Tried buying eggs ethically lately? It’s bloody complicated. Obviously we all know that caged or “battery” hens suffer enormously in their short lives, and buying eggs so produced is propping up a cruel industry. But there are alternatives that don’t involve animal abuse, aren’t there?
Please don’t abuse us, we say while looking our cutest.
For a while I thought it would be alright as long as I bought eggs approved by the RSPCA – the “barn laid” ones with the RSPCA logo. Then I saw reports about dodgy farms still being accredited and such confidence was severely shaken.
Okay. So, maybe not the “barn-laid” eggs. What’s left, then? If you can’t trust the RSPCA, who can you trust? The supermarket shelves have a selection of “free range” eggs – many from the same farms (like Pace) that have been cynically fooling the RSPCA – but what exactly is the definition of “free range”, anyway? For a very brief period in Victoria (1989-1995) we had such a legislated definition, but then Kennett got in, deregulated the egg industry and those restrictions vanished. There is a free range industry group that has a definition that might hold, which appears to be the safest bet for the consumer trying to find a vaguely ethical choice on the supermarket shelf. But it’s still not as if anyone’s being regularly checked for compliance.
Of course, Animal Liberation Victoria would rather consumers didn’t buy eggs at all:
- Half the chicks hatched are male and are killed at one day old by the egg industry because they’ll never lay eggs. They are macerated in industrial blenders, suffocated in plastic bags or drowned in buckets.
- All laying hens used in commercial egg production are slaughtered prematurely when their economic productivity decreases.
- The parents of all egg laying hens (both battery and free range) are locked in breeding sheds. The hens in these sheds are mated continually making their backsides completely raw and swollen. The floor is often covered with a thick layer of excrement causing the air to be toxic with ammonia.
Then all the little male chicks were liquefied.
They suggest using “egg replacements like ‘No-Egg’ in baking or Silken Tofu instead of scrambled eggs” – which, frankly, I don’t think would work for either meringues or the burger patties I make.
Buggered if I know what to do, though. Maybe we’ll have to get our own hens.
Get your own hens, if you’ve got the room.
You’ll never look back.
We got two point-of-lay pullets recently. They were completely traumatised when we got them home. They huddled in their coop for three days and refused to come out for food or water. It was obvious that they’d never seen dirt before, and didn’t know what to do with it.
Luckily, they’ve settled down nicely and each produce one lovely egg daily. We let them out for a supervised wander twice a day. So they will have a good life here; but even so, they start of their lives was pretty cruel.
“Then all the little male chicks were liquefied…”
Prior to extrusion and flash frying. Thus the tranformation from chicken to “Mc Nugget” is complete.
Jules and Chris are right. Buy your own hens, you’ll feel beter.
Another issue to c0nsider in this vein is that of bull calves in the dairy industry. Obviously cows only produce milk after calving, and half the calves are male.
These bull calves (and any surplus heifers) are sent to the abbatoir at about three days old to be turned into veal.
Having worked in the stockyards, i can tell you the poor little bastards are terrified before they even get on the truck to the abbatoir, and things just get worse from there.
The alternative is to castrate them and grow them to 2 years before slaughter, but this requires space and feed. I feel its a lot more ethical (and more profitable) to grow these “dairy byproducts” out to adulthood prior to slaughter.
Any “non vegan” vegetarians out there fooling themselves that they don’t support unethical food production, and are not part of the meat industry need to reevaluate their position.
What we need is for more people to start shopping at farmers markets, and getting to know their suppliers. Buy meat and eggs, but buy them from people who share the same ethical standards as yourself.
I suspect you can’t have hens on a little block in Ringwood.
I’ve no idea even where to go for a farmers’ market out this way.
PS I’m just glad people are still reading, after that heading.
Farmers market @ Jells park.. One in Heathmont too:
Wheelers Hill Farmers Market
Jells Park South, Ferntree Gully Road
3rd Saturday of the month
8 am – 1 pm
Mel 72 A10
Heathmont Farmers Market
Great Ryrie Primary School,
Great Ryie Street.
1st Sunday of the month
8 am – 1 pm
Mel 49 K11
The biggest stumbling block to home egg production is your own local council regulations.
Many metropolitan councils don’t allow you to keep chickens, regardless of the sanitary conditions under which you keep them. That is especially ironic since most council allow you to keep any other type of bird in an aviary; get a chicken, though, and they’ll waggle their finger at you. Some councils, however, remain enlightened – you’ll have to do the legwork to see who does and doesn’t.
I have always bought houses in areas where I know I can keep my chickens. To me, part of the joy of living is having chickens clucking merrily as they help you weeds in the garden, hearing them squeal with excitement when they come across a nice juicy slug or caterpillar.
