Meet Real Free-Range Eggs
(Page 4 of 4)
October/November 2007
By Cheryl Long and Tabitha Alterman
"My best marketing tool is my customers, who regularly tell people that these are the best eggs they’ve ever had and worth every penny." – Patryk Battle, Sparkling Earth Farm
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"We have many loyal customers who stand in line 30 minutes before the market opens to get our eggs." – George & Eiko Vojkovich, Skagit River Ranch
"We support Shady Grove Farm because it’s important to keep our local organic farmers thriving. Best of all, the eggs taste better, are better for you, and add amazing flavor (and color!) to our food." – Rachel Rose, restaurateur
"We preach to everyone that will listen: Don’t buy animal products unless you can see the way they’re raised. If everyone bought that way, there wouldn’t be industrial farms, and the small farmer could prosper again." – Bill and Sharon Moreton, Spring Mountain Farms
"We sell our eggs to several restaurant chefs — they’ll pay three or more times the price for pastured eggs over commercial." –David Smith, Springfield Farm
"I’m in this for the joy chickens bring and healthful eggs, not profit. Sitting on the porch watching the ladies in the yard is better than any therapy, so they’re worth at least $100 an hour to me." – Suzan Touchette, Windy Island Acres
"I’m so fortunate to get fresh eggs from heirloom hens that spend their days eating bugs, grass and weeds. Their eggs are the most flavorful I’ve ever eaten! Plus, I appreciate knowing how fresh they are." – Heidi Hunt, addicted to Red Stuga eggs
"It’s a real pleasure to return to eggs that have quality of taste, texture and looks. Now that I get the added benefit of less cholesterol and all the nutrition, I am simply delighted." – Danny G. Langdon, Misty Meadows maniac
The Caged Hen’s Diet
Here’s the ingredients list from “16 percent Layer Crumbles,” a feed designed for hens raised in confinement: “Grain Products, Plant Protein Products, Processed Grain Byproducts, Roughage Products, Forage Products [in other words, could contain pretty much anything! — Mother], Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Choline Chloride, Folic Acid, Manadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex, Methionine Supplement, Calcium Carbonate, Salt, Manganous Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Copper Chloride, Zinc Oxide, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide, Sodium Selenite.”
Mounting Evidence
- In 1974, the British Journal of Nutrition found that pastured eggs had 50 percent more folic acid and 70 percent more vitamin B12 than eggs from factory farm hens.
- In 1988, Artemis Simopoulos, co-author of The Omega Diet, found pastured eggs in Greece contained 13 times more omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids than U.S. commercial eggs.
- A 1998 study in Animal Feed Science and Technology found that pastured eggs had higher omega-3s and vitamin E than eggs from caged hens.
- A 1999 study by Barb Gorski at Pennsylvania State University found that eggs from pastured birds had 10 percent less fat, 34 percent less cholesterol, 40 percent more vitamin A, and four times the omega-3s compared to the standard USDA data. Her study also tested pastured chicken meat, and found it to have 21 percent less fat, 30 percent less saturated fat and 50 percent more vitamin A than the USDA standard.
- In 2003, Heather Karsten at Pennsylvania State University compared eggs from two groups of Hy-Line variety hens, with one kept in standard crowded factory farm conditions and the other on mixed grass and legume pasture. The eggs had similar levels of fat and cholesterol, but the pastured eggs had three times more omega-3s, 220 percent more vitamin E and 62 percent more vitamin A than eggs from caged hens.
- The 2005 study Mother Earth News conducted of four heritage-breed pastured flocks in Kansas found that pastured eggs had roughly half the cholesterol, 50 percent more vitamin E, and three times more beta carotene.
- The 2007 results from 14 producers are shown here.
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