Putting the Chicken Before the Egg: Sustainable and Ethical Egg Production

This is the season for eggs: chocolate eggs, decorated eggs, eggs in nests outside. I need to buy a whole carton of them today for decorating. We choose organic and free range eggs, but what exactly does this mean?

When we think about our food, it's easy to think about the end product. We think about meat, rather than animals. We think about eggs, rather than chickens. We remove ourselves from the end product quite effectively, and this makes it easier to think about the product, rather than the quality of life of an animal. And we should care. Even if you're vegetarian, you likely eat animal products like eggs and milk, and you're a part of the food system that involves animal life.

In our province alone, there are millions of chickens laying hundreds of millions of eggs. There are an estimated 70 billion chickens in the world. Human numbers are a mere trickle compared to the animals that produce our meat and eggs. Out of these chickens, 5 billion of them are egg-layers.

We all realize that large commercial chicken production can mean that chickens spend most of their lives in small boxes without access to the outdoors. Organic chickens contain no pesticides, are not medicated, and have access to the outdoors. Free run chickens can move around their barn. They are not confined to a cage. Free range chickens have access to the outdoors.

What these terms mean in practice is a whole other question. Unless you know your egg producer and can visit the place where your chickens live, then you don't have a clear picture of their living conditions. Free range might mean a huge open area and chickens who bask in the noonday sun. It could also mean a tiny door.

In our city, there's a whole new level of certification that's targeted towards those who want to know more about how their chickens are actually treated. It's the SPCA certification. Now, the SPCA is a well-loved and often-maligned organization that is dedicated to the welfare of animals. What is it doing in the food business? It's working on the welfare of animals there, too.

The organization provides an independent third-party look at a farm from the perspective of an animal advocate. A review panel receives and approves this examination. It must be renewed every two years. What are the SPCA guidelines? The SPCA expresses them in terms of animal freedoms: freedom from hunger and thirst, freedom from disease, freedom from distress and discomfort, and the freedom to express behaviors that promote animal well-being.

While buying eggs with an SPCA sticker is not a guarantee, buying organic, free range, SPCA-certified eggs is as close as I can get to having my own flock. If you eat eggs, what kind of eggs do you buy?