Tag Archives: organic

Organic Egg Deception

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An interesting little story came out last week about the day-to-day practices of a major brand of organic eggs. The article subtly criticized the confined quarters that offered no apparent access to outdoors, and gave readers some insight into how the actually-quite-deplorable practices still meet organic standards.

There will always be your occasional outbreaks of over-and-above corruption, like the CEOs who got caught repacking and selling expired eggs, which led to a food illness outbreak, and ultimately their imprisonment.

But that is not what this is.

This is just a brief and not-very-widely-reported peep under the veil of regular, approved, organic production that reveals not an acute problem, but a deep, festering, chronic misuse of customer trust and understanding.

Organic Egg Rules

Sure, the rules sound really good: access to fresh air, outdoors, direct sunlight, with “continuous total confinement indoors” being prohibited. But it is so easy to just have in mind to “check the boxes” of compliance, while missing the mark entirely. Anyone could make the case that 2-inch holes drilled in the side of a building at floor level provide “outdoor access” to the chickens because they can stick their heads out there. If you stuck your arm out a window, is your arm inside anymore? No! Of course not! So doesn’t that mean you now have “outdoor access?” If your arm could breathe, it would be breathing fresh air, wouldn’t it? You have to concede the argument.

But is that really meeting the intention of the standard?

What about the next provision? “Direct sunlight” sounds good, but then again, one could argue that this whole side of the building with the chicken-head-holes faces south and gets 6+ hours of sunlight per day. Not that the environment actually benefits from the sanitizing and Vitamin-D-enhancing properties of the sun…. Still–we have access to direct sunlight. Check!

I have it on good authority that a certain major organic egg producer complained that higher-ups were trying to force them to allow actual pasture access for their hundreds of thousands of hens. “That would require us to be buy more land, and it’s too expensive!”

Instead of thinking in terms of scaling down size and scaling up quality, the producer was only interested in figuring out how to fit the square peg into the round hole. Checking the boxes. Minimal compliance. Is that the kind of mindset you want for the person manufacturing your kids’ car seats or the roof of your house? But we so often accept this quality of management in our everyday consumption of nutrients by continuing to support these kinds of food systems. The best-but-cheapest eggs. The biggest green sticker on the package. The one with the most healthy-sounding claims.

This is a very convoluted issue, and the reason it will never be straightforward is because you can’t define standards specific enough to enforce true quality, without alienating 90% of good producers. Our various climates, land profiles, farm size, labor force, and ingenuity, necessitates highly customized solutions to pasture-based farm production. You really can’t even say how often the chickens ought to be moved because even that varies based on time of year, rainfall, hen age and breed, and paddock conditions.

I once wrote that running a farm is like flying a spaceship. Developing production standards specific enough to cover all scenarios would be like trying to write a step-by-step protocol for every maneuver your spacecraft and all its personnel might ever make during a trip to the moon. It can’t be done. There are simply too many variables. Even if it could be done, maybe it shouldn’t because it just might accidentally eliminate a really fabulous small-time farmer.

I know you’re busy and just need to know how to wisely feed your family. I could talk all day about this because it’s such an important and interesting issue, but I won’t bore you with the ponderings of a pasture-farmer. Here’s the takeaway, as pertains to eggs in particular:

Cage-Free Eggs

“Cage Free” means eggs were produced “by hens housed in a building, room, or enclosed area that allows for unlimited access to food [grain], water, and provides the freedom to roam within the area during the laying cycle.” Notice: no actual outdoor access of any kind. Does not address GMO feeding practices or drug use at all. Practically meaningless in the poultry world.

Free Range Eggs

The term “Free Range” requires “outdoor access” but does not define what that means. Remember your arm-out-the-window idea? Lots of abuse happens with this term. Does not address GMO feeding practices or drug use at all. Practically meaningless in the poultry world.

Organic Eggs

Slightly better than Free Range in terms of GMO feeding and drug use, but as seen above the the infamous example of the largest organic egg producer in the nation (supplying over 10% of the organic eggs sold in the USA!), it’s very easy to check the boxes and not actually have a substantially better product for the price.

