8 ms·

Eggs Not Always What They're Cracked Up to Be

182 points by x0054 12y ago

djokkataja 12y ago
Handy link from the article if you want to be a bit pickier about the eggs you buy: http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/ http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/
aabajian 12y ago
The most informative thing for me was that "organic" actually has a definition by USDA: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=organic-agriculture.html http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=t... Up until now the med student in me had the jerk reaction that "organic" meant carbon-based (+ nightmares from ochem), which applies to almost everything we eat.
- bigethan 12y ago
  There is a word for that in the food industry: 'All Natural.' Sounds good, but actually means nothing (what is / isn't natural?), and isn't legally monitored.
  - debacle 12y ago
    "All Natural" actually does have a broad definition, it's just not a very good one: > However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances. There is no exact definition, because it's hard to define. http://www.fda.gov/aboutfda/transparency/basics/ucm214868.htm http://www.fda.gov/aboutfda/transparency/basics/ucm214868.ht...
- SloopJon 12y ago
  Although I knew that "organic" is regulated, I did not know that it implied free range, which is theoretically better than the cage free that I usually buy. An additional note from the organic egg scorecard, linked from the article, is that store-brand eggs tend to come from farms with poor conditions: http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/ http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/
  - MattGrommes 12y ago
    I would guess that to have the scale to sell eggs to a chain store you need the more industrial conditions that scorecard doesn't like. All that special treatment means less chickens and higher prices.
batbomb 12y ago
I get pasture raised eggs from a farm in Petaluma which has a CSA I use. They are very good, come in a wide variety of shell colors and the yolks are a deep yellowish orange, but I'm not necessarily sure they are necessarily worth the $8.50 a carton (technically, they are only grade A because of the variance). On the other hand, a dozen eggs from a decent producer will usually run $4/dozen. I'd recommend them for egg dishes, but maybe not so much for general culinary usage.
- delbel 12y ago
  Wow that's expensive, I raise chickens for eggs that are 100% organic. My costs are about $.66 a dozen (90% of their feed is free range around my house). That CSA is literally printing money. Talk about perceived value!
  - sneak 12y ago
    That is not what literally means.
    - archagon 12y ago
      False: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally
jere 12y ago
I've know these for a while and always look for pastured eggs but never find them outside of a farmer's market. >No Hormones... It's like putting a label on a cereal box that says, "No toxic waste." http://xkcd.com/641/ http://xkcd.com/641/
- johnsmith108959 12y ago
  http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=974#comic http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=974#comic
- zorpner 12y ago
  Many farmer's markets in SF have actually banned non-pasture-raised eggs (which, as it turned out, only affected one company based out of Petaluma which markets their eggs under 4-5 different small-sounding brands in the Bay Area): http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/pasture-raised-industrial-organic-egg-cellent-stakeholder-engagement-lesson/ http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/pasture-raised-industria...
  - maerF0x0 12y ago
    Where do you recommend to get good pasture raised meat and eggs in SF?
Dirlewanger 12y ago
Can pretty much sum up the entire organic/"natural" food craze of the past decade with: advertising as usual. Good article. Nothing new to see here though. Hopefully this will wake up some people though who exclusively go for the brand name stuff at Whole Foods.
- shittyanalogy 12y ago
  Except Organic is actually a regulated term.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
foobarqux 12y ago
Often you are not getting eggs at all: I was surprised to learn recently that when you order eggs from most breakfast restaurants (IHOP, Denny's) or eat at hotel buffets you are actually getting powdered eggs.
phil248 12y ago
For those that are interested, I've found that Certified Humane eggs are the easiest to find and that label carries weight. It's usually $4-$5 for a dozen, more expensive than factory eggs but still pretty cheap for food in general. AWA is stricter, but I've never seen AWA eggs.
anatoly 12y ago
I was shocked to read that eggs generally have pleasing deep-yellow or orange-red yolks because the egg industry spends a lot of money to put special additives into chicken feed just for that purpose. There's no other benefit from those additives. http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/375927.html http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/375927.html I think about that now every time I see a pleasing, healthy-looking, tasty-looking deeply yellow yolk on my plate.
- 13 12y ago
  Mine have that colour because they eat a lot of weeds and vegetables. The only thing they eat which isn't food scraps or something that's lying around the garden is shell grit, quite literally ground up sea shells to make sure they have enough calcium for their egg shells. Don't always assume that it's an artificial thing, what they're emulating is a natural process. It really is a pleasure to see happy hens roaming around too, even if they didn't lay breakfast and cake material.
  - jmhobbs 12y ago
    Feeding marigold petals will darken a yolk pretty well, nothing artificial there. I've cut down on my calcium supplement usage by drying and crushing the eggshells and giving those to the birds.
    - wtbob 12y ago
      > I've cut down on my calcium supplement usage by drying and crushing the eggshells and giving those to the birds. Seems like there's potential to get prion diseases there. Are chickens susceptible to prion diseases? Maybe compost the shells, then grow collards, kale and turnips in the soil and feed the less-appetising greens to the chickens?
      - sdenton4 12y ago
        Prions are in brains, not eggshells. Mad cow disease was caused by cows eating the crushed up brains of other cows, which is in itself a charming illustration of the ethics of our industrial food system.
xacaxulu 12y ago
It's so wonderful to now live in a forthright European country that cares for their citizens and doesn't permit this kind of fraudulent advertising of unnatural and unhealthy modifications of foods. Firms like Monsanto are barred from the country as are GMOs in general and you'd be hard-pressed to find anything other than natural eggs from free-range chickens, untreated with any hormones or antibiotics. It seems the inverse is the case in the US.
- higherpurpose 12y ago
  I agree. I have nothing against researching how to modify food to be better (emphasis on better, not just "cheaper with compromises") or how to create food entirely in labs. However, I don't want to be a "beta tester" of such food in the 2-10 decades it will take to perfect it. When there's been 3 decades or independent reviews for a particular lab-grown food, then you can start putting it in local supermarkets where everyone can buy it without giving a moment's thought about whether that food is "safe to eat or not?". I think it's the government's jobs to ensure it doesn't happen earlier than that.
- heydenberk 12y ago
  Why do you support banning GMOs? I don't mean to be snarky, but I don't know of any good scientific case for doing so. In my estimation, GMOs are one of the most promising technologies for increasing quality of life around the world.
