![cage-free-eggs](http://www.weedemandreap.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/free-range-eggs-e1376171496674.jpg "WHY "Cage-free", "free-range", & "pasture-raised" doesn't mean what you think it means.")
Cage-free.
Free-range
Pasture-raised.
If you’re new to raising chickens, then you’ll need to know the difference between these titles. Why?
Because all eggs ain’t created equally.
Ever since farmers started stuffing millions of chickens into teeny tiny living spaces and calling it “farm fresh”, we as consumers have had to work hard to understand what it is we really are buying.
Believe it or not, the nutritional quality of your eggs will depend on where your chickens get to chill out. Have you ever tasted a REAL farm fresh egg, from a chicken that has had the opportunity roam a pasture and to peck & scratch in the ground?
I hadn’t until a couple years ago when we started to raise chickens and let me tell you…the taste of a REAL farm fresh egg is AMAZING!
Just check out the difference in color! The farm fresh egg is a darker & richer color which is loaded with more vitamins & nutrients.
![WHY "Cage-free", "free-range", & "pasture-raised" doesn't mean what you think it means.](http://www.weedemandreap.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/goodegg.jpg "WHY "Cage-free", "free-range", & "pasture-raised" doesn't mean what you think it means.") |
| Source |
Do you wanna learn about the amazing difference between “cage-free”, “free-range”, & “pasture-raised”?
Check out this awesome video explaining the Story of an Egg…
Watch 2013 Festival | Story of an Egg on PBS. See more from PBS Online Film Festival.
When an animal eats as nature intended everything that comes from them will be healthier. They will be healthier and happier. People laugh at me when I tell them about our happy chickens are. It just makes sense. I’ll never eat a store egg again. It sickens me to think of how they live. It’s inhumane
This was a really great post; short but very, very informative! Thank you for sharing this! Will be now buying pasture raised eggs. It only makes sense, this is how farmers used to raised chickens.
OK, great explanation, so now let’s talk about the terms used for their food. Organic feed sounds good but can mean Organic GMO corn and soy. Corn and Soy, GMO or not, are not a chicken’s natural diet, nor is it for a cow, but try to find these animals not fed at least one of these! 85% of corn grown in the US is GMO, so it’s going to be hard to keep away from GMO feed, and one would suspect the other 15% of ether being contaminated with GMO corn or they outright lie about the origins. For me, I want to eat pastured eggs and chickens that eat what they ate 300 years ago before corn became prolific. Develop a term for that please!
“Rare” or “wild” sound like good starting terms
there’s no such thing as “organic GMO”. read the definition of organic at the usda site.
GMOs are not permitted to be certified organic, despite the rumours I have seen propagated.
The term would be “bug-fed”. Chickens are the closest living relative to a t-rex, they enjoy eating insects and such. They will, however, eat just about anything you put near them.
The Cassowary, Rhea, Emu, Ostrich, Tinamou, Kiwi, Secratary Bird, & Seriema, are the closest living relatives of the T-Rex.
I used to live off of the grid on 160 acres in rural Eastern Oregon. Our chickens, ducks and turkeys roamed the whole area and came home at night to roost in the coop. The eggs were amazing.The meat was also amazing. One year we dressed out a 45 pound turkey for Thanksgiving. Most of their feed was what they found on the land with a little corn for good measure.We had an apple and a plum orchard which most likely helped with how delicious the meat was.
What brought you back to “civilization”?
That’s the way I’m used to eggs
Love the video. Thank you.
I LOVE this! So informative, sharing on my FB tomorrow. 🙂
– Katie
“The farm fresh egg is a darker & richer color which is loaded with more vitamins & nutrients.” Are you able to point me to evidence this is true?
https://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/2007-10-01/Tests-Reveal-Healthier-Eggs.aspx
That was a link to the article, and here is a link to the actual chart comparing nutrition, quite a difference! 🙂
https://www.motherearthnews.com/uploadedFiles/Eggs%20chart.pdf
If the ANIMAL is healthier, ANYTHING coming from it will be–including its own offspring. No degree in microbiology or any of the sciences is needed to know this simple and potent fact. If a person believes that animals bred and raised in industrial, factory conditions will create a healthier creature…they have lost their natural inclinations of health and well-being altogether.
These truths will survive any of us and anything we attempt to supercede these laws of Nature. Laws that I’ll be happy to obey any day of the week.
.
I appreciate the hard-and-fast facts! Too many claiming too much (not that you’d ever do that, but still…) these days!
Thank you!
Go to a farm and get some fresh eggs, or better yet get some chickens and feed them a wholesome diet. The difference is readily apparent.
I know we like to see the papers revealing the test results and so on but seriously all one needs to do is buy the pasture raised chickens and the non-pasture raised chickens and without a doubt you will see & taste the difference! Unsure of why so many people are so hesitant to go back to the way things used to be and should be!
Unfortunately many people want papers to do the thinking for them in place of (instead of conjoined with) common sense and logical thinking.
i heart this post a lot. that was a great little video, too.
This comment has been removed by the author.