In the olden days of my childhood, people simply bought eggs, choosing whatever was the best bargain. Others, of course, plucked fresh warm eggs from steamy nests recently exited by obliging hens, as we did many years later living outside of Brussels in rural Belgium. And thus it had been for eons ranging back to when the first hens leapt down from the trees in Indochina and began crossing available roads, or ox paths, more like.
In any event, recently I was hunkered down in the egg department of a supermarket. Eggs fed vegetarian diets! Eggs with enhanced Omega 3’s! Bad eggs laid by chained up slave hens. Good eggs deposited by happy hens who scratched in the dirt on a daily basis.
I read the following: “ 4 Grain Cage Free Eggs are produced by hens who perch, scratch and nest in an all-natural environment and are fed only the purest all-natural grain feed.” There were 2 web addresses stamped on the 100% reclaimed paper carton. One was for 4 Grain, the other something called the United Egg Producers’ Animal Husbandry Guidelines.
Yes-- but notice the hens are not described as being outdoors...
Maybe that's an archaic and unrealistic notion when contemplating hens raised for real commercial gain. I think I read in one of Michael Pollan's books that birds given access to the outside-- a small open door--rarely if ever go through it, as they have been together in a mass since chickhood and only an aberrant Truman-type would break loose from the crowd.
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