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…
Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be
81–90 of 158 posts
Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you think the chickens give a shit what colour the barn is?
No, but if you do a GIS for "barn" you'll find virtually every top result to be a red barn. Here's a screen shot: http://cl.ly/image/3G2w3N2a3d1e/Screen%20Shot%202014-12-23%2... I'm saying chicken/dairy/etc. producers will happily use this stereotypical image in their marketing, but the reality of how they're raising the animals is very different.
-Land O Lakes butter is not hand delivered by pretty Native American ladies.[1]
-Tigers don't actually eat Frosted Flakes and you should not let them play baseball with your children.[2]
-Many, many, many other examples of the gap between marketing and reality.
[1] http://static.atlantablackstar.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/0...
Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be
#83I get pasture raised eggs from a farm in Petaluma which has a CSA I use. They are very good, come in a wide variety of shell colors and the yolks are a deep yellowish orange, but I'm not necessarily sure they are necessarily worth the $8.50 a carton (technically, they are only grade A because of the variance). On the other hand, a dozen eggs from a decent producer will usually run $4/dozen. I'd recommend them for egg…
Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
Mine have that colour because they eat a lot of weeds and vegetables. The only thing they eat which isn't food scraps or something that's lying around the garden is shell grit, quite literally ground up sea shells to make sure they have enough calcium for their egg shells. Don't always assume that it's an artificial thing, what they're emulating is a natural process. It really is a pleasure to see happy hens roaming…
Feeding marigold petals will darken a yolk pretty well, nothing artificial there. I've cut down on my calcium supplement usage by drying and crushing the eggshells and giving those to the birds.
Seems like there's potential to get prion diseases there. Are chickens susceptible to prion diseases?
Maybe compost the shells, then grow collards, kale and turnips in the soil and feed the less-appetising greens to the chickens?
Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be
#85The 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…
About them breaking down over time, that hasn't been my experience. Eggs keep a long time, and at certain times of the year my parents have far more than they can eat. Even after 6-8 weeks in the fridge, the yolks have the same texture and color.
Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be
#86The 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...
Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, yeah, but I imagine "what the chicken ate" and "how idyllic their lives were" are pretty closely related. In any case, I've never once found a firm orange yolk in my eggs — supermarket, farmer's market, or otherwise. Joel is probably doing something right here. (Or maybe his eggs are just really fresh, I don't know.)
Good pasture and good nutrition helps for the firmness. If you want a rich, golden yolk, feed them marigold petals. It doesn't take much to really darken the yolk, and our birds seem to like them.
Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well, yeah, but I imagine "what the chicken ate" and "how idyllic their lives were" are pretty closely related. In any case, I've never once found a firm orange yolk in my eggs — supermarket, farmer's market, or otherwise. Joel is probably doing something right here. (Or maybe his eggs are just really fresh, I don't know.)
Yolk color is a red herring, you can feed chickens in cages many things to affect the color of the yolk, and it has nothing to do with quality of life.
Generally. Of course.
Re: Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be
#89The 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
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why do you support banning GMOs? I don't mean to be snarky, but I don't know of any good scientific case for doing so. In my estimation, GMOs are one of the most promising technologies for increasing quality of life around the world.
There are logical reasons for being against GMOs. Many of them have nothing to do with the fact that the product is GMO: * GMOs tend to promote monoculture and pesticide use. * Studies have shown that the same developments that make GMOs more insect resistant can also make them more difficult to digest. * When it comes to animals, GMOs tend to have much poorer quality of life and tend to be completely incapable of su…
That's true for industrialized agriculture in general and not specific to GMOs. Growing GMOs doesn't promote monoculture or pesticide use any more than growing conventional crops do. In fact the same farmers that grow GMOs often grow conventional crops at the same time, or switch from year to year, with very little change in their practices.
> * Studies have shown that the same developments that make GMOs more insect resistant can also make them more difficult to digest.
Without knowing what studies those are, it's impossible for me to rebut or defend it. I will say, the record on studies that claim to show that GMOs have safety issues is not a good one (http://academicsreview.org/2012/09/scientists-smell-a-rat-in...)
> * When it comes to animals, GMOs tend to have much poorer quality of life and tend to be completely incapable of surviving without constant support (chickens who can't stand on their own, cows who can't go more than 48 hours without milking, etc).
I am not aware of any GM livestock in use. Monsanto, the bogeyman of anti-GMO activists, does not research or produce GM animals. AFAIK the only GM animals on the market are things like glowing goldfish.
> * GMOs almost never focus on the true value of a food item, but rather the sell value. A food that looks nutritious is more valuable than one that actually is and GMOs make it easier to create that false association (deep red tomatos that taste like wall paper glue, etc).
Again this is a broader symptom of industrialized food production and is not related to GMOs. Yes, there are GM traits that are meant to do what you expect (e.g. the Flavr Savr tomato which was a commercial flop, and the Arctic Apple which is just recently rolling out) but this is a trend that goes back decades.