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Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

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Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

#61

Post by tracker1 »

Aloisius wrote: post #29
archagon wrote: post #21

The description in "The Omnivore's Dilemma" of egg yolks from idyllically pasture-raised chickens is forever stuck in my memory. "Between stops, Art mentioned that Joel’s eggs usually gave him his foot in the door when trying to land a new account. We stopped in at one such prospect, a newly opened restaurant called the Filling Station. Art introduced himself and presented the chef with a brochure and a dozen eggs. T…

The color of an egg yolk is based on what the chicken ate and has no bearing on how idyllic their lives were. There are plenty of pasture raised chickens without the deep orange color because the plant material around them (you can get nearly white colored yolks from a hen that has literally miles of pasture around them). If there a lot of capsicum peppers around for instance, the yolks will turn almost red. How firm…

I really wish I could find labeling on what the chickens are fed... you really can't get it... I would suspect that Pasture-Raised with supplemental corn feed would be sufficient... I just wish it was part of the labeling.

IMHO it affects the taste and structure of the eggs more than the meat of chickens... I also notice the differences with beef a lot more too in terms of what they were fed. It would be really nice if meat, eggs and dairy could be better labelled as such. Then again, it would be nice to see slow-pasteurized milk make a comeback too.

Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

#62

Post by jack-r-abbit »

ceejayoz wrote: post #48
gd1 wrote: post #24

"They usually live in aviaries: massive industrial barns" Oooh, industrial barns... "And often, Kastel says, industrial fans that suck..." Oooh, industrial fans. As opposed to the ones that grow on trees. "One of the most common causes of death was pecking by other chickens." You mean we give them more freedom, and they kill each other? I thought 'natural' was meant to mean all rainbows and happiness and shit.

> Oooh, industrial barns... Yes, as in "not the red family farm barn they have on the packaging". > You mean we give them more freedom, and they kill each other? I thought 'natural' was meant to mean all rainbows and happiness and shit. Imagine a prison where you've replaced all the individual cells with one big cramped holding cell. Violence will break out.

But strictly speaking, the [size|style|color] of the barn has little to do with anything if you put too many birds in it.

Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

#63

Post by zo1 »

anatoly wrote: post #10

I was shocked to read that eggs generally have pleasing deep-yellow or orange-red yolks because the egg industry spends a lot of money to put special additives into chicken feed just for that purpose. There's no other benefit from those additives. http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/375927.html I think about that now every time I see a pleasing, healthy-looking, tasty-looking deeply yellow yolk on my plate.

Well, they're responding to what people like. Additionally, they have to compete with the "natural" and "organic" trend. If they didn't try to make their eggs look like whatever people/society currently deem normal then the "natural" and "organic" competitors would have successfully manipulated the market. And we'd all be eating overpriced food that probably only has the added benefit of looking like what we think natural food should look like.

Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

#64

Post by logn »

bkirwi wrote: post #20
debacle wrote: post #16

The study is funded by the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply [1] which is "facilitated" by the Center for Food Integrity [2], which is run by a PR firm on behalf of ConAgra, Monsanto, Tyson, and others. It makes me sad that NPR is slowly turning into just another mouthpiece. [1] http://www2.sustainableeggcoalition.org/ [2] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Food_I...

One additional note: this is a survey article, not based on a single study. This seems to be the case of NPR staff using a questionable reference, not just rewriting a press release.

The day the Senate torture report broke, NPR referred to torture as enhanced interrogation.

Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

#65

Post by SloopJon »

aabajian wrote: post #3

The most informative thing for me was that "organic" actually has a definition by USDA: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=t... Up until now the med student in me had the jerk reaction that "organic" meant carbon-based (+ nightmares from ochem), which applies to almost everything we eat.

Although I knew that "organic" is regulated, I did not know that it implied free range, which is theoretically better than the cage free that I usually buy.

An additional note from the organic egg scorecard, linked from the article, is that store-brand eggs tend to come from farms with poor conditions:

http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/

Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

#66

Post by [deleted] »

steven2012 wrote: post #51

I'm usually not one to care much about where my food came from, but the one thing I pay attention to, for some weird reason, is eggs. I think the idea of trapping chickens in cages for their entire lives and having them produce eggs for us is revolting, a real-life Matrix situation. I'll pay a few bucks extra to make sure that the chickens get at least a modicum of better life than being trapped in a cage for their e…

[deleted]

Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

#67

Post by nartz »

Its pretty bogus how the FDA gets lobbied for things like this, and it ends up convoluting the message to the american public. For instance, read this article on how 'organic' / 'antibiotic-free' eggs were still able to be treated by antibiotics as long as it was early in the eggs life:

http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/01/organic-chic...

Even this Q & A is not the most straightforward on what the antibiotic process is, instead hiding behind 'meets FDA regulations'. http://www.uspoultry.org/faq/faq.cfm

Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

#68

Post by pyre »

gd1 wrote: post #59
pyre wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You mean we give them more freedom, and they kill each other? They are in crowded conditions. Humans do the same things will kept locked up in crowded conditions. What are you arguing is akin to saying that humans need to be locked up in solitary confinement because if you keep them "free" in close quarters they will start committing acts of violence against each other. You would have a hard time arguing that the J…

Don't think I was 'arguing' anything really. Just commenting on the irony. Nature tends to be brutish and nasty, quite the opposite to the picture that your typical urban-living organic food enthusiast has.

> your typical urban-living organic food enthusiast has.

I somehow doubt that you've actually talked to many vs. just holding some gross generalization of an idea about what "those people" think.

Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

#69

Post by bjelkeman-again »

tracker1 wrote: post #61
Aloisius wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The color of an egg yolk is based on what the chicken ate and has no bearing on how idyllic their lives were. There are plenty of pasture raised chickens without the deep orange color because the plant material around them (you can get nearly white colored yolks from a hen that has literally miles of pasture around them). If there a lot of capsicum peppers around for instance, the yolks will turn almost red. How firm…

I really wish I could find labeling on what the chickens are fed... you really can't get it... I would suspect that Pasture-Raised with supplemental corn feed would be sufficient... I just wish it was part of the labeling. IMHO it affects the taste and structure of the eggs more than the meat of chickens... I also notice the differences with beef a lot more too in terms of what they were fed. It would be really nice…

I agree. The big food companies doesn't like it. So it doesn't happen. My brother in law, who researches the EU food industry told me that there are about 150 purchasing departments in the EU where the majority (I think it was high end, but can't remember the number) of food for 500 million people pass through. That is an awful lot of concentration of power over our food. Not surprising they like obscurity if they make more money that way.

Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

#70

Post by Luc »

steven2012 wrote: post #51

I'm usually not one to care much about where my food came from, but the one thing I pay attention to, for some weird reason, is eggs. I think the idea of trapping chickens in cages for their entire lives and having them produce eggs for us is revolting, a real-life Matrix situation. I'll pay a few bucks extra to make sure that the chickens get at least a modicum of better life than being trapped in a cage for their e…

And for the male chicks, death in the high speed grinder. I wonder if they ever even get to see the daylight in their miserable short lives?
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