Spicy Roasted Chickpeas
Picnic Recipes Galore
Corner-Store Party Food on the Fly
9 Chili Recipes, Bison to Vegan
How to Choose the Best Strawberries
Sausage Recipes of the Month
We're splattering you with breaking egg news again: this time, word of another big company making the switch to cage-free. Virgin America was already ahead of the rest of the airline pack for actually being pleasant to fly, and now they have updated their menu to include eggs from cage-free chickens. Virgin America joins other corporations such as Burger King, Wendy's, Denny's, and Subway in phasing out eggs from battery-caged chickens. But is this all coming from an altruistic place, or are these companies just capitalizing on the marketing goodwill that cage-free eggs bring with them?
Many of these companies' cage-free egg policies tend to suggest the latter: The supposed "switches" are often just a small percentage of eggs, and/or are phased in over ambiguous time frames. For example, the policy Wendy's rolled out? Just "2 percent of the eggs used in U.S. Company stores come from 'cage-free' hens," according to its website. So does it really help the sustainable food cause?
"I'd say it's one step in the right direction, with many steps left to take," says Paula Crossfield, the managing editor of Civil Eats. "It makes a huge difference when businesses shift their buying to more sustainable options, and could shift the scales and force Big Ag to change its practices." But she cautions that it's up to the public to hold the companies accountable, and to "push to maintain a certain amount of transparency."
In Virgin America's case, spokesperson Katie Baynes says it was actually the public that made the suggestion that the company go cage-free. And its policy isn't just a couple of eggs; it's legit. Baynes says that Virgin America is serving cage-free eggs exclusively.
Unfortunately, this means nothing, nutrition or cruelty-free wise.
There are three types of eggs available:
1 - Eggs from Battery Caged birds, overcrowded birds with floppy combs, ratty feathers, and are usually debeaked. These eggs are sold wholesale to your grocery stores and typical farms house up to 1.5 million hens. (~3$ Grocery price)
2 - Eggs from the 'Cage Free' / 'Free Range'...+READ
Unfortunately, this means nothing, nutrition or cruelty-free wise.
There are three types of eggs available:
1 - Eggs from Battery Caged birds, overcrowded birds with floppy combs, ratty feathers, and are usually debeaked. These eggs are sold wholesale to your grocery stores and typical farms house up to 1.5 million hens. (~3$ Grocery price)
2 - Eggs from the 'Cage Free' / 'Free Range' category who live in large barns, while usually still debeaked, are allowed to roost and dust bathe. These birds do not venture outside as the following category does. These eggs are sold wholesale to your grocery stores and most farms hold around 60,000 hens. (~5$ Grocery price)
3 - Pastured Eggs from your local farm, CSA, or neighbor. These birds go outside in the sun, eat grass and bugs, frolic and live happy lives. These can be wholesale if a big enough company, but are usually smaller productions that *can* supply local grocery stores.
'Cage-free' as written on egg cartons in the stores come from the second category. There are NO government regulations on the terms 'cage free' and 'free range' for eggs - although they do exist (with poor stipulations in my mind) for chicken meat.
Francine Bradley, Poultry Specialist from UC Davis says:
In terms of nutritional value, there is no nutritional difference, so the egg laid by a hen who is maintained in a cage is going to be the same as the nutritional value from an egg laid by a hen that was on the ground.
She is comparing category 1, the caged birds, to category 2, the 'free range/cage free' birds. These birds both consume the same type of feed, in the same type of environment, although category 2 is much better off.-COLLAPSE
I'm not sure if it's more sustainable, and there's still a very long way to go, but as far as cruelty-free goes, it's at least a start.