The Truth about Eggs
It seems today that people have lost their connection to food. They don't seem to know where their food comes from. We buy our food conveniently package.
I was lucky growing up my grandad used to be a farmer, and his cousin still farmed cattle. My dad and grandad loved gardening, they grew fruit and vegetables along with other plants. There is nothing like eating fresh picked peas from the pod.
We grew up knowing where our food came from. It certainly did not come from battery farms. Our mass consumer culture created the rise of mass production farming. Globally there are 9 billion chickens, that's 3 for every person.
There is a movement in the UK, to stop all battery hen farming. Due to the lack of animal welfare that occurs. These animals do not have a life, as there trapped in cages and never see natural light. When they can no longer lay enough eggs to be considered productive, they are killed.
BBC News
Some individuals now adopt these hens before, they are slaughter. So they can enjoy the little life they have left. (Rescued Battery hens) A knitting club made jumpers for them. It might look funny but they are badly needed, as battery hens have a habit of picking out feathers. Many farms take the tip of their beaks off when they are chicks, to stop this problem. A practise that many find abhorrent.
Early humans learnt to farm to ensure they would have enough food. Chickens have changed over the centuries by selective human breeding and not by natural evolution. Normal birds wouldn't lay an egg every day. These eggs are not fertilised so would never turn into a chick. Which is why vegetarians eat them.
Some normal behaviour still exists, as battery farming is historically a recent development. Any caged animal that can't act normally suffers mentally and physically. (RSPCA)
Recently in the press, eggs from the continent were found to be contaminated with pesticides. Salmonella is also a worry for some individuals, one I can understand since having experienced e-coli food poisoning. Raw eggs are not recommended for the elderly, children or pregnant women. Cooked eggs should be safe, as the salmonella is on the egg shell. To be safe always wash your hands after handling eggs.
In response to public health fears the British Lion standards mark was created. At least 90% of British Egg farms are part of the scheme. Each egg is dated and marked with a number of the farm it came from. So they can be traced. This is one of the great examples of people power in action.
The scheme makes our food safety standards one of the best in the EU if not the world. For the first time this year Free Range eggs outsold battery hen eggs.
It's great news, however eggs from outside the UK still end up in our food chain and we have no way of knowing if they came from battery hens. It's foods that have eggs as an ingredient that are the hardest to check, like cakes. Food labels might say they were made in Britain, but this is misleading as the ingredients will have been sourced from other countries.
Some supermarkets are now adding free range to there food labels, making it easier for us to check. But still more needs to be done. How are we supposed to make an ethical decision about our food if we don't know whats in it?
What are the most ethical eggs you can buy - This telegraph article helps explain the often bewildering range of eggs that are now on our supermarket shelves.
I only buy free range eggs from Scotland. I try to shop as ethically as I can. Buying local helps cut down, on the food I buys global food print. It also helps support are local farmers and food producers.
In the end I believe we should know more about our food and where it comes from. I want to know what I'm putting into my body. Labelling needs to be more honest, only by doing that can be made a truly ethical decision about are food.
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