Sunday, October 24, 2010

Organic Eggs

We are constantly asked if we sell our "goods". We have people interested in buying our eggs, meat, garden produce, honey, milk, etc. Most of the time I tell them we don't make a habit of it, but will sell at times. I've toyed around with the idea of housing more chickens or goats, for example, so we can have more naturally raised goods for people to buy. However, we have come to the conclusion that this is not a good idea. In order to raise chickens the way God intended them to live, you'd have to have an enourmous area for a large number of chickens. By keeping a smaller number of farm animals, you will have less land/pasure burden, less disease, less parasites, less work, and happier/healthier animals. The best thing you can do, is to raise what you need for your family...period. See my earlier posts on the blog for how to homestead in the city. If you absolutely can't homestead yourself, get educated on what brands to look for. We recently passed by a number of poultry farm (Tyson Farms) when we were picking up our Holstein. I'm not kidding when I say, you could smell death in the air. The food industry is an industry - this means they are concerned about the all-mightly dollar. They are all trying to get their products into the all-mighty Wal-Mart which is another blog all-together.

Here's a henhouse picture from an organic supplier.

The Cornicopia Research scored the top selling organic brands. You can visit their website and read the "Scrabled Egg Report" here: http://www.cornucopia.org/egg-report/scrambledeggs.pdf

Here are the top scoring brands per TCR:

1. Coon Creek, Mondovi, WI
2. Kingbird Farm, Berkshire, NY
3. Krause Farm, Engandine, MI
4. Cleary Family Farm, Plainfield, VT
5. Common Good Farm, Raymond, NE
6. Highfields Farm, VT
7. Misty Meadows Farm, Everson, WA
8. Old Friends Farm, Amherst, MA
9. One Drop Farm, Cornville, ME
10. Trout Lake Abbey, Trout Lake, WA

Here are some common terms you will see on egg cartons along with the industry definitions:

Certified Organic: The birds are uncaged inside barns or warehouses, and are required to have outdoor access, but the amount, duration, and quality of outdoor access is undefined. They are fed an organic, all-vegetarian diet free of antibiotics and pesticides, as required by the USDA’s National Organic Program. Beak cutting and forced molting through starvation are permitted. Compliance is verified through third-party auditing.

Free-Range: While the USDA has defined the meaning of "free-range" for some poultry products, there are no standards in "free-range" egg production. Typically, free-range hens are uncaged inside barns or warehouses and have some degree of outdoor access, but there are no requirements for the amount, duration or quality of outdoor access. Since they are not caged, they can engage in many natural behaviors such as nesting and foraging. There are no restrictions regarding what the birds can be fed. Beak cutting and forced molting through starvation are permitted. There is no third-party auditing.

Cage-Free: As the term implies, hens laying eggs labeled as “cage-free” are uncaged inside barns or warehouses, but they generally do not have access to the outdoors. They can engage in many of their natural behaviors such as walking, nesting and spreading their wings. Beak cutting is permitted. There is no third-party auditing.

Free-Roaming: Also known as "free-range," the USDA has defined this claim for some poultry products, but there are no standards in "free-roaming" egg production. This essentially means the hens are cage-free. There is no third-party auditing.

In conclusion, raise your own food or educate yourself on what companies are the best. Remember that industry organic terms are broad and not what you would think they'd mean. Only buy from "open gate" farms - this means you can tour them at any time (good luck with getting the large farms to let you do that, by the way). Even if you buy from small homestead farms, like ours, go visit it. We have friends who never let their chickens out of the chicken yard (which is always going to be bare ground). Ask what they are feeding if you are concerned about GMOs, antibiotics, or hormones. It's almost impossible to feed chickens non-GMO products, so any chicken that is fed grain, will likely be getting GMO products. It's easy to avoid medicated or homone infused feeds, but pretty impossible and quite cost prohibited to find organic grain without GMO or by-products. The only solution, in my opinion, is to allow the chickens to free range and forage as much as possible. It's quite the balancing act to allow our chickens to free range and forage, provide water access in various parts of the property, keep them safe from preditors while they are ranging outside the safe chicken yard, and somehow encourage them to go back to the chicken yard to lay eggs while they are "out". Thankfully, we really love our chickens so it doesn't seem like work. By the way, if you are one of our egg customers, the gates are always open for ya!