Pasture-Raised Eggs

This one is dangerous because, just like “Grass-fed” for beef, it is considered a marketing term and is not officially defined or regulated. In the states where we are licensed to sell eggs, there is effectually no oversight regarding label claims, leaving it to whistleblowers to report on false advertising, which virtually never happens. Yes, we use this term because we feel the mental image it invokes is accurate to describe our operation, and we try to maintain transparency by allowing farm visits and answering consumer questions. But in practice, industry use of the “Pasture-Raised” term doesn’t speak to the conditions of the pasture, feeding standards (i.e. GMO or not), drug use, or rotation of the environment.

Why Animal Rotation Matters

If you’ve ever kept chickens or a dog in a small permanent outdoor “run,” you’ll understand that it doesn’t take very long for the “pasture” to turn to a manure-caked desert. Sure, the hens may actually be outside in cases like these, but we feel the main benefit to having hens on pasture is that they can consume living vegetation to increase their nutrition and detoxify their bodies (chlorophyll is an excellent detoxifier!).

But the chickens have to keep moving to new ground to keep the pasture healthy and growing, and that’s where it gets really complicated and expensive to produce eggs truly “on pasture,” especially for very large producers. Not saying it can’t be done on a large scale, but there are a LOT more hurdles to outdoor production than indoor. For example, the nest boxes have to be close to the chickens at all times. Chickens won’t walk to a barn from out in the pasture, so their coop has to move with them, and be large enough to provide roost space and shade during the heat of the day. But a traveling coop means you have to go out to the coop to get the eggs, then carefully haul them back in to where you can grade, candle, and package them. How do you drive across the pasture with thousands of eggs without breaking any? 

Then there are considerations like getting water and food out to the chickens (no, contrary to popular belief, chickens can’t survive on grass alone–could you survive on only dry salad?), and keeping predators away from the hens. Everything LOVES to eat chicken. It takes some major thought to eliminate predation by owls, hawks, crows, skunks, opossums, coyotes, dogs, bobcats, bears, snakes, etc. 

But even the deployed state of the adult chickens isn’t the only infrastructure question. You can’t put baby chicks in the same living conditions as adult hens and expect them to survive. They need warmth and protection from the elements, and an extra degree of predator protection. So you have to have separate facilities for babies, and then another living situation for the “teenagers” that haven’t begun laying yet, and perhaps are too small to stay inside a mobile net fence. And you have to move the hens from space to space as they grow up and have new and different needs. It takes 6 months to get that first egg. No wonder eggeries just keep them in a single building their entire lives. It’s just simpler.

How You Can Know For Sure

This concept of discussion applies to all aspects of natural livestock production, not just eggs. People want to know what brand is best because then they don’t have to think about it either–they can just check the box. But there is no one-size-fits-all answer to regulation of animal farming practices. This question bounces around constantly among pastured poultry producers, because it would be so much easier to have that one magic word to describe what it is that sets us apart from the rest. But some things have to be done the hard way, the old fashioned way. We can’t microwave this one.

I believe the best way to handle the accountability issue of food production is for you to find a farmer you can trust and build that relationship with. Local farmers are often excluded from the mainstream marketplace because there are many bureaucratic hurdles that a small-scale producer cannot overcome, and they need avid and loyal supporters to continue producing the superior quality products on a smaller, but better, scale.

You have a doctor, a lawyer, a mechanic, a pastor. Why not have your personal farmer, too?

Are you falling asleep at the kitchen stove?

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There is an interesting thing happening in our culture. Advertising. Advertising wins. If you can come up with the prettiest ad, the cleverest motto, the most touching video clip, you can sell anything. But what if you can’t…

Farmers aren’t usually very tech-savvy, at least not compared to the big-wig corporations out there nowadays. And we’re definitely not very up to speed on large-scale advertising trends. We are busy delivering calves, repairing water lines, baling hay, and changing giant tractor tires!

Even if we were able to keep up, it’s thousands and even millions of dollars just to get in the door and get in front of a larger audience. We tend to get pushed aside with our quaint paper flyers and our old-timey market cashboxes.

After all, there are more options available to consumers now. There are more convenient options.

Why would any sane person pay more for the lesser convenience of buying from a local farm out in the sticks, when they can just pop in to the local supermarket on the way home from work, and get their grass-fed beef, their pool toys, their toilet paper, a new toothbrush and a Happy Graduation card, all in one place? All on one plastic transaction. Using a shopping cart. And a scannable coupon on their phone. In the air conditioning. Talk about efficiency! Convenience abounds!

Did I mention the price is right, too? That supermarket can offer an everyday price that’s $2 lower per pound than the local farmer’s version. Sure, the local farmer’s product is probably better. But this product is good. The label says so. It has to be.

