The Organic Chicken or the Free Range egg? Part 1
“Free-range,” cage-free,” “organic,” and “grass fed” are just some of the terms you can find on animal food products in your local heath food store. What is the difference between these terms and how do you decide if the product is healthy?
We have all heard the saying “you are what you eat,” but you are also what they ate! Personally, I’m not very comfortable eating mouthfuls of antibiotics or “foods” designed to fatten animal up quickly. A good example to consider is the chickens and the eggs on the market. What is the difference between cages, barn, woodland and organic products and why is there such a big difference in price?
Basic or standard supermarket chickens/eggs
These are usually the cheapest and most likely produced under the worst kind of conditions. Think “battery chickens” kept in a small cage eating low quality grains and being pumped full of who knows what?
Caged battery chickens are a sad reality of so called modern-day farming. These chickens are being housed in wire cages with a floor area no bigger than an A4 piece of paper (about five in each cage). The cages are often stacked six high, with hundreds or even thousands of birds crammed into massive sheds. This is not nature, the birds are not free to roam and scratch about, to dust-bathe themselves, to exercise, to see sunlight, or to simply be healthy. Cooped up like this, day in day out, the poor things are stressed out of their minds and end up in very bad health.
In such cramped living conditions and with poor quality food and no exercise, its no surprise these animals get sick. To keep them alive long enough to fatten them up and to produce some poor quality eggs, they are pumped full of antibiotics.
Barn eggs
The chickens are kept in closed barns/sheds in pretty squalid conditions. They might be able to move around freely, but they are often kept in very close quarters (10 chickens per square meter). The quality of these chickens is not much better than the battery hen as these chickens are often fed on genetically modified (GM) foods and antibiotics.
Free range eggs
Believe it or not, these chickens are kept in similar conditions to the barn chickens. They are however allowed outside during the day. UK Government regulations state that there must be 4 square meters of outside space per chicken. Some of the better free-range farmers will go above and beyond to make sure their chickens have access to more space and they maximum the use of the outdoor space.
Woodland eggs
These lucky little chickens are allowed to roam the great outdoors just like the free-range chickens. They often have access to grasslands/woodlands and are also fed on organically grown cereals. Flock sizes are small and they are not continually fed with antibiotics unless needed (only if the chickens get sick) and GM-foods are banned. These chickens MUST be fed on certified organic feeds and hence they are generally healthy. As a result, they produce much healthier eggs.
Organic Eggs
Chickens are allowed to roam the fields and eat a natural diet of fresh grass and organically grown cereals. Flock sizes are small and they are not continually fed on antibiotics unless they need them (only if they get sick). Again, all GM-foods are banned and their feed must be certified organic. With many good practices in place these are generally healthy birds that produce healthy eggs.
Further benefits of organic chickens
A study by scientists at the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition at London Metropolitan University found that today’s poultry has significantly less omega-3 fats than those raised in 1970. The authors attributed this loss to the changes in how chickens are raised. Most people could benefit from getting more omega-3 fats in their diet. Previous generations probably ate more omega-3 fats than we do – without popping expensive fish oil pills to do it.
Research has shown that omega-3 fats are critical for infant and childhood brain development and may protect against a host of other illnesses, from heart disease to Alzheimer’s. The Stanford review found that organic milk and chicken both have more of these critical good fats than conventional products.
Chickens and eggs are just one example of foods that have a variety of cultivation methods. Many modern day animal products, fruits and vegetables are being sprayed, modified, fed on, or injected with chemicals to speed up growth or “protect” them from disease and illness. Those of us who try to save money at the checkouts by buying low quality products then digest these chemicals.
The world population is getting fatter and sicker. Do you think the quality of our food supply has a role to play?