Trouble In The Henhouse: The Scam Of Organic Eggs

When most people buy organic eggs, they imagine that the chickens responsible for those eggs probably cluck around outdoors on a picturesque family farm. But according to a new report by a farm policy research group, that’s not the case for as much of 80% of the eggs marketed as organic.

Instead, the picture is more like what we’re used to seeing for conventional eggs — hens are crammed inside massive window-deprived, metal barns where as many as 85,000 of them compete for space. They’re given organic feed and don’t get antibiotics, but that’s where the distinction ends. Like conventional hens, they don’t go outdoors and they’re often stacked in shelves going up to the ceiling, much like the ones in this photo taken at an organic farm in Wisconsin by the Cornucopia Institute, the group responsible for the report:

The 36,000 hens on this farm produce organic eggs for the California-based egg company Chino Valley Ranchers. Other producers Cornucopia criticizes as factory farms include The Country Hen, Eggland’s Best, Horizon Organic (DF) and Land O’Lakes. Mark Kastel, Cornucopia’s co-director, says that most supermarkets’ private label organic eggs — like Whole Foods‘ 365 Organic, Wal-Mart’s Great Value, Safeway’s O Organic and Trader Joe’s brand — also come from these confined, industrial operations.

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