Pastured Eggs, Vegatarian Raised, Farm Fresh, Cage-Free.. What's the Difference?

We believe knowing about our food sources is important.  Rather than trust the labels to handle this for us, we want to know for ourselves.  Reading labels can be a good thing... But sometimes finding the "full disclosure" or "true meaning" of the labels is hard to do. 

And who has time to visit a large factory and take a tour to find out what exactly is happening to your food before it arrives in your grocery store?  Likely your food has seen more of America than you have, by the time it reaches your plate!  And even more likely, you would never get an approval to visit these large food corporations - they are under lock and key!

The best way to ensure healthy food is either raise it yourself and/or buy as much as you can from your local farmers – those who you can visit for yourself and see just how the food is being raised.

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When it comes to eggs, you may see names like "organic," "free-range,"  "pastured" and "cage-free." While these might seem interchangeable, they're actually not. In many ways these labels are little more than creative advertising
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One of our moveable "chicken tractors"
They provide fresh greens and safety all in one.

The definitions of "free-range" are such that the commercial egg industry can run industrial farm egg laying facilities and still call them "free-range" eggs, despite the fact that the birds' foraging conditions are far from what you'd call natural.

For example, regulations on the use of the term "free-range" do not specify the amount of time the hens must spend outdoors or the amount of outdoor space each hen must have access to. Nor do they indicate that the hen must have access to a pasture diet.

True free-range eggs, now increasingly referred to as "pasture-raised," are from hens that roam freely outdoors on a pasture where they can forage for their natural diet, which includes seeds, green plants, insects, and worms.

True pasture-raised eggs are what we raise here on our farm!

Large commercial egg facilities typically house tens of thousands of hens and can even go up to hundreds of thousands of hens. Obviously they cannot allow all of them to forage freely. They can still be called "cage-free" or "free-range" though, if they're not confined to an individual cage. But these labels say nothing about the conditions they ARE raised in, which are still deplorable.



Our chicks are handled with extra care
particularly in their first few weeks of life.
 

So, while definitions of "free range" and "cage-free" allow such facilities to sell their products as free range, please beware that a hen that is let outside into a barren lot for mere minutes a day, and is fed a diet of corn, soy, cottonseed meals and synthetic additives is NOT a free-range hen, and simply will not produce the same quality eggs as its foraging counterpart.  There's also the issue of veterinary drug contamination.  

 

 

 

 

Certified organic poultry is the only poultry product in the grocery stores that is guaranteed to be antibiotic-free.

 Antibiotics can be fed to conventional chickens and are many times used to accelerate weight gain and treat or prevent disease.  Even free ranging chickens can be treated with therapeutic antibiotics under veterinary direction and then sold with the use of coccidiostates (a chemical agent added to animal feed). (From the author of Eat Yourself Healthy in 28 Days)

Organic certification is cost-prohibitive for small farmers such as us.  But you can be sure that we raise our chickens according to organic, free-range standards, allowing our flock to forage freely for their natural diet (weather permitting), and aren't fed antibiotics or GMO corn and soy.  You may visit our farm, see the chickens and see their feed and the lists of ingredients in the feed.  We have  found that transparency of farmers is much more valuable than any seal or logo on a grocery store package.

To help you understand the labels a bit more clearly, we have created a list of the types of terms you will see on eggs in your local grocery and health food stores. 

You might be surprised (as we were) at some of the actual definitions!

Cage Free:

Hens laying eggs labeled as cage-free are un-caged but still live inside barns or buildings.  They generally do not have access to the outdoors.  They can engage in some of their natural behaviors such as walking around, nesting and spreading their wings.  These birds usually have their beaks cut off and are forced to molt through starvation.  There is no mandatory third-parting auditing, though producers can choose to get certified.  Their feed can be filled with ground up chicken parts or other animal parts if the label does not say “vegetarian diet.”  (See note below.)  Why do you care if their beaks are cut off?  Well, without beaks they are unable to forage for any green material or bugs which means a less healthy bird and a less healthy egg.

You’ll pay around $3.50 - $4.00 per dozen for eggs labeled cage free.

Note about vegetarian diet: Vegetarian eggs are eggs that come from hens who are fed a vegetarian diet.  Vegetarian hens are a direct result of concern over hens eating animal byproducts, like their fellow egg-laying hens that died in the same factory farm.  Now, it is generally illegal to fed cattle back to cattle (due to Mad Cow’s disease), but in general, pigs can be fed pigs and turkeys can be fed to turkeys.  Also, pigs, chickens, and turkeys that have been fed cattle bits can then be fed back to cattle (basically, a horrible loophole that creates a risk for Mad Cow’s disease!).

