11/19/11

Everyone should see ...

... this terrific news report about factory farm egg production.  I have the greatest admiration for people who go undercover like this. So much for Sparboe eggs--no longer bought by McDonalds or sold at Target.

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6 comments:

ianbargain said...

There are 300 million home sapiens in this country and almost everybody eats eggs. Every day. I'm not sure how an idyllic farm style egg producing would scale to meet that much demand. Unless, every other family is willing to keep hens as pets and use their eggs, the sheer scale of such farming would force a battery hen setup - I would think.

Jean Kazez said...

I've been to the areas of Texas and Arkansas where there are huge egg operations. There is tons and tons of land in these regions. The barns are surrounded by land, not in the middle of some densely populated area. You just can't say the sheer number of eggs needed, plus land restrictions, force the industry to cram chickens into tiny cages. They do this to make maximum profit, not out of any sort of necessity.

ianbargain said...

Land is not the issue. Labor is. At least, that is my understanding of it. Clearly, there has to be a certain population of hens in a farm that can be maintained beyond which it becomes unwieldy and leads inevitably to the battery hen setup. We would need many more farms. That would need a pretty big reversal of occupational and cultural trends that has been happening.

Jean Kazez said...

I just think that's completely off the mark. There's no shortage of workers, either. This is all about maximizing profit. The trend toward factory farming in the last 50 years has not been inevitable in any sense. People made a choice to make more money by reducing their land and labor costs, and gave no consideration to the animals who would suffer the consequences. It's just flat out greed and cruelty, and there's no excuse in terms of cultural trends, insufficient land, insufficient labor, etc.

ianbargain said...

There certainly isn't enough labor right now. Especially, given the current climate towards immigrants.

McDonald's low prices have a price too. It has to be paid by somebody or something. They are just being disingenous now.

I suppose it is just a circle. If farms and industries could pay workers well, there wouldn't be a need for McDonald's to sell cheap food.

Anyway, I don't have any problem with people trying to fix this. I just think news such as you posted are not exactly good, just good for 15 minutes.

Wayne said...

So I've been told that if you want to semi-guarantee your eggs are humanely raised, buy fertilized eggs. If hens have access to a rooster, then they need more room, otherwise the rooster will kill the hens to make enough room that he's happy with.

I've been buying fertilized eggs for a long time because of this, and I haven't quite heard much more beyond this. Anyone know anything different?