PEOPLE SHOULD BE PLUCKY ABOUT EGGS
Cheap food has a very high cost. ~Michael Pollan (1955)
6 WORD SATURDAY
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Marion Nestle, food expert, author and blogger is very concerned about food safety. On her website, Food Politics, she has been discussing food safety and the passage of the bipartisan Senate Food Safety bill, S 510, to be revisited in September. Dr Nestle is on the forefront of food issues, and I use her website as a means to stay current with the food discussion.
Most recently, Dr Nestle is concerned with the safety of eggs because of the numerous recent recalls of Salmonella contamination: 380 million eggs to-date this year. And that’s before Friday’s recall of an additional 170 million. That’s a lot of eggs, the largest food recall in history, and the resultant illnesses reported so far (200), and deaths (8) from Salmonella-tainted eggs, have reached an all-time high. She is quoted on CBS, specifically about the eggs dilemma, and we learn that ‘free range’ may not mean what we think it means.
The best way to avoid contaminated eggs is to buy them from reputable green markets. Even better if you can buy directly from the farmer who keeps the birds, knowing that he has sanitary conditions for his hens (and is not a factory farm, notorious for horrendously filthy living conditions for the hens, which seem to be the root cause of the outbreaks).
Reader comments, focusing on egg production and consumer buying habits, are interesting. Here are some choice quotes from two recent posts (emphases theirs):
- Eggs from my local free-range farmer with clean hen houses and hens that look happy and healthy—priceless. They treat their hens like pets, keep their environment clean, and we have delicious eggs that have never made us sick.  ~Sheila
- I’m with you and have my own hens as pets with eggs as a bonus. But, when you look at the entire population, I’m not sure it will work unless a large majority adopt backyard chickens as part of their lifestyle – many, many places don’t even allow them still. If we want to change the root cause (factory farming), we’re going to have to get people to change their ways. Some large bakeries, for instance use (guessing) thousands of eggs/month. I HATE factory farming of chickens, and would love to see it change, but feel rather helpless other than to make sure I am not a part of it or party to it. ~Anthro
- Mandatory rules yes, that are enforced. But even laws cannot address the problems inherent to factory farm production. A better approach is the one we’ve adopted here in California and in a few other states: to phase out battery hen cages altogether. That would not do away with factory farming but it would at least eliminate the worst conditions for egg-laying hens. ~Michelle Simon
- I work with several people now who raise chickens and sell eggs as a sideline. We’ve been buying eggs from one of them for quite a while now. It’s getting easier and easier to avoid the supermarket. ~Renee
- We buy all our eggs . . . from local producers. It really isn’t that difficult to produce fresh eggs that are also safe. What is difficult is the current mega-business models that make the whole process into a badly regulated, contaminated, abusive factory. After having such good eggs at home, I can’t eat most of them in restaurants anymore. It’s amazing how bad they taste. And yes, GO S.510! Nothing more patriotic than protecting the health and safety of all Americans. ~Adrian
- Our local public market’s egg sellers get VERY shifty-eyed when we ask him where his eggs are from. They aren’t from his own farm, that much we have learned, they are bought from industrial egg-farming enterprises, despite the own-farm appearance of his stall. ~Bobby
- I found out my mom was throwing away eggs I brought her from my backyard hens. She didn’t tell me because she didn’t want to hurt my feelings. She just though my eggs couldn’t be “safe” because they didn’t come from a supermarket. ~Gina
- My husband asked me if our eggs were safe. I was quite happy to remind him they come from local farms. I simply will not buy eggs at a regular supermarket. ~Marlene
- I haven’t bought eggs from a supermarket in years, and I never will again. ~Cindy
- . . . [I]t is the rare person who eats exclusively from their farmer’s market shopping bag. People travel, people go to restaurants, get take out, eat in other’s homes, eat at lunch spots, have children eating school cafeteria food, eat on college campus, consume prepared items containing eggs like ice cream, muffins, cakes, etc. I reference the last as a matter beyond the scope of salmonella where the baking and processing would kill the bacteria . . . but to remind everyone that chickens’ eggs aren’t just confined to personal saucepans and skillets. ~Hylton
- . . . [The] big factory farm CAFO is supplying eggs to other BRANDS that name themselves things like Mountain Dairy, Farm Fresh or Dutch Farms. I think it should also be regulated that a brand not be allowed to use the word farm in their name unless it refers to the farm where the product was raised grown hatched etc. There is obviously no such place as Dutch Farms or Mountain Dairy, and this is disillusioning people into thinking that their food is being raised in humane bucolic settings. It is in a sense false advertising. ~The Table of Promise
- . . . I don’t think that buying eggs from a farm or farmer’s markets necessarily means you are paying top dollar for eggs. For example, where I live, you can buy eggs from an organic farm whose chickens run around all over the place (truly free-range, no fences) for $4.25/dozen. That is not much more than the supermarket price, and certainly less than the local industrial/crappy supermarket charges for the packaged-in-plastic “cage free” commercial eggs. So it’s not a matter of economics so much as commitment to making a separate stop for eggs, at least here. But we’re not in an urban center, and many of our neighbors (particularly the ones who don’t bring in as much income) keep chickens. It’s common for people who have chickens to sell extra eggs to neighbors for $3/dozen, just to pay for the feed. ~Meg
Eggs are a good source of protein and are good for breakfast, lunch or dinner. I’ve listed several egg dishes so far: Omelets, Egg Salad, Quiche, Poached and Fried in Olive Oil. Mix up your egg repertoire: consider having a traditional egg-centric meal at dinner time. Served with a salad, eggs are a great way to eat lighter later.
What are your egg-buying habits; do you go for price, quality or safety?
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