  - raverbashing 12y ago
    Because Monsanto It's that simple GMOs, surely, are just a technology
  - debacle 12y ago
    There are logical reasons for being against GMOs. Many of them have nothing to do with the fact that the product is GMO: * GMOs tend to promote monoculture and pesticide use. * Studies have shown that the same developments that make GMOs more insect resistant can also make them more difficult to digest. * When it comes to animals, GMOs tend to have much poorer quality of life and tend to be completely incapable of surviving without constant support (chickens who can't stand on their own, cows who can't go more than 48 hours without milking, etc). * GMOs almost never focus on the true value of a food item, but rather the sell value. A food that looks nutritious is more valuable than one that actually is and GMOs make it easier to create that false association (deep red tomatos that taste like wall paper glue, etc). It's important to note that all of these things are really a byproduct of industrial agriculture, but many people associate them more directly with GMOs. I think the development of GMOs is a completely normal part of our agriculture and has been for thousands of years, we just need to make sure we're responsible about it.
debacle 12y ago
The study is funded by the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply [1] which is "facilitated" by the Center for Food Integrity [2], which is run by a PR firm on behalf of ConAgra, Monsanto, Tyson, and others. It makes me sad that NPR is slowly turning into just another mouthpiece. [1] http://www2.sustainableeggcoalition.org/ http://www2.sustainableeggcoalition.org/ [2] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Food_Integrity http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Food_I...
- bkirwi 12y ago
  One additional note: this is a survey article, not based on a single study. This seems to be the case of NPR staff using a questionable reference, not just rewriting a press release.
  - logn 12y ago
    The day the Senate torture report broke, NPR referred to torture as enhanced interrogation.
- bduerst 12y ago
  A CFI-supported study is mentioned in the article, but NPR also mentions other organizations, like the Cornucopia institute, that I can't find any bias on. There seems to be multiple sources for this NPR article here, meaning I don't think NPR has degraded to mouthpiece status just yet.
- ineedtosleep 12y ago
  Poisoning the well much? Even if true, one biased article does not make them into "another mouthpiece."
  - meepmorp 12y ago
    It says more about you than anyone else if knowing the names of the founders makes the data seem unreliable.
- dubfan 12y ago
archagon 12y ago
The description in "The Omnivore's Dilemma" of egg yolks from idyllically pasture-raised chickens is forever stuck in my memory. "Between stops, Art mentioned that Joel’s eggs usually gave him his foot in the door when trying to land a new account. We stopped in at one such prospect, a newly opened restaurant called the Filling Station. Art introduced himself and presented the chef with a brochure and a dozen eggs. The chef cracked one into a saucepan; instead of spreading out flabbily, the egg stood up nice and tall in the pan. Joel refers to this as “muscle tone.” When he first began selling eggs to chefs, he’d crack one right into the palm of his hand, and then flip the yolk back and forth from one hand to another to demonstrate its integrity. The Filling Station chef called his staff over to admire the vibrant orange color of the yolk. Art explained that it was the grass diet that gave the eggs their color, indicating lots of beta-carotene. I don’t think I’d ever seen an egg yolk rivet so many people for so long. Art beamed; he was in." I've yet to find an egg like that, though I've heard you can get them if you raise backyard chickens.
- Aloisius 12y ago
  The color of an egg yolk is based on what the chicken ate and has no bearing on how idyllic their lives were. There are plenty of pasture raised chickens without the deep orange color because the plant material around them (you can get nearly white colored yolks from a hen that has literally miles of pasture around them). If there a lot of capsicum peppers around for instance, the yolks will turn almost red. How firm it is relates directly to how old it is and how it was treated, regardless of how they are raised. You can get an ultra-firm egg yolk from a factory farmed hen. The eggs you get in a supermarket however are typically several weeks old - long enough for the egg yolk to start to lose its firmness.
  - archagon 12y ago
    Well, yeah, but I imagine "what the chicken ate" and "how idyllic their lives were" are pretty closely related. In any case, I've never once found a firm orange yolk in my eggs — supermarket, farmer's market, or otherwise. Joel is probably doing something right here. (Or maybe his eggs are just really fresh, I don't know.)
gd1 12y ago
"They usually live in aviaries: massive industrial barns" Oooh, industrial barns... "And often, Kastel says, industrial fans that suck..." Oooh, industrial fans. As opposed to the ones that grow on trees. "One of the most common causes of death was pecking by other chickens." You mean we give them more freedom, and they kill each other? I thought 'natural' was meant to mean all rainbows and happiness and shit.
- pyre 12y ago
  > You mean we give them more freedom, and they kill each other? They are in crowded conditions. Humans do the same things will kept locked up in crowded conditions. What are you arguing is akin to saying that humans need to be locked up in solitary confinement because if you keep them "free" in close quarters they will start committing acts of violence against each other. You would have a hard time arguing that the Japanese in US/Canadian "relocation centres" should have been kept in solitary confinement because there were instances of "inmate-on-inmate" violence/rape.
  - fizgig 12y ago
    > They are in crowded conditions. Humans do the same things will kept locked up in crowded conditions. Many animals do. Goats are downright nasty little shits with each-other, if they have horns (even w/o) Hens very much have a "pecking order", and can be pretty brutal to one another even with ample space to roam and feed. Don't get me started on most roosters, though we did raise some that were downright gentlemanly to their ladies. Quail in crowded conditions (we raised Coturnix) can damned near skin each-other alive if a sufficiently picked-on bird gets too damaged. Either bird will pick at open wounds on others. Not certain what that behavior was about, but is ain't good for the birds in either case.
  - gd1 12y ago
    Don't think I was 'arguing' anything really. Just commenting on the irony. Nature tends to be brutish and nasty, quite the opposite to the picture that your typical urban-living organic food enthusiast has.
woodchuck64 12y ago
Good for them, "Pasture-Raised" just booted out "Free Range" in my personal egg-shopping check list.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
jack-r-abbit 12y ago
My first real job (25 years ago... at age 15) was collecting eggs at a medium-sized commercial egg farm. Maybe I didn't care about "organic" or "cage-free" at age 15 or nobody cared 25 year ago, but we were one of those "battery cage" farms. It was long buildings with 5 rows of double stacked cages. The floor of the cage was slanted so that the eggs rolled out into a trough in the front. We'd push a narrow cart down the row and collect the eggs into trays. It was brutal for both humans and chickens. I didn't eat eggs or chicken for awhile after that.
- iso8859-1 12y ago