Right?

It has all the right words… But remember—that’s what advertising is about.

I know you don’t have time to read my ravings on the wiles of slick marketing majors working to gain the edge for one of the 10 major food companies in America.

But think about this: If you thought globalization and modernization was about diversity and choices… Guess again. Only 10 food companies own all the store brands you see on the supermarket shelf. What if you had only 10 shirts to choose from? That’s NOT much diversity. That’s hardly any CHOICE. It’s only the appearance of diversity. And yet we support and feed this ever-swelling, already-gigantic food industry controlled by less than a dozen entities, because of convenience. They have wooed us away from the real farms using convenience and marketing as the bait.

But it’s “free range!” It’s “organic!” It’s “hormone-free!” They know that consumers want better quality meat. Well, they know that many consumers will accept meat that SOUNDS like it’s better quality.

But not you. That’s why you’re here. You’ve seen behind the curtain and know that there is something better—something genuine. It can be a little hard to get to sometimes, but it’s worth the extra effort.

Still, it is easy to get sucked in and settle for “good enough,” especially with the fast-paced changes that are happening with the labeling laws today. Those giant food companies have money to throw at lobbying for dilution of marketing terms so they can reach even the better-informed and more conscious consumer.

Don’t believe me? Here are a few examples you may not have heard about:

They’re working hard to change “high fructose corn syrup” to “corn sugar.” Sounds better, doesn’t it? Another example: For years, there’s been major push-back against GMO-labeling, in spite of the fact that MOST consumers WANT GMOs to be labeled. Opponents cite “unreasonable fear” of consumers against this supposedly-safe technology. If it’s so safe, why don’t you just tell us you’re doing it?

Most of the terms in our industry are the same—the labels have become captivating marketing terms and really tell you nothing about the quality of the product you’re buying. “Free-range” chickens only have to be able to look outside, not actually go there. “Organic” beef can be standing in an organic feedlot eating organic corn and never eat one lick of actual grass. “Hormone-free” pork and chicken? It’s illegal across the board to administer hormones to pigs and chickens. EVERYONE’S chicken and pork are hormone-free. That’s like claiming that the package of meat you’re scrutinizing is “Sold in the USA!” OF COURSE IT IS! Tell me something I don’t know!

And my personal favorite… very quietly, about a year ago, THEY RENEGED ON COUNTRY-OF-ORIGIN LABELING REQUIREMENTS FOR MEAT.

Packs of burger used to be required to disclose where the cow was raised—You’d see something like “Product of Uruguay,” or Brazil, New Zealand, Argentina, U.S.A., etc. Now they say nothing. This change was great timing because recently, the USDA starting having talks with Chinese chicken processing companies about outsourcing the processing of chicken before shipping it back to the USA for sale. The rules have changed, and no one has to tell you that your chicken was fileted and marinated in the People’s Republic. Organic, or otherwise! The Chinese Chicken thing hasn’t quite gone through yet, as far as I know, but it will soon, and how we will know when it does? They are no longer required to tell us.

Why would they take away a law that no one was complaining about, that apparently was able to be complied with, and that aided shoppers in choosing to support American farm economies and domestic rural communities and their own peace of mind? So much for choice… Why would they nix our opportunity to know whether our meats are imported?

It’s because deep down, the big marketers knew that no matter what pretty words they put on the package…“Grass-fed,” “Humanely Raised,” “No Hormones…” people would still be wary of meat brought in from overseas, as they should be. So they killed the facts. The facts are still there. You just can’t know them if you’re meat-shopping at the store.

They did the same thing with “Grass-fed.” They killed the facts. The Powers that Be suddenly decided that it was “unfair” to be policing such a widely-used term and officially declared that the term “grass-fed” was now strictly a marketing term, internally defined, and the burden of proof now falls solely on consumers to seek out. Officials said that consumers would now have to visit each company’s website to research whether that specific company’s definition of grass-fed matched their own.

Yep, I’m going to stand there at the freezing-cold meat counter with 4 hungry, squirming, noisy children asking me every 14 seconds when we will be home and what’s for dinner, with icecream melting in my cart and my phone buzzing repeatedly, reminding me that I’m already late for my next stop. I’m going to take THAT busy moment to go online, weed through the marketing nonsense to try to track down what Barbecue Bob’s “Grass-fed” Beef actually ate, and whether it was actually raised in America or not. Yeah, right!