There is also the joy in knowing you are doing the most environmentally-friendly form of composting for all those kitchen scraps (some you can’t give them, like onion and potatoes and eggs!). And I get a ridiculous amount of joy from cutting up my scraps into chicken bite-sized pieces and putting them in the chicken bin, knowing the chickens will squeal with delight when I deliver them their meal.
The greatest joy of all, of course, is collecting and then eating the delicious eggs. Once you’ve had a home-laid egg, you’ll never go back!
You can have up to 5 hens in Ringwood i think, but worth checking with the council.
As Lynda says, you can cut their feed costs a little by feeding them kitchen scraps, and by letting them freerange in your backyard when you are home.
As far as farmers markets go there are a quite a few in Melbourne..
http://www.mfm.com.au/calendar.htm
“Half the chicks hatched are male and are killed at one day old by the egg industry because they’ll never lay eggs”
I don’t have a problem with killing the males, of course I advocate humane extermination but they’re of no use, what are they supposed to do with them? Maybe we should genetically modify the chooks so only females will be hatched, thing is though I’m picking the dead male chicks get a better deal than the hens. At least their misery is shorter.
“All laying hens used in commercial egg production are slaughtered prematurely when their economic productivity decreases. ”
As are lambs, lest they become mutton. As long as the slaughter is humane I have no problem with this.
“The parents of all egg laying hens (both battery and free range) are locked in breeding sheds. The hens in these sheds are mated continually making their backsides completely raw and swollen. The floor is often covered with a thick layer of excrement causing the air to be toxic with ammonia.”
This I agree is disgusting, exploiting animals for profit and food is fine IMO, until that exploitation becomes cruel and inhumane.
I’ve been thinking about getting chooks for a while, the dog would like the company, the only thing that’s holding me back is that it’s one extra thing to worry about when i go away.
Pigs? I think we should worry more about the way we treat pigs than the way we treat chooks. Pigs are smart, they’re up there with dogs and whales, thing is nobody gives a toss when they stuff their faces with their bacon sarnies, mention eating dogs or whales and many of these very same people become outraged.
I personally cannot stand cruelty to animals and I think hunting endangered species is both wrong and stupid, outside of that I have no more problem with people eating dog or whale than I do with eating pig.
Agreed RobJ.
The intensive pig industry is a disgrace. They are disgusting places for the animals and for the people who work there.
Unfortunately sourcing ethically produced pork is extremely difficult as pasture grown pork takes about twice as long to achieve maturity.
Pork can be produced in an ethical and sustainable manner, but it means paying about twice the supermarket price.
How much room you got Jeremy? You don’t need a farm, but a little back yard would be suitable, i think.
My mate in Canberra has two in his yard and they’re cute little buggers that give him the same sort of joy as Lynda described.
Plus they come to him and like being picked up and patted.
Add to that the eggs taste better than any you get in the supermarket and I know when i buy a house I will make sure i can keep chooks.
I believe swine flu actually came about because of the shitty conditions pigs were kept in Mexico, and their close proximity to communities.
EvShow, we don’t have the room where we are now, or the grass.
I get people knocking my door asking if I want to buy eggs, free range (apparently) I do sometimes and they’re expensive by comparison, but that’s OK I can afford it. But how do I know the bloke isn’t just selling me factory eggs from the supermarket.
I guess the chook shit is evidence that they’re the real deal…. But!!! How do I know he hasn’t just smeared any old bird shit on it ??? ;0)
Keri, that’s a shame. But i hear ya. I’m renting and we don’t have either the grass or the room for a pet. Not even a cute little kitty.
I wonder how Polly woulda reacted if you were able to get chooks…
Hi Keri,
You’re the person who hails from old South Wales aren’t you? Like myself and Monkeywrench who posts at Pure Poison..
How are you my fellow countryperson?
yep, it’s you, just clicked your anme and got confronted by Cerys matthews ;o)
Ah! More Cymry! They’re everywhere!
“This I agree is disgusting, exploiting animals for profit and food is fine IMO, until that exploitation becomes cruel and inhumane. “
I agree with you completely RobJ. The problem seems to lie with what you think is cruel and inhumane.
There seems to be an increasing number of people who think killing animals for food is itself inhumane. It starts with the many people who have lived their whole lives in the city, with no exposure to food production. One day they discover that what they have been eating doesn’t come from a can but is in fact a dead animal, and then shock horror a new Vegan is born.
I can see the beginnings of this in Jeremy’s post. Shock, horror animals get chopped up! OMG a dead animal!
Get over it, we are carnivores’, it’s what we are and we shouldn’t get all fucked up by the fact that we kill and eat meat or that some of the process’s might make ignorant people a bit squeamish.
Killing for food or profit should not be cruel but it is always going to upset some city folk.
