A Good Egg (Free farmed, cruelty free, free range food)
Created | Updated Jan 12, 2004
Now, I'm no vegetarian. I just can't do it. I've tried, believe me, but after a year of no meat, visions of sausages dance in my head, and not a sissy little waltz either. No, we’re talking about a full-blown can-can. I feel incredibly guilty about it, too. I've read those stories about the monstrous animal cruelty involved in the meat industry, which prompted my first foray into the wide world of vegetarianism. I also know that meat is worse for the environment than are plants and grains, partly because of the increased wastes and the greater land use. This information spurred the second round. So I started being a vegetarian for right, good, moral reasons. I stopped being a vegetarian because I was getting a headache from that can-can. So, long story short, I'm no saint. I'm just your average meat-loving carnivore, your average, guilt-ridden, meat-loving carnivore. After realizing that I couldn't easily give up meat, I started to look for ways to like myself again and still eat animal products.
Farm animals are treated abominably. I knew this intellectually, but while I was looking around on-line for information on how to find cruelty-free animal products, the concept really hit home. Without getting into too much detail, I'll just mention that chickens' beaks get cut off so that they don't peck each other from the frustration of living in a cage exactly the size of their bodies. I won't mention the rest. If you want more information, you can visit www.factoryfarming.org and get a comprehensive picture of the factory farming situation. Everything you never wanted to know that people do to animals. A warning: this is not for the faint hearted or weak-stomached. Suffice to say, I know why almost all of the cruelty-free sites I found also tried to turn the viewers into vegetarians.
Still, it was very frustrating that I was unable to find any lists of cruelty free foods. Even the animal cruelty sites didn't mention them. I thought it was very strange. So, I will amend the omission, in my own small way, and talk about them here.
My favorite low guilt food is the free-range egg. The chicken story is one of the most awful of all the animal abuse stories. Chickens are treated abominably. They are often put in tiny cages, wings clipped, and stacked, one atop the other. In this small world, they live out their miserable lives. It is an unspeakable way to live, and they live like this to either turn into the next chicken finger, or to provide us with our sunny-side ups in the morning. So, as I am fond of saying to whomever has accompanied me on a grocery shopping trip, "What's an extra dollar, for something's happiness?" It's nice that happiness can be bought so cheaply. Especially when I think of all the things that I buy for a dollar that I'd never need. Instamatic booth photos, nail polish, little plastic trinkets... It's a little harder on the shopper with a strict budget to be as blithe about forking over the extra money for the more expensive foods, I know. I have been a budget shopper myself, many a time, (especially during college!) but a dozen eggs do last over two weeks, and a dollar really isn't that much. Seriously, what is a dollar compared to happiness? (And less guilt!)
Now, don't be fooled by organic eggs, where, what often occurs is that the poor cramped chickens are simply fed food that has no pesticides in it. One of my converts was buying organic eggs, thinking that this meant free-range. It does make sense; organic foods are associated with conscience. Beware fair consumer! If you want to be eating happy chicken eggs, make sure the box says free-range. If your store doesn't carry them, then encourage the store manager to buy them. There are very few times in life when a whole world of good can be done with very little effort. This is one of those rare opportunities, and I say go for it! You have nothing to lose but a dollar!
If morality doesn't move you; if animal rights aren't your cachet, this advice still applies to you. I won't deny that I am pushing chicken-friendly eggs because I think chickens deserve happiness, but there are health reasons for eating chicken products from free-range chickens. In the lego-chicken scenario, it is much harder to avoid a colleague with a cold than it is for free-range chickens. Think about it. Stacked one on top of each other, the top chicken is the cleanest chicken, and the poor sucker on the bottom is the lucky recipient of several chickens worth of manure. Let me ask you, do you know which chicken you are putting in your mouth?
It took me a long time to find a site that didn't exclusively promote vegetarianism as the only alternative to being an accessory to animal torture. It was an interesting site, called Free Farmed Foods, at www.freefarmed.org. It focuses only on their specific label, which is a little limiting, but it was just such a relief to find anything that wasn't vegetarian. The label is like the PETA label, which means that they affix their label to products that follow a certain standard of behavior. In the case of Free Farmed, this is a set of requirements for the humane treatment of the animals, such as adequate shelter, food and water, as well as space to move and to live normally. I was quite relieved to find that humane foods did indeed exist. Anyway, I did finally come up with a list of cruelty free foods from the Free Farmed site. For humane beef try Hedgeapple Farms Beef and Meyer Natural Angus beef (also called Roche Stores in Boston). For chicken, Springer Mountain Farms (also called Readinton Farmers Chicken or Penn Valley), or Wild Harvest chicken (they do sausages too), humane dairy: Clover Stornetta Farms and Vale Wood Farms. For eggs: Egg Innovations, their Mountain View and Pride of the Nest variety, as well as Phil's Fresh Eggs. Finally, for humane pork, du Breton Natural Pork (also called North Country Smokehouse, Applegate Farms Bacon and Han's Sausages). If you don't have these brands in your town, and you are really interested in eating humane foods, then you have several options. The first is to look for other brands (as the ones I have listed are only the Free Farmed approved brands) that say the animals have not been factory farmed. Another option is to ask the store to stock those brands, and a final option (which is easier if you live in a small rural town like mine) is to find a small farmer who raises food animals, and make arrangements with him or her.
