick to sit on.

* "Free range outdoors": At least 1,111 cm^2 space per hen. Must have access to an outdoors area of at least 4m^2 per hen. Same sand/nest/sitting stick rules as indoors.

* "Organic": At least 1,664 cm^2 space per hen. Outdoors area of at least 4m^2 per hen. Outdoors area must have grass growing. 1/3 of floor area must have sand or similar, must have a nest, must have a sitting stick of at least 18 cm. Must be fed with organic feed.

* "KRAV Organic certified": Organic + Must have access to root vegetables to eat at. The farm can't be leaking stuff from the fertilizer into the surrounding nature.

Many of the large supermarket chains have stopped selling caged eggs
completely, which now make up less than 10% of sold eggs. Around 12% are
organic.

Swedish eggs are 100% salmonella-free.

~~~
3pt14159
1111 cm^2 isn't that much. It's only a square foot of space... I used to raise
chickens, they need at least 4 times that.

~~~
kalleboo
Yeah, in contrast, a sheet of A4 paper is 620 cm^2. So they have less than two
pieces of paper to stand on.

------
batbomb
I get pasture raised eggs from a farm in Petaluma which has a CSA I use. They
are very good, come in a wide variety of shell colors and the yolks are a deep
yellowish orange, but I'm not necessarily sure they are necessarily worth the
$8.50 a carton (technically, they are only grade A because of the variance).
On the other hand, a dozen eggs from a decent producer will usually run
$4/dozen. I'd recommend them for egg dishes, but maybe not so much for general
culinary usage.

~~~
delbel
Wow that's expensive, I raise chickens for eggs that are 100% organic. My
costs are about $.66 a dozen (90% of their feed is free range around my
house). That CSA is literally printing money. Talk about perceived value!

~~~
sneak
That is not what literally means.

~~~
archagon
False: [http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/literally](http://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/literally)

------
philwelch
I'm trying to figure out if this was a subtly intentional pun or a coincidence
of phrasing:

> Pasture-raised birds spend most of their life outdoors, with a fair amount
> of space plus access to a barn. Many are able to eat a _diet of worms_ ,
> insects and grass, along with corn feed...

cf.
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms)

------
pvaldes
We often forget to remember that chickens have not an human brain.

The subliminal (and fake) statement in all those articles is that the chicken
are a sort of "small little people crying" living very sad lives because they
don't live like humans do. This is simply terrible.

Living in a farm, even in the best of farms, at Texas or New Jersey, could be
perfectly claimed as a totally artificial and unnatural live for the point of
view of a chicken. They are rainforest birds "cruelly" placed at deserts or in
states with harsh winters living inside for 6 months a year. There are many
reasons because a chicken could not to want to go outside. The claimed
"because the farmer is a jerk" is wrong often.

They can do this because they are adaptable, and they just don't care so much
as we do. But this is NOT natural for this species. If we really wish that
chickens live "happy chicken lives" maybe we should grow them only in
countries like Venezuela or Brazil...

------
felipesabino
Only reading the title I thought it would be a discussing about fake eggs in
chine being a hoax [1]

But anyways, this is just more confirmation these jargons in labels mean
almost anything useful for the general public. The article reminded me that
funny "natural effect" videos [2] and also that the whole GMO labelling issue
that still make people argue.

And in the end of the day, all I have seen so far is a lot of fear mongering
and no debate wether real useful information should be added to labels, like
'how far and for how long did this food traveled', 'how long was it kept in
storage' and so on...

[1]
[http://sguforums.us/index.php/topic,43295.msg9275536.html#ms...](http://sguforums.us/index.php/topic,43295.msg9275536.html#msg9275536)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AftZshnP8fs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AftZshnP8fs)

------
djokkataja
Handy link from the article if you want to be a bit pickier about the eggs you
buy: [http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-
scorecard/](http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/)

------
woodchuck64
Good for them, "Pasture-Raised" just booted out "Free Range" in my personal
egg-shopping check list.

------
phil248
For those that are interested, I've found that Certified Humane eggs are the
easiest to find and that label carries weight. It's usually $4-$5 for a dozen,
more expensive than factory eggs but still pretty cheap for food in general.
AWA is stricter, but I've never seen AWA eggs.

------
deevus
I wonder how closely this applies to eggs in Australia. I will keep a look out
"pasture raised", as I do like to buy better quality, more humanely sourced
eggs.

It's articles like these that make me love coming to HN, regardless of the
fact that there's no "hacking" per se.

------
3pt14159
Note that this is only indicative of the USA. In Canada Organic eggs are
generally what you should be buying. They are about 50 cents an egg and are
the most strict on the humaneness of a chicken's life.

------
nartz
Its pretty bogus how the FDA gets lobbied for things like this, and it ends up
convoluting the message to the american public. For instance, read this
article on how 'organic' / 'antibiotic-free' eggs were still able to be
treated by antibiotics as long as it was early in the eggs life:

[http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/01/organic-
chic...](http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/01/organic-chicken-and-
egg-antibiotics-edition)

Even this Q & A is not the most straightforward on what the antibiotic process
is, instead hiding behind 'meets FDA regulations'.
[http://www.uspoultry.org/faq/faq.cfm](http://www.uspoultry.org/faq/faq.cfm)

------
aaronbrethorst
Most useful link in the article: [http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-
scorecard/](http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/)

------
bevan
The evidence appears to be in about "omega-3 eggs". There are quite a few
studies showing the benefits of eating them over conventional eggs:

[http://paleoclaims.com/claims/omega-3-eggs-are-healthier-
tha...](http://paleoclaims.com/claims/omega-3-eggs-are-healthier-than-regular-
eggs)

A quote from one of the studies on that page:

"Three n-3 PUFA-enriched eggs provide approximately the same amount of n-3
PUFA as one meal with fish.""

------
Dirlewanger
Can pretty much sum up the entire organic/"natural" food craze of the past
decade with: advertising as usual.

Good article. Nothing new to see here though. Hopefully this will wake up some
people though who exclusively go for the brand name stuff at Whole Foods.