That would be Cymraeg, from Cymru (oh god I hope that’s right)
Anyone watch Stacey and wotsisname??
Bryn – “it’s been a constant embarrassment to me mun, I can’t speak my mother tongue”
Nor can I but I aint embarrassed, it’s not my fault it wasn’t on the curriculum, they thought in my school anyway, that French and Russian would be more appropriate for Welsh kids ??!@!!!
“The problem seems to lie with what you think is cruel and inhumane. ”
???????
“There seems to be an increasing number of people who think killing animals for food is itself inhumane”
Not me.
“Killing for food or profit should not be cruel but it is always going to upset some city folk.”
Not this city person.
“The parents of all egg laying hens (both battery and free range) are locked in breeding sheds. The hens in these sheds are mated continually making their backsides completely raw and swollen. The floor is often covered with a thick layer of excrement causing the air to be toxic with ammonia.”
This I agree is disgusting,” <– Don't you Craigy?
I'm happy to pay more for eggs to make conditions better, if egg farmers go out of business because they can't cut corners then fuck 'em! If egg farmers go out of business because people will only by free range, tough shit.
Face it, most people just don't think or care where there food comes from.
I think Cymraeg is Welsh (the language), as opposed to Cymry being Welsh (the people).
I expect Keri will be able to clear it up.
Craigy – I’ve tried giving up meat and failed, and it’s possible that we are, by design, supposed to eat meat – but that doesn’t explain or excuse the amount of meat we eat (let alone the amount we waste). Obviously our ancestors did not have factories churning the stuff out.
Much of the problem with the commercial production of meat is a direct result of trying to satisfy an un-natural hunger for the stuff.
“Get over it, we are carnivores’”
I am over it and we’re omnivores actually,
Cymru = Wales
Cymraeg = Welsh
Cymry = ???? ;o)
Cymry.
Welsh means slave, or alien or something. That figures after all that’s the name the English gave us.
“(oh god I hope that’s right)”
Damn!!! FU God.
I stand corrected Jeremy.
“This I agree is disgusting,” <– Don't you Craigy?"
I agree completely RobJ.
There is no need to treat animals like this. I get my eggs from the local market, grown at a small free range farm near by.
What I am suggesting RobJ, is that many city people, upon realising that animals are killed for food, find that is not something they consider ethical. You and I know this is a bit silly.
I find the beginnings of this OMG realisation in Jeremy’s post.
He has only just realised that some animals do it tough and is wondering what to do about it. This from someone in his thirties?
I think a visit to an abattoir as a school kid would be good for everyone.
Sorry craigy, it’s just I thought you were referring to me specifically when you wrote ‘you’
Cheers, Craigy, but I think you could be a little more patronising.
Jeremy – “Ah! More Cymry! They’re everywhere!”
Well i didn’t want to say anything but…
You attract us Jeremy. It’s not our fault that the cymry/u/aeg diaspora gather at your blogs.
(it’s the word ‘Lefty in the title, like moths to a flame we are boyo)
Cymry is the people, Cymru is the country and Cymraeg is the language.
Just call us Taffs and be done with, I say!
Yes, Rob, it is me. I think you’re talking about Gavin and Stacey? Some of my family sent my mam the DVD and we watched the first series all in one hit last year. Haven’t seen the second series though, but someone told me that they’re playing the first series on Channel Seven. I really loved it the first time I watched it. I’d love to go back and watch it again.
EvShow – I think Polly would be okay after a little while, and Max would probably love to have someone else to play with.
Sorry if I sound patronising Jeremy…..
No…Wait… I’m not sorry, you city folk are a bunch of ignorant #$%^&%^$%^&(!!!
Spoken by a country person from the bushfire area that has to listen to the rubbish spouted about us by town folk.
“One day they discover that what they have been eating doesn’t come from a can but is in fact a dead animal, and then shock horror a new Vegan is born.
(and)
I think a visit to an abattoir as a school kid would be good for everyone.”
For what its worth, I reckon meat eaters should, at some point, kill at least one animal they are going to eat. For start it’ll give you an appreciation of what it takes to actually get food onto your plate.
And hopefully the full impact of what you are doing will be there for you. Taking another life is full on, and it shits me to tears that some people don’t get that, in their gut, in their bones. Killing animals for food can be ethical, tho it maybe isn’t necessary given our current range of dietry options. Not appreciating that you are taking a life to continue living is unethical tho and a few other less flattering terms I can think of.
Hopefully it’ll teach you not to waste food too,(you = general, plural use, not aimed at anyone here. Cept craigy who is obviously a city celebrity lefty George Clooney clone.)
