Jan 27, 2020
A basic nutritional building block. Part of your everyday eating. Used for baking, breakfast and bullies. Wait, what? Eggs – or the hens that produce them and the people who care for those hens – have long been the target of animal rights bullies. But rest assured, there is no big nutritional difference in eggs, and science shows that no single hen housing is superior.
In this episode, Dianne McComb, a Canadian egg enthusiast talks about the life of chickens on her farm in Ontario. She shares how there’s a disconnect between farmers and consumers, hens are in every country in the world, and how hens act toward each other. Chickens don't always act pretty, but eggs are a safe, reliable source of protein, regardless of the crazy labels on the egg case or package.
Key points
- An egg is an egg is an egg.
- Ag literacy helps address the disconnect between farmers and consumers
- Eggs as a nutritional building block and key source of protein
- Hens can lay 340 eggs in a year due to genetics that allow them to convert feed more efficiently, with less feed waste and better health for hen.
- Hen housing: North America places hens in cages to get them up off the floor and out of the manure. Eating and drinking space were mandated, birds could be monitored more closely.
- Hens are omnivores and will peck at each other. Cages and enriched colonies allow for hens to be moved away from bully birds, free range does not.
- Free range has created some challenges with health, cost, and animal welfare.
- Cages look cruel to the untrained eye. They are more of a luxury condo.
- Activists have an agenda to get rid of animal agriculture. They have bullied farmers and corporations on issues such as cage-free, without consideration of food affordability.
- Antibiotics are only used on chickens that are sick – it’s neglectful to not treat the hen and the eggs are not allowed in the food supply.
- Egg laying chickens are not given any hormones – it is illegal in both the U.S. and Canada. Hormones in all eggs, just as they are in other foods, naturally. Hormone-free is a marketing term.
- Illness spreads very quickly when hens go outside and interact with wild birds who have diseases.
Fab
quotes
“Eggs are a highly consumed, reliable source of protein in human nutrition.
“The science behind that little hen is just amazing.”
“Hens peck each other to death if not monitored. They also like to peck at their feces.”
“Farmers care for their hens in whatever system they use, whether it’s cages, free-ranged, or enriched.”
“We want you confident that the egg is a safe choice for your family’s nutrition.”
"Farmers care.”
"It is illegal to give hormones to chickens in the U.S. and Canada."
Links
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- @DianneMcComb on Facebook & Twitter
- Food Bullying: How to Avoid Buying BSby Michele Payn
- Embrace your Heart