Free-Range:

Free-Range sounds so much nicer.  The USDA has defined the meaning of “free-range” for some poultry products.  However, there are no government-regulated standards in “free-range” egg production so there is no requirement in order to make this claim on an egg carton.  Typically, free-range hens are un-caged but live indoors and have some degree of outdoor access, but because there is no regulation of the term, there are no restrictions regarding what the birds can be fed and no requirements as to the amount of time or quality of time outdoors.  Many times the birds are so crowded up in the barn or building that they are unable to find the door in order to get out.  There is an excellent article on how egg producers create situations where the birds never go out.  See this:  Free-Range, Yarding and Confinement

This term “free-range” is a total misnomer and you’re usually paying $5.00-$6.00 or more for a dozen of these eggs, depending on the area of the country you live.  Remember, there is no requirement that these birds ever actually get outside.

Many times people looking at “free-range” eggs are misled, because what they are REALLY looking for is “pasture-raised” eggs.  This means the birds have pecked at insects, grass seed and flapped around on a grassy field.  See “pasture-raised” below.

Free-Roaming:

This is also known as “free-range,” and the USDA has defined this claim for some poultry products, but there are no standards in “free-roaming” egg production.

Pasture-Raised:

The USDA hasn’t defined the meaning of “pasture-raised” for egg production, and therefore no government-regulated standards in “pasture-raised” egg production are required in order for producers to make this claim.  So while pasture-raised means they are out on spacious pasture, covered with living plants, there is no regulation on this term so there is really no way to know what is really happening.  Also, there are no restrictions regarding what the birds can be fed and no requirements for the amount of time spent on the pasture.  Without restrictions on feed, we can be sure they are being fed GMO grains of some type.  There is also a permission for beak cutting (which completely ruins the whole point of being on pasture anyway since they can’t forage without a beak), and there is permission to use starvation for molting.  What a shame that this term seems so wonderful, but isn’t what we think it is.  The price for these eggs is typically $5.00-$6.00 or more per dozen.

Certified Organic:

The birds are uncaged, inside barns, and are required to have outdoor access.  However, the amount, duration and quality of outdoor access is undefined.  They are fed an organic, all-vegetarian diet which is free of antibiotics and pesticides.  This is the requirement of the U.S. Department of Agricultures’s National Organic Program.  Beak cutting and forced molting through starvation are permitted. These will run $5.00 up to $7.00 depending on whether they are pasture-raised or not.

Vegetarian-Fed:

These birds' feed does not contain animal byproducts, but this label does not have significant relevance to the animals' living conditions or the type of grains they eat.  This also likely means the hens spend no time outside foraging.  We can't know for sure.

"Vegetarian Feed," "All Natural," "Omega-3 enhanced" - Perhaps a slightly better diet, no mashed up cow or poultry parts but these hens are still cage-raised.  Without the "organic" certification, we would have to assume they are being fed GMO and conventional feed raised with pesticides.

 "Farm Fresh," "healthy," or "United Egg Producers Certified" - These are typically the cheapest option we have in the stores and with good reason.  These birds are fed the cheapest feed option available and raised in terrible conditions, which likely means the need for antibiotics in order to keep the chickens alive.  Also, their beaks are typically cut off so they aren't able to peck each other to death from the stress of such small cages/confinement.

 

Note about residual antibiotics in eggs:

Routine use of low-levels of antibiotics to prevent illness in egg-laying flocks has been proven to increase antibiotic resistance in humans, making diseases more difficult to treat. Unless the eggs say "Certified Organic" it is typical that they will contain some level of antibiotics.

Testing has confirmed that true free-range eggs
are far more nutritious than commercially raised eggs.

The dramatically superior nutrient levels are most likely the result of the differences in diet between free ranging, pastured hens and commercially farmed hens. In a 2007 egg-testing project, Mother Earth News compared the official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutrient data for commercial eggs with eggs from hens raised on pasture and found that the latter typically contains the following:

2/3 more vitamin A	3 times more vitamin E
2 times more omega-3 fatty acids	7 times more beta carotene

See the type of set up we are using by watching this short, information video by Joel Salatin - A farmer who inspired us to do what we do!  How We Do Pastured Chickens