  How could you start again if you didn't forget?
  - jack-r-abbit 12y ago
    Knowing that some eggs come out bloody and birds die is one thing. Handling those bloody eggs and dead birds every weekend is an entirely different thing. I moved on from that job and after a while just knowing was not as "traumatic" and eggs/chicken was no longer repulsive to me.
schmichael 12y ago
Backyard chicken farmer here! If you have a bit of yard space and time they make wonderful pets. About as difficult to care for as cats and what they lack in cuddles they make up for in hilarious/idiotic behavior. I doubt it saves me any money, but it's fun and provides lots of "organic pasture-raised" eggs and compost.
- codingdave 12y ago
  They are also a great way to reduce your waste. We send all of our kitchen scraps to the chickens, and they give us eggs in return. They also keep the area under our apple tress fairly clear for us, eating all the insects that otherwise would be in our trees, and keeping the mice away. And they get to munch on any fallen apples. Works out well for the chickens and for us.
  - pimlottc 12y ago
    > And they get to munch on any fallen apples. Hmm, I wonder if they like lemons...
    - schmichael 12y ago
      Be careful with birds and citrus. Do some googling.
- nitrogen 12y ago
  Just don't let them near anything you don't want them to defecate on. They will defecate everywhere they go, including on expensive equipment and cars when they sneak into your garage.
  - schmichael 12y ago
    It makes me really happy that you talk about chicken poop and your nick is nitrogen.
    - 12y ago
philwelch 12y ago
I'm trying to figure out if this was a subtly intentional pun or a coincidence of phrasing: > Pasture-raised birds spend most of their life outdoors, with a fair amount of space plus access to a barn. Many are able to eat a diet of worms, insects and grass, along with corn feed... cf. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms
steven2012 12y ago
I'm usually not one to care much about where my food came from, but the one thing I pay attention to, for some weird reason, is eggs. I think the idea of trapping chickens in cages for their entire lives and having them produce eggs for us is revolting, a real-life Matrix situation. I'll pay a few bucks extra to make sure that the chickens get at least a modicum of better life than being trapped in a cage for their entire lives.
- jack-r-abbit 12y ago
  Not sure if it is any consolation but at least "their entire life" is not that long. When I worked at an egg farm (25 years ago), we replaced the flock each year. If I recall correctly, the outbound birds were used to make dog food and such.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- Luc 12y ago
  And for the male chicks, death in the high speed grinder. I wonder if they ever even get to see the daylight in their miserable short lives?
- amalag 12y ago
  Yet another reason not to eat chicken-periods.
nartz 12y ago
Its pretty bogus how the FDA gets lobbied for things like this, and it ends up convoluting the message to the american public. For instance, read this article on how 'organic' / 'antibiotic-free' eggs were still able to be treated by antibiotics as long as it was early in the eggs life: http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/01/organic-chicken-and-egg-antibiotics-edition http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/01/organic-chic... Even this Q & A is not the most straightforward on what the antibiotic process is, instead hiding behind 'meets FDA regulations'. http://www.uspoultry.org/faq/faq.cfm http://www.uspoultry.org/faq/faq.cfm
atourgates 12y ago
The article somewhat pans Certified Humane, but apart from raising your own chickens or buying from a farmer you trust, it's far and away the best alternative that you can find at many grocery stores. Their comparison chart gives a good overview of the program[1], but here are a few key facts: * It's a completely independent organization, that maintains that independence very intentionally. * It has rigorous compliance and inspection requirements, and everything about the program is transparent and available online. * The birds are required to be out of doors at least 6-hours per day, every day, year round, with 108 sq. ft. per bird. Animal Welfare Approved is another good, independent and transparent program, but I've never actually seen them in a grocery store. [1] http://certifiedhumane.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Laying-Hen-Comparison-Chart.-1-1-14.pdf http://certifiedhumane.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Laying...
eggman47 12y ago
Most of the time we use eggs, it is just needed as "glue" to make things stick together, or for leavening, moisture etc. This can easily be replaced by tapioca flour and water, flax and water, or some other substitute. It'probably cheaper as well. Save the eggs for your quiches, omeletes and the like where it actually makes a difference. http://www.wikihow.com/Replace-Eggs-in-Your-Cooking http://www.wikihow.com/Replace-Eggs-in-Your-Cooking
aaronbrethorst 12y ago
Most useful link in the article: http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/ http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/
ndespres 12y ago
Of course an article on our food system is in all of our interests (Soylent customers, perhaps, excepted) but I'm always happy to see an article like this at the top of hn. I feel that this industry is particularly ripe for innovation, and it's where I'm presently working. Though it turns out, feeding and watering all the animals every day takes up all that time I thought I'd have to design new systems to track egg consumption and greenhouse temperatures with my Arduino. Turns out all that work outside is just as gratifying without the electronic hassles I imagined I'd bring to it. I sell eggs from chickens which I believe have the best possible life, and I hesitate to use most of the terms listed here, even the most positive ones, because of their lackluster connotations. I know what "free range" means in the minimal application of the spectrum, so where my birds have acres to forage for food, someone else may not be so generous. I don't want us classified under the same umbrella. So I invite all my customers to come and see where their food is grown, in the environment where I believe it should all optimally come from. And yes, the eggs are healthier, firmer, and last longer (not refrigerated) and vary depending on what the chickens have foraged that day. Not to mention the beautiful rainbow of their shells, which vary depending on the breed. http://homestead.sevenarrowseast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/somanyeggs.jpeg http://homestead.sevenarrowseast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012...
- HeyLaughingBoy 12y ago
  systems to track egg consumption and greenhouse temperatures with my Arduino That's funny! I planned on doing exactly the same thing when I started keeping chickens about 6 years ago. I got as far as building an LED lamp to add extra light to keep them laying in winter. Never used it (except to check up on them at night). I guess if I was doing this commercially it would be worthwhile, but for a hobby flock of a dozen it hardly makes sense.
bevan 12y ago
The evidence appears to be in about "omega-3 eggs". There are quite a few studies showing the benefits of eating them over conventional eggs: http://paleoclaims.com/claims/omega-3-eggs-are-healthier-than-regular-eggs http://paleoclaims.com/claims/omega-3-eggs-are-healthier-tha... A quote from one of the studies on that page: "Three n-3 PUFA-enriched eggs provide approximately the same amount of n-3 PUFA as one meal with fish.""
zedpm 12y ago
