Why are these new kinds of eggs becoming popular?
Ever since people started becoming aware of the conditions in which laying hens are "traditionally" kept in the U.S. (crammed into so-called "battery cages" packed so closely they can barely move for almost all of their lives, and forced to endure other practices that most people find inhumane), alternatives are becoming increasingly popular. (In Europe they are phasing cages out of egg production.)Are the hens really better off in these new conditions?
There is no doubt that they are better off. BUT the images that the terms "cage-free" and "free-range" bring to mind to most people are pretty far from the reality of most chickens, whether laying hens or those used for meat.Who regulates these labels?
There is very little actual regulation, but there are some definitions published by the USDA which are called "Trade Descriptions". Although they are voluntary, apparently most poultry farms conform to these standards.What is a cage-free egg?
This simply means that the hens are not kept in cages, though there are no regulations to govern care beyond that.What is a free-range egg?
Free-range chickens are (according to voluntary regulations) supposed to have "access to the outdoors" -- however, by many reports, the care of many of these hens is structured so that they are very unlikely to go outside. The doors are not opened until the hens are of an age where they are likely to keep doing what they are used to doing, and when the (usually small) doors are opened, they usually don't go outside. Michael Pollan, in his best-selling book The Omnivore's Dilemma, describes one farm producing organic, free-range chickens for meat. He says that the chickens are "given outside access" at 5 weeks, then killed at 7 weeks. He never saw a chicken go outside during his visit.What are organic eggs?
There are regulations to govern what can be called organic. The chickens must be fed organic feed (grown without commercial fertilizers or pesticides), and not given hormones or antibiotics. This has nothing to do with how the animals are kept, however.What is "humanely-raised"?
This is a totally unregulated definition, although organizations are springing up to try to come up with common definitions. The most prominent organization, Humane Farm Animal Care, has a certification process, which includes no cages, and hens having at least 1.5 square feet of floor space. Free-range hens must have outside access, and doors to the outside "must allow more than one hen at a time to exit". De-beaking is allowed, but some of the more barbaric practices common to traditionally-raised hens (such as "forced moulting" where hens nearly at the end of their laying are deprived to food, water, and light for days to weeks to produce one more bout of egg-laying) are not.What are "pastured" or "pasture-raised" hens?
According to the USDA Trade Descriptions, "birds are raised outdoors using movable enclosures located on grass and fed an organic diet (without hormones or non-organic additives) and/or raised without antibiotics (drugs that are intended to prevent or treat animal illnesses)".The advantage to pasture-raised eggs is that the hens are able to eat a wide variety of the natural food of chickens -- greens, grubs, etc. Not only do many people find these eggs to be much tastier, but there is accumulating evidence that the eggs from these hens have better nutritional profiles -- less cholesterol, less fat but more healthy Omega-3 fat, and more of other nutrients such as Vitamin A, lutein, vitamin E, and beta-carotene.
What about "Omega-3 eggs"?
Eating out in the pasture is not the only way for eggs to get more Omega-3 fats in them -- some hens are fed flax seed, which also dramatically increases the amount of omega-3 fat in the yolks of the eggs.Source:
US Trade Descriptions for Poultry, United States Department of Agriculture, 2000 (PDF File of full document).
