In search of "Real Eggs"

I have had concerns over the past few years about supermarket eggs. I did some research about how chickens are raised. It was not pretty.

Since I have had "real eggs" from "real chickens", I certainly know that the color and taste is different. What I did not know is when you look for a tastier healthier egg, you get into all sorts of erroneous labeling on egg cartons.

Hormone free, no antibiotics or cage free does not mean what you might think. Even the idea of "our chickens are fed a vegetarian diet" is not necessarily a good thing.

First off, chickens are NOT vegetarians. They like to scratch around the barnyard into the cow pastures that produce the cowpats containing "goodies", like grubs, various bugs and worms. They thrive on that, along with grain, to make them what they are meant to be...chickens.

In the process they spread manure and eliminate parasites. Joel Salatin, owner of http://www.polyfacefarms.com/ calls his hens "the sanitation crew". This is the reason his grass fed beef has no need for chemical pesticides and keeps the grass growing in the pasture.

I have learned that "access to green pastures" can mean different things. Like, the chickens live in a giant structure with cement floors and they can look out a window at it. They may even have a door and go outside if they like. The only problem with that is, they have no reason to go outside. They are fed and watered on the inside.

I do not believe this is the kind of environment we want for healthy eggs to be laid. If you have your printer paper near by, take a look at the size of it. That is how much space one chicken gets to stand in. They are literally wing to wing and standing in their own excrement......not so pleasant. I will not go into details about the other things they do to the chickens to keep them from pecking each other to death because of the close quarters...I suppose rendering them "beakless" is thought to be humane is some distorted way. This is the ones that are "cage free".
The ones that are not "cage free" are crammed in together, in even more confined space, stepping all over each other and unable to move at all.

The shells are thinner, the yolks pale instead of a dark golden color like they should be. Sometimes they have to fortify the feed with vitamins because of what is lost by this inhumane treatment. When I say "inhumane" I am not speaking from the mind of some who believe there should be no meat or dairy consumed at all. I speak from a healthy point of view. Let a chicken live it's life as it was meant to. Give it food and shelter, access to the outside world and a clean safe place for laying their eggs.

Why should this matter? They are just a dumb animal and do they really care how they are raised. Maybe this is so but here is my feeling on that. We are we ingesting eggs from stressed out chickens that are not allowed to behave like chickens should. Why? Because of monetary reasons. More chickens producing more eggs at a cheaper cost. But there is an added cost to the health of us who are consuming those eggs. I personally will pay a higher price for higher quality eggs. http://www.vitalfarms.com/ I got these at Whole Foods Market. $3.99 for six. They are "hand collected" so I can understand the price. I would not use them for baking but sunny-side- up or scrambled makes them quit appreciated.

If we did not breed chickens for their eggs they would not be thriving in the wild. At least not for very long. They have to many predators and would be picked off quickly. They are here in abundance because of us. Because we want what they produce for us. That is all more the reason to keep our egg supply healthy and of the highest quality.