Where To Find Really Healthy Eggs (It's Not at Whole Foods)

AlterNet / By Ari LeVaux

Where To Find Really Healthy Eggs (It's Not at Whole Foods)
Most labels on poultry and eggs mean whatever the producer or vendor decides. Here's how to figure out what's what.

June 23, 2010 |


Whole Foods describes its non-organic chicken, produced in Pennsylvania by Bell & Evans, as "barn roaming." The term has a nostalgic feel to it, invoking images of happy chickens pecking around a red barn with peeling paint.

According to a Bell & Evans representative, the company doesn't use "barn roaming" to describe its chickens, so I asked Whole Foods what it meant. A representative told me, "There is currently no clear regulatory definition of the term 'barn roaming.' We expect our suppliers who use this claim on their products to use a reasonable definition and we expect the claim to be truthful."

Consumers should also expect a reasonable and truthful definition of the labels on our food, but unfortunately the number of loosely defined or undefined marketing terms used for poultry and eggs dwarfs the number of legal terms. "Happy chickens," "ethical eggs," "pasture raised," "naturally nested," "wild hens," and "free roaming" are some examples of labels that mean whatever the producer or vendor decides.

"Barn roaming" sounds a lot like "cage-free," meaning the birds are locked together in a barn instead of individually in cages. But chickens grown for meat are never raised in cages, even at the worst factory farms. This doesn't stop Perdue from labeling its meat "raised cage-free."

A similar bit of marketing malpractice is the claim that chickens are "hormone-free*." The asterisk, mandated by USDA to accompany such claims, calls out a footnote explaining that no hormones are USDA-approved for chicken. Since no eggs or meat from hormonal chickens is legal, the hormone-free claim is no more useful than claiming that chickens don't eat radioactive waste. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/food/147280/where_to_find_really_healthy_eggs_%28it%27s_not_at_whole_foods%29/

We go out to the back yard and collect eggs from our happy free-range chickens. If you have the space and motivation, I highly recommend owning a flock. Chickens are inquisitive and fun to watch, they eat every bug that moves in the grass, and almost any table scraps, then they put healthy groceries on the table.

Perhaps you meant "Healthful" eggs.

nt

The conflation of healthy and healthful is one of my pet peeves in word usage.

I went to the doctor for my annual checkup, and he said that I'm as healthy as a teenager. He advised me, though, that I should take special care to eat only healthful foods and stay away from overly-processed snack foods.

Most people aren't that semantically obsessive.

There is confusion when "healthy" is substituted for it.

It's not obsessive at all. Words mean things. When they're misused, meaning is lost.

As I said, a healthy egg has a growing chicken embryo in it.

"When I use a word, it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less."

-Humpty Dumpty

:D

;-)

and "healthy" is now used, incorrectly, where "healthful" should be used.
I predict that within 10 years the use of healthy as a synonym for healthful will be acceptable.

It bugs me too, but what bugs me even more is when someone tries to correct me when I call food healthful.

But, it's funny when people try to insist that there is such a thing as "healthy" food. Now, I can appreciate a "healthy" serving of some foods, since I have a "healthy" appetite. But, I insist that the food I eat be generally "healthful," no matter the quantity.

Isn't it odd that people object when you attempt to explain language usage?

for using the term healthful foods in a handout to my soccer team. I just laughed and walked away.

But you're spot on.