One of many benefits of living in a semi-rural area (western South Dakota) is easy access to truly high-quality foods like actual farm eggs. I've walked around the two farms I buy eggs from and I've seen the chickens wandering around. They get ordinary feed, of course, but also scavenge insects and other things, resulting in gorgeous orange yolks and tasty eggs. I pay $2 a dozen (as long as I promise to return the egg cartons to be reused), or sometimes just trade some fresh produce for the eggs. Almost all of my meat (beef, lamb, goat, and pork) is similarly purchased from small producers I personally know; often my family and I butcher the animals ourselves. This approach is a win in terms of quality, cost, humane treatment of animals, and satisfaction. Having a connection to my food and the people who produce it is, to me, reason enough to prefer living in fly-over country vs. San Francisco. All the fresh air, open land, and lower stress environment doesn't hurt either.
felipesabino 12y ago
Only reading the title I thought it would be a discussing about fake eggs in chine being a hoax [1] But anyways, this is just more confirmation these jargons in labels mean almost anything useful for the general public. The article reminded me that funny "natural effect" videos [2] and also that the whole GMO labelling issue that still make people argue. And in the end of the day, all I have seen so far is a lot of fear mongering and no debate wether real useful information should be added to labels, like 'how far and for how long did this food traveled', 'how long was it kept in storage' and so on... [1] http://sguforums.us/index.php/topic,43295.msg9275536.html#msg9275536 http://sguforums.us/index.php/topic,43295.msg9275536.html#ms... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AftZshnP8fs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AftZshnP8fs
dlau1 12y ago
Shameless plug, the company I (just started) working at connects producers with consumers. We handle the logistics of getting the fantastic products from our producers to you. If you are in the sf bay, nola, la, or nyc, check it out at http://goodeggs.com http://goodeggs.com Here is the SF egg section (we deliver to sf, east bay, and the peninsula) https://www.goodeggs.com/sfbay/dairy/eggs https://www.goodeggs.com/sfbay/dairy/eggs
kalleboo 12y ago
In contrast, here are the regulations in Sweden (probably similar elsewhere in the EU): * Battery cages: Banned * "Caged hens": Cage size must be at least 750 cm^2. Must have sand, a nest, and a stick to sit on. * "Free range indoors": Floor space must be at least 1,111 cm^2 per hen. 1/3 of the floor area must be sand or similar. Must have access to a nest, at least 15 cm of stick to sit on. * "Free range outdoors": At least 1,111 cm^2 space per hen. Must have access to an outdoors area of at least 4m^2 per hen. Same sand/nest/sitting stick rules as indoors. * "Organic": At least 1,664 cm^2 space per hen. Outdoors area of at least 4m^2 per hen. Outdoors area must have grass growing. 1/3 of floor area must have sand or similar, must have a nest, must have a sitting stick of at least 18 cm. Must be fed with organic feed. * "KRAV Organic certified": Organic + Must have access to root vegetables to eat at. The farm can't be leaking stuff from the fertilizer into the surrounding nature. Many of the large supermarket chains have stopped selling caged eggs completely, which now make up less than 10% of sold eggs. Around 12% are organic. Swedish eggs are 100% salmonella-free.
- 3pt14159 12y ago
  1111 cm^2 isn't that much. It's only a square foot of space... I used to raise chickens, they need at least 4 times that.
  - kalleboo 12y ago
    Yeah, in contrast, a sheet of A4 paper is 620 cm^2. So they have less than two pieces of paper to stand on.
- daxelrod 12y ago
  > Swedish eggs are 100% salmonella-free. Interesting! How do they accomplish this?
3pt14159 12y ago
Note that this is only indicative of the USA. In Canada Organic eggs are generally what you should be buying. They are about 50 cents an egg and are the most strict on the humaneness of a chicken's life.
shalmanese 12y ago
Given how much HN loves to bring up the studies that show people fail at tasting wine, it's surprising that nobody has talked about how double blind studies consistently reveal that there's no perceptible taste difference between different types of eggs (once color is controlled for): Washington Post: > The egg industry has been conducting blind tastings for years. The only difference is that they don't use dish-towel blindfolds; they have special lights that mask the color of the yolks. "If people can see the difference in the eggs, they also find flavor differences," Curtis says. "But if they have no visual cues, they don't." > Only one factor can markedly affect an egg's taste, and that is the presence of strong flavors in the feed. "Omega-3 eggs can sometimes have a fishy taste if the hens are fed marine oils," http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060100792.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06... Serious Eats: > It was pretty clear evidence that as far as eggs go, the mindset of the taster has far more bearing on the flavor of the egg than the egg itself. http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-cage-free-organic-omega-3s-grocery-store-brand-the-food-lab.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-ca... Journal of Product and Brand Management: > Respondents indicated that darker yolk color results in better taste, whereas results of a blind taste test indicated that consumers were not able to distinguish any significant difference in the taste of different types of eggs and yolk colors (Fearne and Lavelle, 1996b). Similarly, respondents indicated that brown regular and specialty eggs are tastier than white regular eggs. Fearne and Lavelle (1996b) reported that in a blind test consumers could not make a distinction between the tastes of regular and specialty eggs. http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/90/5/1088.full http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/90/5/1088.full It's an extremely potent example of confirmation bias since even people who are normally quite science minded and skeptical somehow find loopholes that exempt their personal experience as not conforming to the data when confronted with evidence that their fancy eggs taste no better.
- abecedarius 12y ago
  Richer taste would be a nice bonus, but I get pastured eggs for nutrition and ethics.
deevus 12y ago
I wonder how closely this applies to eggs in Australia. I will keep a look out "pasture raised", as I do like to buy better quality, more humanely sourced eggs. It's articles like these that make me love coming to HN, regardless of the fact that there's no "hacking" per se.
markuz 12y ago
this article boils down to the comments.
pvaldes 12y ago
We often forget to remember that chickens have not an human brain. The subliminal (and fake) statement in all those articles is that the chicken are a sort of "small little people crying" living very sad lives because they don't live like humans do. This is simply terrible. Living in a farm, even in the best of farms, at Texas or New Jersey, could be perfectly claimed as a totally artificial and unnatural live for the point of view of a chicken. They are rainforest birds "cruelly" placed at deserts or in states with harsh winters living inside for 6 months a year. There are many reasons because a chicken could not to want to go outside. The claimed "because the farmer is a jerk" is wrong often. They can do this because they are adaptable, and they just don't care so much as we do. But this is NOT natural for this species. If we really wish that chickens live "happy chicken lives" maybe we should grow them only in countries like Venezuela or Brazil...

