Why cage free eggs just aren’t cutting it
Summary
Hickman’s Family Farms has approximately 6 million laying hens, all of them labeled as “cage free”. By giving the chickens more room to live their lives and converting them to free range, Hickman’s will be able to see improvement in their business. Hickman’s does man things to focus on their sustainability practices and this is just one way more thing they can do to improve. Some of the benefits of switching from cage-free to free range eggs are more room, more daylight of the chickens, more nutrient rich eggs, and less contact with waste. It is important to be competitive with other farmers and this will make Hickman’s stand out from the rest. Policy implication for this project would include
…show more content…
Giving the chickens space to roam in the outdoors rather than inside a dark crowded warehouse will increase the quality of their life. The quality of their life affects the quality of the eggs they produce. A new law has been passed “which requires that egg-laying hens must be able to lie down, stand up, fully extend their limbs and turn around freely”(the guardian). Hickman’s strives to create a quality product while also practicing sustainable farming. By allowing the chickens to be free range they will be getting a better quality egg and becoming more sustainable …show more content…
By having the chickens outside their manure will be able to biodegrade into the soil. “A study backed by the Federal Government's Envirofund program found that free range farming practices are viable and have minimal impacts on the environment”(free ranger). This change in farming practice would help Hickman’s become more sustainable and have less effect negative effects on the environment. When the chickens are in the large warehouses, Hickman’s has to find a way to get ride of the waste themselves, but if the chickens were outside they would not have to worry about
First, the local sustainable food chain is healthy for people. In the book The Omnivore’s Dilemma as people stand around to buy chicken from Polyface, Pollan records some of the customers’ quotes. In the book it says, “ You’re not going to find fresher chickens anywhere. (Pollan, 184). ” This quote shows
Moreover, this system of mass farming leads to single crop farms, which are ecologically unsafe, and the unnatural treatment of animals (Kingsolver 14). These facts are presented to force the reader to consider their own actions when purchasing their own food because of the huge economic impact that their purchases can have. Kingsolver demonstrates this impact by stating that “every U.S. citizen ate just one meal a week (any meal) composed of locally and organically raised meats and produce, we
On the topic of environmental impacts due to “industrial farming”, Bill McKibben and Blake Hurst share completely different perspectives. McKibben believes that industrial farming has simply left an unexcusable bad impact on the environment, saying that it is unethical and that the meat we eat is potentially killing our environment and us as well. McKibben states that “we should simply stop eating factory-farmed meat, and the effects on climate change would be one of the many benefits.” (page 201). McKibben addresses that the techno fixes brought in industrial farming are simply not enough to help our environment.
Latino grassroots politics in the academic realm has been considered as predominantly Chicano in nature. However, the geometry of this academic sector is no longer one dimensional, due to the formation of a Chicana feminist consciousness; the rise of an identified gay community within the Chicana/o student populace; and the emergence of “Latinos” in era of Chicanismo, The abrupt growth of Latinos (e.g. Spanish speaking of Mexican, Central or Latin American decent) in the United State’s educational system led the general population to characterize them as subjects on the cusps of political power and influence. But this widespread depiction of Latinos as an untapped potential is intrinsically linked to an impression of civic cohesion within the Latino student population. Although there is a correspondence between these parties in terms of the alienation they have felt and the discrimination they have endured throughout their academic careers, there is a minimal collective effort in confronting against their oppressive status. This is mainly a result of conflicting ideologies and social agendas within the Latino student community, as well as the relegation of Hispanic subgroups into the lower echelons. Latino students, nevertheless, have demonstrated their capacity, when both Chicanos and the marginalized Hispanic subgroups join efforts to reach a communal objective. This debunks the historical notion that Chicano students are the only group of Hispanics in the academic sphere that have been actively challenging the processes of social exclusion, and also displays the capacity of a collaborative effort.
One example of one of the companies is Perdue Farms. The company likes to make sure they have reliable producers. “Producers, in turn, are responsible for providing housing that meets Perdue 's standards for poultry welfare and biosecurity, and for caring for the birds on a daily basis” (perduefarms.com), which means Perdue makes sure that all of the farms meet their standards to provide their product in a cost-effective, environmentally-friendly manner. In turn for the proper care of the chickens, the company provides the farmers with the resources they may need to properly prepare their product. This includes the equipment, the food for the animals, and then all of the scientific experts and lab technicians that are working with veterinarians and poultry welfare officers to research what will help the company to grow their product
Chickens are one of the top most tortured animals in factory farms. Farmers get the most money for chickens that are heavier and have enlarged thighs and breasts. Like most factory farmed animals, broiler chickens are raised in overcrowded cages their entire life, and become very aggressive. Because of this aggressiveness the employees of the farms cut of their beaks and toes without any type of painkiller or an anesthetic just to keep them from fighting. After being “debeaked” some chickens are then not able to eat and starve. Layer chickens lay 90-95% of the eggs sold in the U.S. (2013b) The torture starts the day they are born. Chicks are placed on a belt, where an employee than picks up each chick to see if it is a male or female. Newborn male chicks are thrown into trash bags, ground up alive, crushed, and killed many other inhumane ways.
