Just How Organic Are Those Organic Eggs?

[Sahib Punjabi]

"In the wake of this summer's salmonella outbreak scandal,
after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration uncovered dangerous,
deplorable conditions at several large commercial factory egg farms,
organic egg farmers reported a significant increase in sales. Natural food stores and farmer's markets were inundated with concerned customers seeking safer egg options.

Because organic egg farmers have to follow stricter guidelines when it comes to
caring for their flocks, many shoppers assume that organic eggs are
less likely to be contaminated by dangerous pathogens like salmonella. A
United Kingdom government study in 2008 did find that organic egg farms showed much lower levels of salmonella contamination. 

But all "organic" eggs are not created equal. The egg farms in the U.K.
study were operating under European organic standards, which are
designed to promote small-scale organic farming, and are stricter in
some ways than U.S. organic rules..." read further

[Sahib Punjabi]

Concerned egg eaters who want to make sure the organic label eggs they purchase were produced in a safe, humane facility should check out the Cornucopia Institute's Organic Egg Scorecard, which ranks popular organic egg brands from around the country based on the ease of obtaining information about where and how the eggs were produced and the integrity of the producers' organic farming practices.

http://www.cornucopia.org/organic-egg-scorecard/

[Sahib Punjabi]

Hey Too Jay, I am taking the liberty of sharing your post here ...I really liked your question :-)

Reply by Two Jay on October 20, 2010 at 7:57pm
Organic.. hmmm, that's a subject we have been discussing for months and months around the farm.

Test: Which one is the organic egg?
a. Left
b. Middle
c. Right
d. None of them
Attachments:

[Sahib Punjabi]

Vital Farms video

[TCLynx]

I know this might not work for everyone but it doesn't take much to keep a few back yard chickens and get fresh eggs right at home.

[Two Jay]

I forgot about this..

Anyways, the middle egg is the "organic" one. The picture, not one of my talents, does not do the eggs justice. We bought several varieties or brands of "organic" eggs to compare them to our farm raised ones... they are all pale in color and tend to have a much shallower vertical rise than our farm fresh eggs. The one bad thing about our eggs, that really bothers me, is that 90% of the corn and soy meal, locally grown, are GM varieties. We are moving away from this practice, slowly but surely, but building the greenhouse and AP system is taking priority over all of my other farm duties. Our hopes, in the near future, is to raise our own naturally grown grains to feed our animals with the addition of sprouts as well.

We will continue to grow our own cluckleberries - aka eggs, even though the lil' ladies are eating GM corn and soybeans. We know they are happy and healthy, have plenty of space, water and all the bugs and grasses they can eat.

Moral of the story, things are not always cracked up they way they seem....couldn't resist, that was horrible. :D

[TCLynx]

So basically the pale yellow egg is the store bought "organic" egg and the other two eggs are your backyard eggs?
Good to see your Girlz are allowed a more natural diet with bugs and weeds and whatever they find to supplement the GM feed you can get.

I'm in a similar situation but I find the natural foods and kitchen scraps, bugs etc all make the backyard eggs richer. Also, can't get better than fresh backyard eggs, they stand so tall and proud in the pan while the others tend to be flat just because they can't possibly be as fresh. Eggs are something that local and free-range make a much bigger difference than simply Organic.

[David Hart]

TC, your right....the older the egg, the flatter it sits in the pan.
When I was a cook in the USAF...we were told that eggs can be stored 'long term'....just above freezing , for up to a year !