Comments on: Organic eggs sunny side up

By: MWorsley

MWorsley — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 21:17:25 +0000

Is it really worth paying more for organic eggs if you only use them in baking?

By: Edna Davis

Edna Davis — Wed, 08 Aug 2007 21:05:15 +0000

My mother taught me to test eggs in a bowl of water before using them.
The bad ones will float near the top. I raised organic hens for 20 years and needed this to check for old eggs when they laid in strange places. Now I buy my eggs I stilll use it as supermarkets keep eggs for months. The organic ones I get from my local bulk food store are always good but they go off the lay in cold weather so I have to use barn laid eggs.

By: J Horsham

J Horsham — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 04:28:11 +0000

I’ve had some experience with laying hens and feel confident that quality can be determined by the condition of eggshells. Next time you’re in the supermarket, open a carton of free range or organic eggs and compare these with the battery or cage eggs which are half the price or less. In most cases the organic eggs have some colour or speckles even when washed. The cage eggs are usually dull or washed out. It’s not 100 percent reliable but seems to isolate the really bad ones.

By: Eugene Stolivar

Eugene Stolivar — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 16:04:54 +0000

Kerry

I think you have unrealistic concept of how animals live in the natural environment. In jungles of Vietnam, wild chicken and their relative are preyed upon by any numbers of savage creature. Wouldn't they prefer to be safer inside this cages with their friend.

By: Frida Borelli

Frida Borelli — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 12:58:43 +0000

I just left a comment on the milk article and had similar thoughts with regard to eggs. Apart from the chocolate ones for easter, how many children will actually eat eggs these days? In the first instance our doctor recommended avoiding them for the first two years in order to prevent food allergies. I did enjoy the article and will consider purchasing organic eggs when I can find them.

By: Celestial

Celestial — Sun, 24 Jun 2007 07:34:01 +0000

Thank you for explaining the hidden costs of industrially produced foods.
I edit a quarterly newsletter for my local organic cooperative, and will try to introduce these points to my new members. Be organic and enjoy life.

By: Dragline

Dragline — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 00:15:31 +0000

Nobody kin eat fifty eggs (Unless they’re organic!!!)

By: CoolHand

CoolHand — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 04:13:01 +0000

I can eat 50 eggs

By: Craig

Craig — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 10:01:06 +0000

Battery hen operations are absolutely feral. I used to work at one. It paid my way through college. I can't eat eggs anymore. The things I seen completely grossed me out.

To anyone looking at becoming a vegetarian, may I recommend cleaning the cages of battery hens.

By: Glen Hunter

Glen Hunter — Tue, 12 Jun 2007 01:09:37 +0000

I don’t eat only organic food. However, eggs and milk are the two products that I make sure my family eats that are organic. I just don’t understand how I can buy a dozen non-organic eggs so cheaply. For about the price of a can of coke I can buy a dozen eggs. That doesn’t stack up. This could eaither mean that the egg producers are extremely efficient or that something in the quality of the product they are serving up has got to give. I suspect its the latter. I don’t doubt that they are efficient in squeezing every last bit of productivity they can out of the caged hens but I worry about what their feeding the birds and the growth hormones and other chemicals they must be pumping into the hens. That is why for these two items, eggs and milk, I’m always going to be making sure me and my family are choosing organic. Thanks. Good article.

By: Di Iosofa

Di Iosofa — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 13:41:50 +0000

Debeaking!!!!!! Hello……. is this the 21st century? Is that really what happens to egglaying hens? Quite frankly I find that disgusting.

By: Jonesy

Jonesy — Sun, 10 Jun 2007 19:28:44 +0000

I’ve seen a battery hen operation - trust me, it aint pretty!

By: Trent Cranwick

Trent Cranwick — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 04:53:42 +0000

Spot on! It’s easy to forget how much extra effort and attention to detail goes into producing eggs organically.

By: Gavin Robertson (Editor)

Gavin Robertson (Editor) — Sat, 09 Jun 2007 01:31:04 +0000

Richard / Kerry

Thanks for your comments.

There are a number of reasons why organic food sources, including organic eggs, tend to be more expensive than their mass-produced equivalents. While we'll make this the subject of a future article, I'd like to raise a few issues that I feel are worthy of mentioning at this point in time.

Organic production methods tend to be labor-intensive. They require the involvement of real farmers. The inputs used in rearing organic hens are premium quality. Certified organic grain, which is grain grown without the use of agricultural pesticides and herbicides, attracts a higher market price. Additionally, organic egg farms tend to be significantly smaller than the battery hen farms that we tend to compare them against. They are unable to achieve the economies of scale that their inustrial counterparts are able to enjoy. Furthermore, organic farmers have not traditionally enjoyed the levels of government support (in the form of subsidies, grants and tax breaks) that their conventional counterparts have.

Is it reasonable to expect to pay more for organic eggs? I think so. It's not that I enjoy paying more merely for the sake of paying more. But I can see the value in the product. As a source of protein and nutrients, organic eggs can't be beaten! I've heard an argument raised in the past, and I suspect we'll hear it raised more frequently in the future, and it goes something like this - we pay at least three times for eating conventional, chemically-reared foods:

1. we pay taxes which enable government to provide conventional agriculture with a range of subsidies, grants and tax breaks;

2. we pay for our food at the store;

3. we pay for our food choices toward the end of our life in the form of higher health care costs;

If we merely focus on 2. and ignore the real cost of 1. and 3., we might reasonably conclude that organic food represents poor value. However, when we consider things more broadly, and realise that the price we pay at the store is not the ultimate price we pay for our food choices, it's easier to see the value in organic food. For these reasons, I am happy to pay a premium for organic eggs.

Kerry, you raise some valid points and I agree that these are worthy of further exploration.

Once again, thanks for your input.

Gavin

By: Kerry

Kerry — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 12:17:21 +0000

Anyone vagely concerned about animal welfare would never consider eating a battery laid egg. Aside from being full of unhealthy crap, battery eggs are produced and sold without conscience by unscrupulous humans whos only motivation is greed. I know this is generalising a lot but anyone who visits a lock down poultry farm will understand where I’m coming from. Gavin Robertson, I think you need to consider these issues in more detail.

By: Richard Sargent

Richard Sargent — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 02:28:37 +0000

I prefer to purchase organic eggs but they seem to be really expensive these days. More than twice the price in most places. Is this really justified?