Chickens have to endure suffering that no living thing should have to go through. The egg laying chickens have to be forced into tiny cages without enough room to stretch their wings. Up to 8 hens are crammed in to a cage that is the size of a folded newspaper, about 11"-14". Stress from the confinement leads to severe feather loss so the chicken will be almost completely bald in the cold cages. When the chickens are of egg-laying age, there beaks are cut off without any pain killers to ease the pain, they do this so the chickens don’t break their own eggs and eat them because the chickens are hungry.
... eggs in the United States. As evidence indicates, the greatest impact of Proposition Two will be felt by the California egg industry6. Proposition Two is also risk to the safety of farm animal, the products they produce, and decreases sanitation practices in comparison to modern housing. Under the conditions of Proposition Two, livestock would be at a higher risk of contracting communicable diseases in comparison to the disease/infection risks posed by current caging methods. Proposition Voting no on Proposition Two will keep the animal agriculture business and its animals safe and healthy while keeping the California egg industry secure. Proposition Two appears to be a measure with great potential for both the animal welfare and animal agriculture, but in reality, studies and research have concluded that Proposition Two is a detriment to both animals and humans.
“We take care of animals, and the animals take care of us.” (Rollin 212). The preceding phrase is a policy that American farmers in the old west lived their lives by. Modern farmers live do not live their lives anywhere near to this phrase because they own factory farms, and the whole reason for having a factory farm is to fit as many animals in a small space as possible in order to maximize profit. Factory Farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFO) first appeared in the 1920s, right after Vitamins A and D, because if animals are given these vitamins in their diets, exercise and sunlight are not necessities for the animals to grow anymore (In Defense of Animals 1). The growing number of factory farms is coupled with the decreasing population of rural areas, which means that many people are beginning to factory farm because it yields a higher profit (“Agricultural Sciences” 170). In the 1950s, the average number of chickens on a given egg farm in the United States was 100, but now the average number is a shocking 10,000 chickens (“Factory Farms” 4). The reason for the increase of chickens has to do with new and cheaper technology developed just after World War II. The new technology increased the number of chickens, while it had the opposite effect on dairy and meat cows, their numbers went in the other direction. The number of cows used for milk was cut by more than half between 1950 and 2000, because farmers discovered new and more efficient methods for milking cows (Weeks 4). Many activists for animals’ rights are concerned about the methods used by factory farmers because they confine their animals into tight spaces and since there are so many of them in a small ...
Friedrich, Bruce. "The Cruelest of All Factory Farm Products: Eggs From Caged Hens." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 14 Jan. 2013. Web. 02 May 2014. .
He is amazed every time he sees urban people using gardens. This has to be the easiest way to obtain fresh produce. Another good idea is taking advantage of community gardens. This gives people the opportunity to get outside and work with others to feed their communities. The last thing that the author mentioned in his article really surprised me. He says, “For others, it may be three or four chickens laying eggs in an apartment (186).” This was something that I never imagined people doing. He starts talking about ordinances and how people should ignore them and defy. I would have to disagree with him on this particular point. Could you imagine having someone in Ames raising chickens in an apartment complex? Me either! There are certain points where some people go too far and this is a great example. Throughout this section of the article the author painted many pictures in the reader’s heads and this really helped me understand what he was trying to get across to his
This study shows the importance on how America is being affected in a bad way, because of unsustainable foods. Unsustainable foods are not just hurting America as a whole, but could be affecting you. According, to the CSA “Many children in the US have developed life-threatening allergies to peanuts and other foods”. This is because, of food unsustainability. This study will give an insight on how sustainable foods are helping America rather than unsustainable foods. This idea will help turn America away from heading down the wrong path which is uns...
Poultry is by far the number one meat consumed in America; it is versatile, relatively inexpensive compared to other meats, and most importantly it can be found in every grocery store through out the United States. All of those factors are made possible because of factory farming. Factory farming is the reason why consumers are able to purchase low-priced poultry in their local supermarket and also the reason why chickens and other animals are being seen as profit rather than living, breathing beings. So what is exactly is factory farming? According to Ben Macintyre, a writer and columnist of The Times, a British newspaper and a former chicken farm worker, he summed up the goal of any factory farm “... to produce the maximum quantity of edible meat, as fast and as cheaply as possible, regardless of quality, cruelty or hygiene” ( Macintyre, 2009). Factory farmers do not care about the safety of the consumers nor the safety of the chicken, all the industrial farmers have in mind are how fast they can turn a baby chick into a slaughter size chicken and how to make their chicken big and plumped. Factory farming is not only a health hazard to the well-being of the animals, but the environment, and human beings ;thus free range and sustainable farming need to be put into practice.
MacDonald, G. Jeffrey. "Chickens come home to roost in backyards around the USA." USA Today.
I have always been drawn to chickens since I was a little girl. It was only in my thirty’s that I first came in to contact with chickens on a farm. You would think that a city girl like me would be afraid, nope, I went right in to feed and sat in chicken poop. No one told me I shouldn’t sit in the coop and feed them, but I was fine with it, they calm me. Each year I keep telling myself I will move when I can have my chickens. I will cover the difference between meat and egg layers. I will discuss the different ways to home them, and keep them safe. Why should people keep chickens at all? In this research paper I will go over the information that I have read and how I feel personally about raising and keeping chickens in your back yard.