Most folks think, “Well if the label says ‘Grass-fed,’ even if it’s internally defined, it still must mean the cows ate mostly grass, right?”

No. It’s internally defined. It’s internally defined! The word “grass-fed” as it appears on pretty green stickers at the meat counter is now completely meaningless, and your meaning has nothing whatsoever to do with the reality of the company’s meaning!

They call this era the post-truth era. Think about that for a moment. We’re a generation no longer interested in truth as much as feeling good about what we do. Many areas of our lives are suffering. The area relevant in this article is the local, really-grass-fed farm. Our farm, and many other small farms of integrity, are struggling to compete with our real products against a  multitude of fake, but oh-so-convenient products.

Don’t fall asleep at the kitchen stove. Keep your eyes open to the truth about your food. We at Shady Grove Ranch have tried to make it really simple through online ordering, email reminders, attending farmers market, selling through local retailers, and offering free routine drop points. 

You have to do your part, too, and eat the best food in the world every month, every week, every day. I know we sometimes have seasonal shortages of things. (Beef is almost ready—hang in there! Just a couple more weeks!!) That’s what real, connected-with-the-farm eating is like sometimes. I am the Ingredient Substitution Queen, and I am happy to help you find meal ideas that will please the tummies in your house while your favorite out-of-stock item finishes fattening on real grass in a real pasture, right here in Jefferson, Texas.

Thank you for supporting our work so we can be around to feed your grandkids and ours in 20 years! Please make it part of your routine to visit us at Shreveport Farmers Market tomorrow and support REAL pasture-raised foods raised by a REAL family farm!

Is Organic Food Making Us Unhealthier?

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Have you heard the term “Greenwashing?” Even if you haven’t, perhaps you’ve noticed the vast increase in availability of things at the supermarket that have pretty, healthy-looking little green labels. It’s so nice to have so many healthful options… or is it?

Not all that long ago in the East Texas/Shreveport area, real health foods were hard to find. I remember the days of driving from one farm in one town to get pastured, non-GMO-fed eggs, then to another farm in yet another town to get grass-fed beef, then still another farm in still another town to get raw milk. It was farm-driving madness! And to find grass-fed beef or pasture-raised eggs at the store? Ha! Fat chance!

But now you can find organic diapers, organic pop-tarts, organic banana puffs, even organic gummy bears and lollipops at just about any well-stocked supermarket. (And of course, there are quite a few organic and “grass-fed” meat options, now, too, but maybe those labels don’t mean exactly what we’ve been led to believe they mean…) But deep down, we all know that a lollipop, organic or not, is just a hunk of sugar. Don’t we?

organic lollipops2

It seems to me that there’s a psychological component to eating. If something is presented as officially “healthy,” we sort of turn off our brains and chow down, forgetting the logical reasoning we normally step through before buying a product.

More than once, I have found myself victim of this. I was shopping at a new store and spotted a package of roasted peanuts that had a pretty little “With Sea Salt” label on the front. Autopilot kicked in and I didn’t even look at the label before putting it into my basket. My mind said, “Safe!” because that product had effectively been “green-washed,” and it wasn’t until I was 2/3 of the way through eating the jar that I finally happened to look at the label. It was shocking! Full of stuff that I always avoid, and I certainly would never have bought it if any of those other ingredients had been listed on the front of the package. How frustrating!

Has that ever happened to you? I bet it’s happened to even the most conscientious shopper. I learned my lesson, but how many different kinds of products do we each buy? Do we have to learn our lesson on every single one?

The prevalence of health claims and organic labels has effectively given shoppers full license to grab anything off the shelf and assume it is healthier than its conventionally-made counterpart. Be honest. How many times have you tossed that pack of cookies into your cart thinking it’s somehow healthier than the name-brand? But is it really? It’s still cookies! So maybe it was raised without synthetic pesticides or genetically-engineered organisms (GMOs). But that doesn’t equate with nutritious or beneficial.

This article isn’t intended to guilt you out or to encourage you to buy the cheaper conventional junk! Organic junk food is notoriously expensive! Haha. No, that’s not the point. Let’s work harder to keep our brains turned on while we’re shopping and keep the processed food, organic or not, to a minimum, and eat real, whole-food ingredients made into real meals with our own hands, even if they are simple, like scrambled eggs and homemade hash browns. Because that’s really what we need to truly improve our health, don’t you think?

 

marshall chickens