182 points by x0054 12y ago

Handy link from the article if you want to be a bit pickier about the eggs you buy: http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/ http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/

aabajian 12y ago

The most informative thing for me was that "organic" actually has a definition by USDA: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=true&contentid=organic-agriculture.html http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdahome?contentidonly=t... Up until now the med student in me had the jerk reaction that "organic" meant carbon-based (+ nightmares from ochem), which applies to almost everything we eat.

bigethan 12y ago
There is a word for that in the food industry: 'All Natural.' Sounds good, but actually means nothing (what is / isn't natural?), and isn't legally monitored.
- debacle 12y ago
  "All Natural" actually does have a broad definition, it's just not a very good one: > However, the agency has not objected to the use of the term if the food does not contain added color, artificial flavors, or synthetic substances. There is no exact definition, because it's hard to define. http://www.fda.gov/aboutfda/transparency/basics/ucm214868.htm http://www.fda.gov/aboutfda/transparency/basics/ucm214868.ht...
SloopJon 12y ago
Although I knew that "organic" is regulated, I did not know that it implied free range, which is theoretically better than the cage free that I usually buy. An additional note from the organic egg scorecard, linked from the article, is that store-brand eggs tend to come from farms with poor conditions: http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/ http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/
- MattGrommes 12y ago
  I would guess that to have the scale to sell eggs to a chain store you need the more industrial conditions that scorecard doesn't like. All that special treatment means less chickens and higher prices.

batbomb 12y ago

I get pasture raised eggs from a farm in Petaluma which has a CSA I use. They are very good, come in a wide variety of shell colors and the yolks are a deep yellowish orange, but I'm not necessarily sure they are necessarily worth the $8.50 a carton (technically, they are only grade A because of the variance). On the other hand, a dozen eggs from a decent producer will usually run $4/dozen. I'd recommend them for egg dishes, but maybe not so much for general culinary usage.

delbel 12y ago
Wow that's expensive, I raise chickens for eggs that are 100% organic. My costs are about $.66 a dozen (90% of their feed is free range around my house). That CSA is literally printing money. Talk about perceived value!
- sneak 12y ago
  That is not what literally means.
  - archagon 12y ago
    False: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/literally

jere 12y ago

I've know these for a while and always look for pastured eggs but never find them outside of a farmer's market. >No Hormones... It's like putting a label on a cereal box that says, "No toxic waste." http://xkcd.com/641/ http://xkcd.com/641/

johnsmith108959 12y ago
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=974#comic http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=974#comic
zorpner 12y ago
Many farmer's markets in SF have actually banned non-pasture-raised eggs (which, as it turned out, only affected one company based out of Petaluma which markets their eggs under 4-5 different small-sounding brands in the Bay Area): http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/pasture-raised-industrial-organic-egg-cellent-stakeholder-engagement-lesson/ http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/pasture-raised-industria...
- maerF0x0 12y ago
  Where do you recommend to get good pasture raised meat and eggs in SF?

Dirlewanger 12y ago

Can pretty much sum up the entire organic/"natural" food craze of the past decade with: advertising as usual. Good article. Nothing new to see here though. Hopefully this will wake up some people though who exclusively go for the brand name stuff at Whole Foods.

shittyanalogy 12y ago
Except Organic is actually a regulated term.

deleted 12y ago

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foobarqux 12y ago

Often you are not getting eggs at all: I was surprised to learn recently that when you order eggs from most breakfast restaurants (IHOP, Denny's) or eat at hotel buffets you are actually getting powdered eggs.

phil248 12y ago

For those that are interested, I've found that Certified Humane eggs are the easiest to find and that label carries weight. It's usually $4-$5 for a dozen, more expensive than factory eggs but still pretty cheap for food in general. AWA is stricter, but I've never seen AWA eggs.

anatoly 12y ago

I was shocked to read that eggs generally have pleasing deep-yellow or orange-red yolks because the egg industry spends a lot of money to put special additives into chicken feed just for that purpose. There's no other benefit from those additives. http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/375927.html http://shkrobius.livejournal.com/375927.html I think about that now every time I see a pleasing, healthy-looking, tasty-looking deeply yellow yolk on my plate.

13 12y ago
Mine have that colour because they eat a lot of weeds and vegetables. The only thing they eat which isn't food scraps or something that's lying around the garden is shell grit, quite literally ground up sea shells to make sure they have enough calcium for their egg shells. Don't always assume that it's an artificial thing, what they're emulating is a natural process. It really is a pleasure to see happy hens roaming around too, even if they didn't lay breakfast and cake material.
- jmhobbs 12y ago
  Feeding marigold petals will darken a yolk pretty well, nothing artificial there. I've cut down on my calcium supplement usage by drying and crushing the eggshells and giving those to the birds.
  - wtbob 12y ago
    > I've cut down on my calcium supplement usage by drying and crushing the eggshells and giving those to the birds. Seems like there's potential to get prion diseases there. Are chickens susceptible to prion diseases? Maybe compost the shells, then grow collards, kale and turnips in the soil and feed the less-appetising greens to the chickens?
    - sdenton4 12y ago
      Prions are in brains, not eggshells. Mad cow disease was caused by cows eating the crushed up brains of other cows, which is in itself a charming illustration of the ethics of our industrial food system.

xacaxulu 12y ago

It's so wonderful to now live in a forthright European country that cares for their citizens and doesn't permit this kind of fraudulent advertising of unnatural and unhealthy modifications of foods. Firms like Monsanto are barred from the country as are GMOs in general and you'd be hard-pressed to find anything other than natural eggs from free-range chickens, untreated with any hormones or antibiotics. It seems the inverse is the case in the US.

higherpurpose 12y ago
I agree. I have nothing against researching how to modify food to be better (emphasis on better, not just "cheaper with compromises") or how to create food entirely in labs. However, I don't want to be a "beta tester" of such food in the 2-10 decades it will take to perfect it. When there's been 3 decades or independent reviews for a particular lab-grown food, then you can start putting it in local supermarkets where everyone can buy it without giving a moment's thought about whether that food is "safe to eat or not?". I think it's the government's jobs to ensure it doesn't happen earlier than that.
heydenberk 12y ago
Why do you support banning GMOs? I don't mean to be snarky, but I don't know of any good scientific case for doing so. In my estimation, GMOs are one of the most promising technologies for increasing quality of life around the world.
- raverbashing 12y ago
  Because Monsanto It's that simple GMOs, surely, are just a technology
- debacle 12y ago
  There are logical reasons for being against GMOs. Many of them have nothing to do with the fact that the product is GMO: * GMOs tend to promote monoculture and pesticide use. * Studies have shown that the same developments that make GMOs more insect resistant can also make them more difficult to digest. * When it comes to animals, GMOs tend to have much poorer quality of life and tend to be completely incapable of surviving without constant support (chickens who can't stand on their own, cows who can't go more than 48 hours without milking, etc). * GMOs almost never focus on the true value of a food item, but rather the sell value. A food that looks nutritious is more valuable than one that actually is and GMOs make it easier to create that false association (deep red tomatos that taste like wall paper glue, etc). It's important to note that all of these things are really a byproduct of industrial agriculture, but many people associate them more directly with GMOs. I think the development of GMOs is a completely normal part of our agriculture and has been for thousands of years, we just need to make sure we're responsible about it.