~~~
shittyanalogy
Except Organic is actually a regulated term.

------
markuz
this article boils down to the comments.

------
gd1
"They usually live in aviaries: massive industrial barns"

Oooh, _industrial_ barns...

"And often, Kastel says, industrial fans that suck..."

Oooh, _industrial_ fans. As opposed to the ones that grow on trees.

"One of the most common causes of death was pecking by other chickens."

You mean we give them more freedom, and they kill each other? I thought
'natural' was meant to mean all rainbows and happiness and shit.

~~~
pyre
> You mean we give them more freedom, and they kill each other?

They are in crowded conditions. Humans do the same things will kept locked up
in crowded conditions.

What are you arguing is akin to saying that humans need to be locked up in
solitary confinement because if you keep them "free" in close quarters they
will start committing acts of violence against each other. You would have a
hard time arguing that the Japanese in US/Canadian "relocation centres" should
have been kept in solitary confinement because there were instances of
"inmate-on-inmate" violence/rape.

~~~
gd1
Don't think I was 'arguing' anything really. Just commenting on the irony.
Nature tends to be brutish and nasty, quite the opposite to the picture that
your typical urban-living organic food enthusiast has.

~~~
pyre
> your typical urban-living organic food enthusiast has.

I somehow doubt that you've actually talked to many vs. just holding some
gross generalization of an idea about what "those people" think.

~~~
gd1
My wife is one, so I somehow doubt you have a clue.

~~~
pyre
I said "many" vs. "any" for a reason. Some people form judgemental ideas of an
entire group/class of people based on limited experience with them. Limited
may just mean "caricatures" of said group in popular media, or may mean "I
know this person and his/her friends (i.e. small number of people) that think
a certain way."

That said, I don't think continuing this thread further provides any value,
and has the potential to just devolve into a flame war for various reasons.

