What's In A Name?

Have you ever noticed when you walk down the egg aisle at most grocery stores how a plethora of options with a variety of labels greet you? How does a person choose which eggs are the best? When you are connected to a farmer you can talk to who raises laying hens, hopefully you can avoid this grocery store adventure altogether. But read on if you know anyone who could benefit from this knowledge.

The most basic and cheapest brands on the shelf likely have also the most basic of descriptions. Probably because they come from a factory “farm” where chickens are housed in cages, maybe never even seeing the light of day and definitely not a shred of green grass, let alone a grasshopper. These factories are sometimes referred to as “high-rises”, which makes sense when you see a photo of one.

So cage-free has to be better, right? Here’s an example of chickens living their best cage-free life:

But what about free-range? These girls differ from the cage-free in that they are allowed (required) to have access to the outdoors, but there is no government regulation or oversight as to what the conditions of that outdoor space must be. It could be a green pasture, it could be a dirt lot, or it could be concrete. And the barn full of chickens could look like the one pictured above, with one small door open to the outside. Some birds might never find it. Seeing free-range on the label simply doesn’t tell you everything you might want to know unless you know the farmer raising these birds.

What might come to mind when one thinks about “free range chickens” is they are happily hopping about here, there, and wherever their little bird brains desire to go. That may very well be the case, especially in many backyard flocks.

The thing is, lots of things like to eat chickens. So unless a farmer is willing to regularly sacrifice members of the flock to predators, a fence or some protective mechanism to curtail absolute freedom to range and forage usually benefits the bottom line. Once again, the descriptive term free-range doesn’t provide full assurance on the hens’ quality of life. Talking to your farmer or seeing the flock firsthand does.

The term natural and the phrase no hormones aren’t overly helpful either. No poultry in the U.S., either for egg or meat production, is approved for added hormones. While it may sound better, it’s actually just what is expected.  And natural is unregulated…the most you can assume is this is a real egg laid by a real chicken, I guess!

Now, pastured eggs are coming from hens that are given an opportunity to actually express their innate chicken-ness. I don’t know of any government regulations pertaining to frequency of moving/rotating in a pasture setting (though perhaps there are in other certification programs), but our girls spend much/most of their time outdoors, freely scratching and foraging for seeds and bugs and any other treasures they can find. This picture shows a day in the life of our hens in all but the coldest months of the year.

And this photo shows our hens hanging out in and around their winter quarters. Everything has turned brown in the dead of winter, but they’re still spending a lot of time outdoors, getting fresh air and sunshine (vitamin D) when it's available, not to mention scratching through the wood chips and pasture area (and the mud!).

Many websites will mislead the public by stating there is little nutritional difference between eggs from hens raised in these different environments, though they don’t find it necessary to provide any data to back up their claims. The confinement poultry industry would prefer it not be common knowledge they actually have an inferior product.

Mother Earth News has conducted more than one study with several pastured egg farms, comparing the nutrient composition found in these pastured eggs to those of confined birds according to the USDA’s nutrient database.

Here is what they found in the pastured eggs’ composition:

• 1/3 less cholesterol
• 1/4 less saturated fat
• 2/3 more vitamin A
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids
• 3 times more vitamin E
• 7 times more beta carotene

Additionally, hens raised in confinement have a significantly higher ratio of omega-6: omega-3 fatty acid profile. Why is this important? Omega-6 FA's contribute to inflammation. The more of them in our diet, the more anti-oxidants you need to get rid of the trouble-makers. Omega-3 FA's are anti-inflammatory, and pastured hens had 5-10 times lower omega-6: omega-3 ratio, regardless of whether the hens were eating a corn and soy free layer mash or their feed did contain corn and soy (read that article here).

Bottom line is, what goes in to making an egg absolutely makes a difference in the end product. And while understanding labels can be important, you are most empowered when you can have a connection with your farmers and take the opportunity to see for yourself how your food is produced.

Eggs can be white, brown, blue, green, pink, or even a little purplish in appearance on the outside, and all that variety is quite beautiful, but it’s just a shell. It doesn’t affect the inside as long as it’s doing its job. What really counts…the inside…is in some ways very similar no matter the shell color, yet is also significantly affected by the environment in which it was produced and the type of nourishment that led to its formation.

So it is with us, don’t you think? There’s quite a variety in our outward appearances, but inside we’re not so different. Even so, what is inside must be nourished well. Physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Eat well, friend!