Chooks do not need grass,backyards,etc., to stay healthy…what they need is the ability to move around.A fence can be turned into a place where chooks enjoy walking up and down.They don’t mind being in trees.They could find a roof that bore veges a home for the day,out in the sunlight.After all they are birds.I would suggest,if you really want those chooks and eggs just keep the physiological requirements in mind for a healthy chook with an inherent sense of mobility.Seeing that there are plans to turn high rise buildings into gardens,that are already able to grow crops like rice,often more productively per area used,it is indeed possible,I would reckon,to see even a normal house have the normal cleanliness and smells whilst chooks had a fair run around the place.Take a look at both using newspaper and what is happening in the turf making industries,including eco-mats specific for gardens.Rolling out the newspaper that is placed in a solid flexible easily rolled out cage from front to back door and beyond,only needs a sort of roofing they cannot fly out of,but are encouraged to reach because of greenery and vege creepers growing in and along it.Insect breeding is simple,well tested and highly productive.Not Battery Cage stuff at all but pleasing to the owner designer taking into account the birds needs,the human needs and cats etc. and then battling with the concept,or seek a innnovative carpenter’s advice.There use to be an odd carpenter etc. hanging around Friends of The Earth , Fitzroy.This stuff is in their league, because of the real problem of healthy production,healthy living spaces and the challenge of design.With Woolies getting into interior decoration against other hardware chains including mitre 10 and Bunnings,it could be just a case for wing nuts in drilled pine timber lengths with some decent but friendly folding capacity and away the design goes.There are natural range lighting on the market..perhaps you should see the ReNew Magazine people at their Demonstration site in a suburb close to Melbourne.And good luck! I dont think the chook needs or the human needs are insurmountable.
If you have a backyard and the council allows it, there’s no excuse for buying eggs at all (unless you know someone else who keeps chickens). I don’t know what the council bylaws are like in Melbourne, but in Brisbane you’re allowed to keep 6 hens on a property up to 800sqm, and pretty much any number (yikes) on a property larger than 800sqm.
“If you have a backyard and the council allows it, there’s no excuse for buying eggs at all”
There are plenty of excuses actually, not giving a toss about chooks is one (not a good one but an excuse anyone is entitled to)
I’m thinking of getting chooks but there are things I need to consider, like who is going to care for them when I’m away. Will my cat kill them? Will my dog kill them? (doubtful)
Do they attract rats? Do snakes follow the rats endangering my entire familty, etc etc
Sod it I’ll continue to buy them of the old bloke who knocks my door every fortnight.
“For what its worth, I reckon meat eaters should, at some point, kill at least one animal they are going to eat.”
I could, I’ve slayed rabbits for various reasons but I didn’t eat them. I’m happy for an abattoir or butcher to do the job properly.
Whilst I think our food that is a living creature should be treated humanely I don’t see why people should feel guilty about eating it. Though they should be aware for their own sake, ie they can make informed purchasing decisions.
RobJ I don’t think people should feel guilty about eating meat, I didn’t mean to suggest that. But I think they should think about their food, what it is and where it came from. And not just meat either for that matter.
If people are feeling guilty about eating meat tho, its probably a good thing to do cos it becomes a point of focus. Afterward you are gonna either not feel guilty anyore or stop eating meat.
I know thats just my opinion, but the last time I actually had twinges of guilt about meat eating, I went and shot a pig (“organic”, raised in a paddock) and butchered it myself, well I helped the guy who grew the pig butcher it.
Then had a party and cooked it in a hungi (sp?).
It worked for me, and I have mentioned the same thing to a few other people I know who have the response over the years.
“I’m happy for an abattoir or butcher to do the job properly.”
So am I actually.
Also I am can be a hypocrite. I have no problems eating meat that comes from a factory farm either, tho I try not to buy that sort of food myself.
“I have no problems eating meat that comes from a factory farm either, tho I try not to buy that sort of food myself.”
As a committed omnivore I hear you, it’s not like I’m going to enquire at every restaurant the history of my meal..
I love eating meat, but i prefer to buy country killed meat that has been produced in a humane manner.
However its not always possible , and i don’t lose any sleep when i do eat conventionally produced meat.
To me “humanely produced meat” means ensuring the animal is well fed, has adequete shelter and enough space to move about, and that they are killed quickly with a minimum of stress.
As RobJ and Craigy point out, their is nothing immoral about profiting from an animals death, but that doesnt absolve you of the responsibility of ensuring it is as humane a process as possible.
Jules’ example of a bullet in the head out in the paddock is about as clean a kill as is possible. Ill wager the pork was the best you’ve ever eaten Jules!
I agree with Craigy that it would be good for kids to do a tour of an abbotoir, and also a trip t o a factory farm.
But i also think we should send the kids to see a freeange operation, and see a local slaughterman at work in the paddock. This would provide a balanced view.
If people don’t know how their food is produced, and are unaware of the differences between different agricultural production systems, how can they make informed decisions about the kind of food they buy?
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