In a world where human rights have become such an issue, animal rights should be the next to bat. It's an issue which will be an uphill climb, but at least for consumers, there is an easy solution to some of the problem, and that is acting as a responsible consumer. You don't necessarily have to change your diet and your lifestyle to feel better about your role in this issue, in fact, the effort you can put into making an animal's life that much happier is ludicrously tiny. An extra dollar and an extra minute are a small price to pay for happiness. Why not?
Farm animals are treated abominably. I knew this intellectually, but while I was looking around on-line for information on how to find cruelty-free animal products, the concept really hit home. Without getting into too much detail, I'll just mention that chickens' beaks get cut off so that they don't peck each other from the frustration of living in a cage exactly the size of their bodies. I won't mention the rest. If you want more information, you can visit www.factoryfarming.org and get a comprehensive picture of the factory farming situation. Everything you never wanted to know that people do to animals. A warning: this is not for the faint hearted or weak-stomached. Suffice to say, I know why almost all of the cruelty-free sites I found also tried to turn the viewers into vegetarians.
Still, it was very frustrating that I was unable to find any lists of cruelty free foods. Even the animal cruelty sites didn't mention them. I thought it was very strange. So, I will amend the omission, in my own small way, and talk about them here.
My favorite low guilt food is the free-range egg. The chicken story is one of the most awful of all the animal abuse stories. Chickens are treated abominably. They are often put in tiny cages, wings clipped, and stacked, one atop the other. In this small world, they live out their miserable lives. It is an unspeakable way to live, and they live like this to either turn into the next chicken finger, or to provide us with our sunny-side ups in the morning. So, as I am fond of saying to whomever has accompanied me on a grocery shopping trip, "What's an extra dollar, for something's happiness?" It's nice that happiness can be bought so cheaply. Especially when I think of all the things that I buy for a dollar that I'd never need. Instamatic booth photos, nail polish, little plastic trinkets... It's a little harder on the shopper with a strict budget to be as blithe about forking over the extra money for the more expensive foods, I know. I have been a budget shopper myself, many a time, (especially during college!) but a dozen eggs do last over two weeks, and a dollar really isn't that much. Seriously, what is a dollar compared to happiness? (And less guilt!)
Now, don't be fooled by organic eggs, where, what often occurs is that the poor cramped chickens are simply fed food that has no pesticides in it. One of my converts was buying organic eggs, thinking that this meant free-range. It does make sense; organic foods are associated with conscience. Beware fair consumer! If you want to be eating happy chicken eggs, make sure the box says free-range. If your store doesn't carry them, then encourage the store manager to buy them. There are very few times in life when a whole world of good can be done with very little effort. This is one of those rare opportunities, and I say go for it! You have nothing to lose but a dollar!
If morality doesn't move you; if animal rights aren't your cachet, this advice still applies to you. I won't deny that I am pushing chicken-friendly eggs because I think chickens deserve happiness, but there are health reasons for eating chicken products from free-range chickens. In the lego-chicken scenario, it is much harder to avoid a colleague with a cold than it is for free-range chickens. Think about it. Stacked one on top of each other, the top chicken is the cleanest chicken, and the poor sucker on the bottom is the lucky recipient of several chickens worth of manure. Let me ask you, do you know which chicken you are putting in your mouth?
It took me a long time to find a site that didn't exclusively promote vegetarianism as the only alternative to being an accessory to animal torture. It was an interesting site, called Free Farmed Foods, at www.freefarmed.org. It focuses only on their specific label, which is a little limiting, but it was just such a relief to find anything that wasn't vegetarian. The label is like the PETA label, which means that they affix their label to products that follow a certain standard of behavior. In the case of Free Farmed, this is a set of requirements for the humane treatment of the animals, such as adequate shelter, food and water, as well as space to move and to live normally. I was quite relieved to find that humane foods did indeed exist. Anyway, I did finally come up with a list of cruelty free foods from the Free Farmed site. For humane beef try Hedgeapple Farms Beef and Meyer Natural Angus beef (also called Roche Stores in Boston). For chicken, Springer Mountain Farms (also called Readinton Farmers Chicken or Penn Valley), or Wild Harvest chicken (they do sausages too), humane dairy: Clover Stornetta Farms and Vale Wood Farms. For eggs: Egg Innovations, their Mountain View and Pride of the Nest variety, as well as Phil's Fresh Eggs. Finally, for humane pork, du Breton Natural Pork (also called North Country Smokehouse, Applegate Farms Bacon and Han's Sausages). If you don't have these brands in your town, and you are really interested in eating humane foods, then you have several options. The first is to look for other brands (as the ones I have listed are only the Free Farmed approved brands) that say the animals have not been factory farmed. Another option is to ask the store to stock those brands, and a final option (which is easier if you live in a small rural town like mine) is to find a small farmer who raises food animals, and make arrangements with him or her.
In a world where human rights have become such an issue, animal rights should be the next to bat. It's an issue which will be an uphill climb, but at least for consumers, there is an easy solution to some of the problem, and that is acting as a responsible consumer. You don't necessarily have to change your diet and your lifestyle to feel better about your role in this issue, in fact, the effort you can put into making an animal's life that much happier is ludicrously tiny. An extra dollar and an extra minute are a small price to pay for happiness. Why not?
