 |
Photo of a factory-farm egg laying hen. |
Well, there's a new crisis every day and this week it turns out that Mexico is running out of eggs. Eggs are an important part of the Mexican diet, famous for
huevos rancheros and more, so this is a major concern.
Driving in the car, I caught the NPR broadcast of the situation.
http://www.weku.fm/post/its-no-yolk-mexicans-cope-egg-shortage-price-spikes
And here is the bit that caught me right away:
"The first shipments from the U.S. have already arrived at Mexico City's
huge wholesale warehouse and are helping to stabilize prices.
But egg vendor Adrian Hernandez says his clients don't like the U.S. imports;
they tell him the American eggs don't have any flavor,
and that the yolks are pale."
Here in the U.S., it has been a generation or more since the General Population had anything
but factory-laid, supermarket eggs. Here in a country of obsessed eaters, Americans truly don't know the difference!
 |
Egg comparison done by the NY Times. Supermarket egg is
on the right. Notice that you can't even see the whites....
|
Unless, like me, you have a free-ranging,
garden-munching, bug-snatching,
happy gang of hens laying eggs
with bright orange yolks
and whites that hold their shape
(not some watery
goooooo).
And here's a question:
Do you ever get totally confused by the labelling on things like eggs?
Organic, cage-free, free-range, vegetarian....omega-3 enhanced... ?
Check out this rational article that gives a quick run-through of the many terms:
http://today.ninemsn.com.au/foodandwine/254469/choosing-the-best-eggs
One of the most important frauds I see perpetrated right now is the idea that
eggs from "vegetarian only" fed chickens are somehow better. In real life, vegetarian-only-feed means that the birds are kept
totally caged, never outside where they could eat bugs or worms - exactly the kind of factory production corporate farms hope to maintain.
Chickens are omnivores by nature.
I'm telling you, the person who came up with vegetarian feed only" chickens as a
positive marketing message is a
GENIUS. And, sadly, it shows how little most people know about chickens (or any other food source, for that matter), that Americans think this is a good thing.
 |
My RoosterMan guarding his bug-hunting hens. |
Oh, dear, and I'm rehoming our chickens.
Scaling down to leave our farm. This is terrible.
I've got to get to work on those townie zoning ordinances.
I don't think I could go back to "supermarket" eggs if I had to.
And my eggs were one of my last holdouts from total vegan living. <sigh>
sadly,
Sybil
PS Just for the record, in case anyone thinks that the first sad photo is not realistic, I can tell you as someone with a graduate degree in agriculture, you really, really don't want to take a clear look at most of our country's meat production if you want to feel good about yourself. You
should, but you don't want to. I'm sorry, I truly am, but that is just how it is. And bear in mind that now that the sick little hen in the photo has given out as an egg-layer, they are going to turn her into some chicken product for you to
eat.
Bah! Get yourself a bit of backyard and raise a couple of chickens. No, don't eat the chickens, let them live happily for a long time, laying eggs - and eat those bright, tasty eggs! Instead of antibiotics and hormones, you get entertainment and affection. You know you can't beat that for health and healing!