debacle 12y ago

The study is funded by the Coalition for Sustainable Egg Supply [1] which is "facilitated" by the Center for Food Integrity [2], which is run by a PR firm on behalf of ConAgra, Monsanto, Tyson, and others. It makes me sad that NPR is slowly turning into just another mouthpiece. [1] http://www2.sustainableeggcoalition.org/ http://www2.sustainableeggcoalition.org/ [2] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Food_Integrity http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_Food_I...

bkirwi 12y ago
One additional note: this is a survey article, not based on a single study. This seems to be the case of NPR staff using a questionable reference, not just rewriting a press release.
- logn 12y ago
  The day the Senate torture report broke, NPR referred to torture as enhanced interrogation.
bduerst 12y ago
A CFI-supported study is mentioned in the article, but NPR also mentions other organizations, like the Cornucopia institute, that I can't find any bias on. There seems to be multiple sources for this NPR article here, meaning I don't think NPR has degraded to mouthpiece status just yet.
ineedtosleep 12y ago
Poisoning the well much? Even if true, one biased article does not make them into "another mouthpiece."
- meepmorp 12y ago
  It says more about you than anyone else if knowing the names of the founders makes the data seem unreliable.
dubfan 12y ago

archagon 12y ago

The description in "The Omnivore's Dilemma" of egg yolks from idyllically pasture-raised chickens is forever stuck in my memory. "Between stops, Art mentioned that Joel’s eggs usually gave him his foot in the door when trying to land a new account. We stopped in at one such prospect, a newly opened restaurant called the Filling Station. Art introduced himself and presented the chef with a brochure and a dozen eggs. The chef cracked one into a saucepan; instead of spreading out flabbily, the egg stood up nice and tall in the pan. Joel refers to this as “muscle tone.” When he first began selling eggs to chefs, he’d crack one right into the palm of his hand, and then flip the yolk back and forth from one hand to another to demonstrate its integrity. The Filling Station chef called his staff over to admire the vibrant orange color of the yolk. Art explained that it was the grass diet that gave the eggs their color, indicating lots of beta-carotene. I don’t think I’d ever seen an egg yolk rivet so many people for so long. Art beamed; he was in." I've yet to find an egg like that, though I've heard you can get them if you raise backyard chickens.

Aloisius 12y ago
The color of an egg yolk is based on what the chicken ate and has no bearing on how idyllic their lives were. There are plenty of pasture raised chickens without the deep orange color because the plant material around them (you can get nearly white colored yolks from a hen that has literally miles of pasture around them). If there a lot of capsicum peppers around for instance, the yolks will turn almost red. How firm it is relates directly to how old it is and how it was treated, regardless of how they are raised. You can get an ultra-firm egg yolk from a factory farmed hen. The eggs you get in a supermarket however are typically several weeks old - long enough for the egg yolk to start to lose its firmness.
- archagon 12y ago
  Well, yeah, but I imagine "what the chicken ate" and "how idyllic their lives were" are pretty closely related. In any case, I've never once found a firm orange yolk in my eggs — supermarket, farmer's market, or otherwise. Joel is probably doing something right here. (Or maybe his eggs are just really fresh, I don't know.)

gd1 12y ago

"They usually live in aviaries: massive industrial barns" Oooh, industrial barns... "And often, Kastel says, industrial fans that suck..." Oooh, industrial fans. As opposed to the ones that grow on trees. "One of the most common causes of death was pecking by other chickens." You mean we give them more freedom, and they kill each other? I thought 'natural' was meant to mean all rainbows and happiness and shit.

pyre 12y ago
> You mean we give them more freedom, and they kill each other? They are in crowded conditions. Humans do the same things will kept locked up in crowded conditions. What are you arguing is akin to saying that humans need to be locked up in solitary confinement because if you keep them "free" in close quarters they will start committing acts of violence against each other. You would have a hard time arguing that the Japanese in US/Canadian "relocation centres" should have been kept in solitary confinement because there were instances of "inmate-on-inmate" violence/rape.
- fizgig 12y ago
  > They are in crowded conditions. Humans do the same things will kept locked up in crowded conditions. Many animals do. Goats are downright nasty little shits with each-other, if they have horns (even w/o) Hens very much have a "pecking order", and can be pretty brutal to one another even with ample space to roam and feed. Don't get me started on most roosters, though we did raise some that were downright gentlemanly to their ladies. Quail in crowded conditions (we raised Coturnix) can damned near skin each-other alive if a sufficiently picked-on bird gets too damaged. Either bird will pick at open wounds on others. Not certain what that behavior was about, but is ain't good for the birds in either case.
- gd1 12y ago
  Don't think I was 'arguing' anything really. Just commenting on the irony. Nature tends to be brutish and nasty, quite the opposite to the picture that your typical urban-living organic food enthusiast has.

woodchuck64 12y ago

Good for them, "Pasture-Raised" just booted out "Free Range" in my personal egg-shopping check list.

deleted 12y ago
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jack-r-abbit 12y ago

My first real job (25 years ago... at age 15) was collecting eggs at a medium-sized commercial egg farm. Maybe I didn't care about "organic" or "cage-free" at age 15 or nobody cared 25 year ago, but we were one of those "battery cage" farms. It was long buildings with 5 rows of double stacked cages. The floor of the cage was slanted so that the eggs rolled out into a trough in the front. We'd push a narrow cart down the row and collect the eggs into trays. It was brutal for both humans and chickens. I didn't eat eggs or chicken for awhile after that.

iso8859-1 12y ago
How could you start again if you didn't forget?
- jack-r-abbit 12y ago
  Knowing that some eggs come out bloody and birds die is one thing. Handling those bloody eggs and dead birds every weekend is an entirely different thing. I moved on from that job and after a while just knowing was not as "traumatic" and eggs/chicken was no longer repulsive to me.

