How Free-Range Eggs Became the Norm in Supermarkets, and Sold Customers a Lie
Phys.org | March 14, 2023
Free-range egg farms differ from the advertised scenes of chickens roaming free in open fields. In fact, free-range flocks can reach up to 16,000 hens a shed, with daytime access to the outside provided by holes in the perimeter.
Beaks are trimmed to prevent the fighting that arises as a result of stress in this unnatural environment. More expensive organic eggs, produced by much smaller flocks on farms where beak trimming is banned, are a minority of those eaten in the U.K.
Free-range egg farming is seen as both safer and more ethical than other forms of production. Though free from the worst excesses of battery farming, eggs with the free-range label are still produced on densely packed farms. Large, intensive systems such as these are implicated in the spread of bird flu, devastating poultry and wildlife alike.
Next they’ll tell me how the sausage is made.
Ugh.
Oh to be a kid again when on my sisters farm the chickens had their beaks trimmed by burning a large part of it off. Like Robert Duvall’s famous line…there’s no other smell like it…
That’s not acceptable but lopping off body parts of confused children is?
Agree totally..and a chicken doesn’t have to live as long without a pecker..
Do you think that free-range chickens certified from Chernobyl Farms would be a good investment?
On the twelfth day of Christmas
My true love sent to me
16,000 chickens
Twelve drummers drumming
Eleven pipers piping
Ten lords a-leaping
Nine ladies dancing
Eight maids a-milking
Seven swans a-swimming
Six geese a-laying
Five golden rings
Four calling birds
Three French hens
Two turtle doves and
A partridge in a pear tree