Happy chickens.
Wednesday, April 19th, 2000
Okay, I have a serious food-related thought - or request, as the case may be:
Folks, please try to buy eggs from free-range chickens.
Yes, they’re a bit more expensive. But if you’ve ever actually seen the battery hens that lay all the cheap eggs, you might realize that the extra money is really a small price to pay for good eggs from happy chickens.
You might find it hard to sympathize with a chicken. I understand that. I personally find chickens truly hilarious creatures. Chickens make me laugh, but I’ll admit that they’re not particularly cuddly or sympathetic. Nonetheless, it’s pretty sick that these animals are kept in cages smaller than their own bodies, kept alive as egg machines until they lose their usefulness and are killed. It’s not particularly…humane.
And even if you don’t care about the chickens, I can’t imagine that anyone in their right mind would actually want to eat the eggs that come from sick, filthy, mangy battery hens. Such eggs cannot be really good. Nothing that comes from something like that can be really good.
I’m not a super-rich earthy-crunchy yuppie who can afford to buy all her organic vegetables and eco-yogurt at big, expensive natural food stores. I’m not an animal rights activist or a vegan (I’m not even really a vegetarian, though I do my best to be as veggie as possible). I have to shop for bargains in completely normal grocery stores, and I’m sure that I wind up buying food that has dubious origins.
I’m not happy about that, but I’ve realized that unless I live on a commune and grow all my own food, I will undoubtedly wind up consuming something or another that has caused some person or animal to suffer in some way that could have been avoided (and please don’t tell me that I shouldn’t be eating meat at all if I don’t want animals to suffer - I refuse to have that conversation anymore).
However, I do what I can. I try to eat consciously. And I figure that, if I have the money to buy sun-dried tomatoes or nice bottles of red wine, I must have the money to buy more expensive eggs from happy free-range chickens. It’s the least I can do. Maybe you could try it too.
Food sermon is over. Go cook something yummy.
Comments
1
Long Live the Happy Chickens!
2
Perhaps it is so that,just as human persons have produced some of their very best art during periods of immense duress ,i.e. wars dictatorships, epidemics etc. etc. , Chickens in such dreadfully unhappy conditions produce wonderful works of art, to whit , eggs. definately so I’d say :)
3
OK so I’m 4 years late but the facts still remain:
I only eat free range eggs and when I’m feeling rich FR chickens too, or else I do without.
But there is a vast difference between one FR egg and another. For example {no pun intended) some supermarkets declare ‘Produced from hens who are allowed to roam freely during daylight hours’ As Countryfile said, this could mean for half an hour, or even only 5 minutes.
Co-op FR eggs come from hens allowed to roam free all day and are comfortable at night, are not fed yolk colourants (it’s true!) nor given antibiotics.
Or if you know of a farm who sells direct and will show you around - even better.
Also worth mentioning is that lots of processed food contain egg such as mayonnaise, lemon curd, lots of sauces and of course cakes.
Marks and Spencer used to claim all their products contained FR eggs, but that is no longer true, unless stated.
That said Happy Easter Eggs everyone!
4
Hello. What you need to understand is, that because it is stated that a chicken (or any other animal for that matter) is raised "free range", you must remember this. To produce egg laying chickens, they are debeaked while fully conscious, and the males are killed by gassing, grinding them up while alive or being suffocated in large garbage bags. Please view the following websites for more details. Thanks for being kind to the world and to animals. Rene’ Jett
http://www.api4animals.org/1154.htm http://www.thevegetariansite.com/ed_eggs.htm http://www.cok.net/lit/freerange.php
5
I’ve been vegan for six years. I started out as a vegetarian then quickly realized that the milk and egg industries cause more suffering than some of the meat industries!
The main problem with using animals for their reproductive products is that the male offspring are surplus and must be disposed of - as mentioned in the post by Rene Jett. (The story is not much better for dairy cows).
It is really not that hard to eliminate animal products from your diet. I eat lots of great, fun food now, and, because I’m more concious of what I eat as a vegan, I’m more healthy than I have ever been.
I recommend going out and buying a vegan cookbook with the extra money you would have been spending on "free range" eggs.
Don’t just take my word for it, do your own investigating into the meat, dairy, and egg industries - you’ll be surprised by what you find. Also, watch the film Peaceable Kingdom (www.tribeofheart.org)
Happy cruelty-free eating!
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