schmichael 12y ago

Backyard chicken farmer here! If you have a bit of yard space and time they make wonderful pets. About as difficult to care for as cats and what they lack in cuddles they make up for in hilarious/idiotic behavior. I doubt it saves me any money, but it's fun and provides lots of "organic pasture-raised" eggs and compost.

codingdave 12y ago
They are also a great way to reduce your waste. We send all of our kitchen scraps to the chickens, and they give us eggs in return. They also keep the area under our apple tress fairly clear for us, eating all the insects that otherwise would be in our trees, and keeping the mice away. And they get to munch on any fallen apples. Works out well for the chickens and for us.
- pimlottc 12y ago
  > And they get to munch on any fallen apples. Hmm, I wonder if they like lemons...
  - schmichael 12y ago
    Be careful with birds and citrus. Do some googling.
nitrogen 12y ago
Just don't let them near anything you don't want them to defecate on. They will defecate everywhere they go, including on expensive equipment and cars when they sneak into your garage.
- schmichael 12y ago
  It makes me really happy that you talk about chicken poop and your nick is nitrogen.
  - 12y ago

philwelch 12y ago

I'm trying to figure out if this was a subtly intentional pun or a coincidence of phrasing: > Pasture-raised birds spend most of their life outdoors, with a fair amount of space plus access to a barn. Many are able to eat a diet of worms, insects and grass, along with corn feed... cf. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diet_of_Worms

steven2012 12y ago

I'm usually not one to care much about where my food came from, but the one thing I pay attention to, for some weird reason, is eggs. I think the idea of trapping chickens in cages for their entire lives and having them produce eggs for us is revolting, a real-life Matrix situation. I'll pay a few bucks extra to make sure that the chickens get at least a modicum of better life than being trapped in a cage for their entire lives.

jack-r-abbit 12y ago
Not sure if it is any consolation but at least "their entire life" is not that long. When I worked at an egg farm (25 years ago), we replaced the flock each year. If I recall correctly, the outbound birds were used to make dog food and such.
deleted 12y ago
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Luc 12y ago
And for the male chicks, death in the high speed grinder. I wonder if they ever even get to see the daylight in their miserable short lives?
amalag 12y ago
Yet another reason not to eat chicken-periods.

nartz 12y ago

Its pretty bogus how the FDA gets lobbied for things like this, and it ends up convoluting the message to the american public. For instance, read this article on how 'organic' / 'antibiotic-free' eggs were still able to be treated by antibiotics as long as it was early in the eggs life: http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/01/organic-chicken-and-egg-antibiotics-edition http://www.motherjones.com/tom-philpott/2014/01/organic-chic... Even this Q & A is not the most straightforward on what the antibiotic process is, instead hiding behind 'meets FDA regulations'. http://www.uspoultry.org/faq/faq.cfm http://www.uspoultry.org/faq/faq.cfm

atourgates 12y ago

The article somewhat pans Certified Humane, but apart from raising your own chickens or buying from a farmer you trust, it's far and away the best alternative that you can find at many grocery stores. Their comparison chart gives a good overview of the program[1], but here are a few key facts: * It's a completely independent organization, that maintains that independence very intentionally. * It has rigorous compliance and inspection requirements, and everything about the program is transparent and available online. * The birds are required to be out of doors at least 6-hours per day, every day, year round, with 108 sq. ft. per bird. Animal Welfare Approved is another good, independent and transparent program, but I've never actually seen them in a grocery store. [1] http://certifiedhumane.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Laying-Hen-Comparison-Chart.-1-1-14.pdf http://certifiedhumane.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Laying...

eggman47 12y ago

Most of the time we use eggs, it is just needed as "glue" to make things stick together, or for leavening, moisture etc. This can easily be replaced by tapioca flour and water, flax and water, or some other substitute. It'probably cheaper as well. Save the eggs for your quiches, omeletes and the like where it actually makes a difference. http://www.wikihow.com/Replace-Eggs-in-Your-Cooking http://www.wikihow.com/Replace-Eggs-in-Your-Cooking

aaronbrethorst 12y ago

Most useful link in the article: http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/ http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/

ndespres 12y ago

Of course an article on our food system is in all of our interests (Soylent customers, perhaps, excepted) but I'm always happy to see an article like this at the top of hn. I feel that this industry is particularly ripe for innovation, and it's where I'm presently working. Though it turns out, feeding and watering all the animals every day takes up all that time I thought I'd have to design new systems to track egg consumption and greenhouse temperatures with my Arduino. Turns out all that work outside is just as gratifying without the electronic hassles I imagined I'd bring to it. I sell eggs from chickens which I believe have the best possible life, and I hesitate to use most of the terms listed here, even the most positive ones, because of their lackluster connotations. I know what "free range" means in the minimal application of the spectrum, so where my birds have acres to forage for food, someone else may not be so generous. I don't want us classified under the same umbrella. So I invite all my customers to come and see where their food is grown, in the environment where I believe it should all optimally come from. And yes, the eggs are healthier, firmer, and last longer (not refrigerated) and vary depending on what the chickens have foraged that day. Not to mention the beautiful rainbow of their shells, which vary depending on the breed. http://homestead.sevenarrowseast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/somanyeggs.jpeg http://homestead.sevenarrowseast.com/wp-content/uploads/2012...

HeyLaughingBoy 12y ago
systems to track egg consumption and greenhouse temperatures with my Arduino That's funny! I planned on doing exactly the same thing when I started keeping chickens about 6 years ago. I got as far as building an LED lamp to add extra light to keep them laying in winter. Never used it (except to check up on them at night). I guess if I was doing this commercially it would be worthwhile, but for a hobby flock of a dozen it hardly makes sense.

bevan 12y ago

The evidence appears to be in about "omega-3 eggs". There are quite a few studies showing the benefits of eating them over conventional eggs: http://paleoclaims.com/claims/omega-3-eggs-are-healthier-than-regular-eggs http://paleoclaims.com/claims/omega-3-eggs-are-healthier-tha... A quote from one of the studies on that page: "Three n-3 PUFA-enriched eggs provide approximately the same amount of n-3 PUFA as one meal with fish.""

