November 29, 2007 - Which comes first, the price or the cage?

 

By Gabrielle Venturi
The Strand (Victoria University at the University of Toronto)

 

Once a week, I find myself faced with an overwhelming moral dilemma: the egg display in my local grocery store.

 

Balancing the equally strong desires of buying ethically produced eggs and staying within my food budget, I stare long and hard at the dozens of spherical choices lined up in front of me: organic, vegetarian, cage-free, free-run, free-range.

What's the difference and what does it all mean for the average consumer who just wants a little protein with her breakfast?

 

The discourse criticizing conventionally produced eggs is justifiably vast. Mass-producing eggs involves some highly inhumane tactics, such as placing hens in battery cages with no room for the animal to move.

 

No matter how you feel about a chicken's right to a good life, you should at least be able to distinguish between mass produced eggs and alternatively produced ones by a quick glance at the labels in a grocery store.

 

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is responsible for making my weekly quandary a bit easier.

 

Their role in the production of eggs involves retail inspection and label enforcement. According to the CFIA website, their goal is to protect the consumer from "economic fraud and product misrepresentation," by ensuring that any label on an egg carton accurately represents how the egg is produced.

 

But sometimes the distinction is not so clear.

 

At my grocery store, the bright labels ensuring me the eggs are Omega-3-enhanced have the distinctive label of the other alternatively produced eggs.

At $3.69 a carton, I'm assuming the birds have a pretty decent life. However, looking closely at the label I realize there's no indication of how the birds are raised. The increase in price only reflects the added Omega-3.

 

Moving on to the only explicitly "cage-free" variety, I see the packaging is styrofoam, meaning I have to choose between the environment and the birds. Why does it have to be so hard?!?

 

Most egg eaters are familiar with conventionally produced eggs that come in either white or brown. The difference in colour has very little effect on the egg's nutritional value; it is only the breed of the bird that determines the colour of the egg.

 

Bizarrely enough, chicken breeds with white earlobes generally lay white eggs and chicken breeds with red earlobes lay brown eggs.

 

Victoria College's Burwash Food Hall uses conventionally produced Canadian Grade A extra large size eggs.

 

The term "cage-free" is as self-explanatory as it gets: the hen does not live in a cage. However, in Canada there is no standard for cage-free production, so this term can be applied liberally without the CFIA cracking down on situations where the bird is actually worse-off outside of a cage.

 

In certain instances, a cage-free environment can constitute thousands of birds on the ground of a large building, leading to hunger, disease and cannibalistic pecking, if the birds are not monitored effectively.

 

According to the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency, the term "free-run" refers to birds that are able to roam inside a laying barn instead of being held in cages. "Free-range" provides a similar environment, except that the hens have access to an outdoor pasture as well.

 

Vegetarian and organic varieties refer to the specific diet of the birds. Vegetarian eggs ensure the hens receive a vegetarian diet with no drugs, hormones, antibiotics, or animal byproducts.Organic eggs ensure the same chemical-free diet, but also indicate a higher standard of bird-welfare.According to sources like the Vancouver Humane Society, organic egg producers provide the most humane environment for their birds. I would hope the organic birds have their own Jacuzzi, considering a dozen of their progeny costs a solid $5.99 - not exactly compatible with a student budget.

 

Knowing the different terminology can help a consumer make an informed decision, but for those who want to know every last detail contained in that steaming omelet, there is now an organization, Verified Eggs Canada (VEC), that provides a 7 digit code printed on each egg.

 

It allows you to go to their website, www.eggsactrace.com, type in that egg's unique verification code, and see which farm it came from, the production method, the grading station it passed through, and its expiry date.

 

Involvement in the program is entirely optional and a majority of egg distributors do not currently participate. One brand that is carried at my grocery store, Best Choice Eggs, does participate.

 

I was intrigued by this process and decided to purchase a $3.49 vegetarian dozen. I assumed the elevated price would insure that my vegetarian eggs were hormone free and also raised in a cage-free environment. I was wrong. After visiting the website I discovered my eggs originated from regular caged production at Pilgrims Poultry Farm in Grafton, Ontario and went through the Best Choice Eggs grading station in Blackstock, Ontario.

 

The lesson learned here is to never judge an egg carton by its cover. Read that label carefully, and if you are a complete bird's rights advocate, opt to buy Verified Eggs so you can know every gritty detail.