zedpm 12y ago

One of many benefits of living in a semi-rural area (western South Dakota) is easy access to truly high-quality foods like actual farm eggs. I've walked around the two farms I buy eggs from and I've seen the chickens wandering around. They get ordinary feed, of course, but also scavenge insects and other things, resulting in gorgeous orange yolks and tasty eggs. I pay $2 a dozen (as long as I promise to return the egg cartons to be reused), or sometimes just trade some fresh produce for the eggs. Almost all of my meat (beef, lamb, goat, and pork) is similarly purchased from small producers I personally know; often my family and I butcher the animals ourselves. This approach is a win in terms of quality, cost, humane treatment of animals, and satisfaction. Having a connection to my food and the people who produce it is, to me, reason enough to prefer living in fly-over country vs. San Francisco. All the fresh air, open land, and lower stress environment doesn't hurt either.

felipesabino 12y ago

Only reading the title I thought it would be a discussing about fake eggs in chine being a hoax [1] But anyways, this is just more confirmation these jargons in labels mean almost anything useful for the general public. The article reminded me that funny "natural effect" videos [2] and also that the whole GMO labelling issue that still make people argue. And in the end of the day, all I have seen so far is a lot of fear mongering and no debate wether real useful information should be added to labels, like 'how far and for how long did this food traveled', 'how long was it kept in storage' and so on... [1] http://sguforums.us/index.php/topic,43295.msg9275536.html#msg9275536 http://sguforums.us/index.php/topic,43295.msg9275536.html#ms... [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AftZshnP8fs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AftZshnP8fs

dlau1 12y ago

Shameless plug, the company I (just started) working at connects producers with consumers. We handle the logistics of getting the fantastic products from our producers to you. If you are in the sf bay, nola, la, or nyc, check it out at http://goodeggs.com http://goodeggs.com Here is the SF egg section (we deliver to sf, east bay, and the peninsula) https://www.goodeggs.com/sfbay/dairy/eggs https://www.goodeggs.com/sfbay/dairy/eggs

kalleboo 12y ago

In contrast, here are the regulations in Sweden (probably similar elsewhere in the EU): * Battery cages: Banned * "Caged hens": Cage size must be at least 750 cm^2. Must have sand, a nest, and a stick to sit on. * "Free range indoors": Floor space must be at least 1,111 cm^2 per hen. 1/3 of the floor area must be sand or similar. Must have access to a nest, at least 15 cm of stick to sit on. * "Free range outdoors": At least 1,111 cm^2 space per hen. Must have access to an outdoors area of at least 4m^2 per hen. Same sand/nest/sitting stick rules as indoors. * "Organic": At least 1,664 cm^2 space per hen. Outdoors area of at least 4m^2 per hen. Outdoors area must have grass growing. 1/3 of floor area must have sand or similar, must have a nest, must have a sitting stick of at least 18 cm. Must be fed with organic feed. * "KRAV Organic certified": Organic + Must have access to root vegetables to eat at. The farm can't be leaking stuff from the fertilizer into the surrounding nature. Many of the large supermarket chains have stopped selling caged eggs completely, which now make up less than 10% of sold eggs. Around 12% are organic. Swedish eggs are 100% salmonella-free.

3pt14159 12y ago
1111 cm^2 isn't that much. It's only a square foot of space... I used to raise chickens, they need at least 4 times that.
- kalleboo 12y ago
  Yeah, in contrast, a sheet of A4 paper is 620 cm^2. So they have less than two pieces of paper to stand on.
daxelrod 12y ago
> Swedish eggs are 100% salmonella-free. Interesting! How do they accomplish this?

3pt14159 12y ago

Note that this is only indicative of the USA. In Canada Organic eggs are generally what you should be buying. They are about 50 cents an egg and are the most strict on the humaneness of a chicken's life.

shalmanese 12y ago

Given how much HN loves to bring up the studies that show people fail at tasting wine, it's surprising that nobody has talked about how double blind studies consistently reveal that there's no perceptible taste difference between different types of eggs (once color is controlled for): Washington Post: > The egg industry has been conducting blind tastings for years. The only difference is that they don't use dish-towel blindfolds; they have special lights that mask the color of the yolks. "If people can see the difference in the eggs, they also find flavor differences," Curtis says. "But if they have no visual cues, they don't." > Only one factor can markedly affect an egg's taste, and that is the presence of strong flavors in the feed. "Omega-3 eggs can sometimes have a fishy taste if the hens are fed marine oils," http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060100792.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06... Serious Eats: > It was pretty clear evidence that as far as eggs go, the mindset of the taster has far more bearing on the flavor of the egg than the egg itself. http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-cage-free-organic-omega-3s-grocery-store-brand-the-food-lab.html http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/08/what-are-the-best-eggs-ca... Journal of Product and Brand Management: > Respondents indicated that darker yolk color results in better taste, whereas results of a blind taste test indicated that consumers were not able to distinguish any significant difference in the taste of different types of eggs and yolk colors (Fearne and Lavelle, 1996b). Similarly, respondents indicated that brown regular and specialty eggs are tastier than white regular eggs. Fearne and Lavelle (1996b) reported that in a blind test consumers could not make a distinction between the tastes of regular and specialty eggs. http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/90/5/1088.full http://ps.oxfordjournals.org/content/90/5/1088.full It's an extremely potent example of confirmation bias since even people who are normally quite science minded and skeptical somehow find loopholes that exempt their personal experience as not conforming to the data when confronted with evidence that their fancy eggs taste no better.

abecedarius 12y ago
Richer taste would be a nice bonus, but I get pastured eggs for nutrition and ethics.

deevus 12y ago

I wonder how closely this applies to eggs in Australia. I will keep a look out "pasture raised", as I do like to buy better quality, more humanely sourced eggs. It's articles like these that make me love coming to HN, regardless of the fact that there's no "hacking" per se.

markuz 12y ago

this article boils down to the comments.

pvaldes 12y ago

We often forget to remember that chickens have not an human brain. The subliminal (and fake) statement in all those articles is that the chicken are a sort of "small little people crying" living very sad lives because they don't live like humans do. This is simply terrible. Living in a farm, even in the best of farms, at Texas or New Jersey, could be perfectly claimed as a totally artificial and unnatural live for the point of view of a chicken. They are rainforest birds "cruelly" placed at deserts or in states with harsh winters living inside for 6 months a year. There are many reasons because a chicken could not to want to go outside. The claimed "because the farmer is a jerk" is wrong often. They can do this because they are adaptable, and they just don't care so much as we do. But this is NOT natural for this species. If we really wish that chickens live "happy chicken lives" maybe we should grow them only in countries like Venezuela or Brazil...