A farm is not a factory, and a factory is never a farm

We sing a song about eggs in my house, usually on a Sunday morning when we are cooking what we call a nosh-up – a big family cooked brekky with all the trimmings. The catchy little number is from a kids show called Play School, and the words that ring around the kitchen go something like:

They’re round all around and they’re bigger at the bottom. They’re smaller at the top, and we’re glad we’ve got’em, and they’re egg shaped, ‘cause they’re eggs! Things with wings, and fins and legs, they lay eggs…

except the eggs that we are dealing with are only from the things with wings, and it is getting harder and harder to feel glad about it.

The humble egg. Pariah of the 1970’s, back in vogue in a big way today - especially the free range organic feel good variety in the environmentally friendly packaging.

You know the ones, happy healthy chicken sitting atop a red tractor or standing in a field of green, blue sky, sun shining, glossy feathers, and pointy beak. The brands that euphemistically pop words into their name like ‘farm’ and ‘happy’ and ‘family’….if you have read this blog before, you’ll know where this is going….but let us first take a look at what this is all about.

In Australia, the following classifications are supposed to attach to commercially sold eggs so you, in theory at least, know what you are spending your hard earned on:

CAGE

These birds are continuously housed in cages in a shed, with a minimum ‘floor’ space of 550 sq cm per bird - ‘floor’ meaning the bottom of a wire cage. The space is about a sheet of A4 paper. Beak-trimming is permitted because the birds are so jammed they can peck each other, leading to outbreaks of cannibalism. Beak trimming is done when the chickens are newly hatched and without the use of an anesthetic.

They don’t mess about on the packaging and accept that you understand they are the cheapest eggs for a reason.

BARN

The birds are continuously housed indoors but free to ‘roam’ within the shed, which may have several levels. Stocking capacity not to exceed 14 birds a square metre, or 715 sq cm per bird – what an improvement on the cage ones. Again, beak-trimming is permitted.

Mind you, I have an image in my head of what a barn looks like, and it is a big red timber thing in the American mid-west. Not a huge steel shed with 20,000 birds jammed in, huge fans at either end and electric lighting to keep’em laying.

FREE RANGE (Egg Corporation and Primary Industries standing committee - Australia)

These ones are housed in sheds with access to an outdoor range. The stocking capacity in the shed is the same as in a barn - not to exceed 14 birds a square metre - with no more that 1500 birds a hectare, and yep, you guessed it, beak-trimming permitted.

Access in this case means that the chickens could go outside if they understood what that meant, but by the time the access is granted, they are pretty well used to getting food and water from the machines that pump it out, and, well, why would you go outside? Through a hole in the wall?

FREE RANGE (Free Range Egg and Poultry Association of Australia - FREPAA)

These lucky birds have unrestricted access to free-range run during daylight hours, and the stocking capacity within the housing shed is not to exceed seven birds a sq m. (about three sheets of A4) with a maximum of 750 birds a hectare (although the Egg Corporation would like this to be increased to 20,000 birds a hectare! Nice one, Egg Corp). Beak-trimming is prohibited, as deemed unnecessary if above housing conditions are adhered to, that is, the birds aren’t so jammed that they get aggressive.

OK, they are the definitions of what you might buy, but it seems that it is still a case of caveat emptor when it comes to the conscious consumption of free-range eggs.

The main reason for this wonderful state of affairs is that there is no legally enforceable definition of the term ‘free range’ in Australia. The FREPAA code of practice outlined above is just that, an unenforceable code of practice. In fact, it has been suggested that the increase in demand for free range eggs, and the subsequent increase in their availability on our supermarket shelves simply can’t be matched with any increases in free range producers, free range chickens, or indeed, and logically free range eggs! Great isn’t it? You can call your eggs free range to tap the market, and to hell with the consumer. Let the market decide indeed!

So, over the Christmas break, this little conscious consumer and his little conscious consumer elves will be turning the abandoned cubby in the corner of the backyard into (can you guess?!) our own little free range egg facility. We will feed them our scraps, let them out to clean up the bugs in the garden, use their poo and old straw on the veggie patch, and wake up to inquisitive happy clucks of a couple of Isa Browns.

All on our little block, all five kilometers from the CBD and all organic free-range and all because we choose to.

Then when we sing and dance around the kitchen in our pj’s on a nosh-up Sunday morning, we can be as glad as we like that we’ve got’em, because the round all around little numbers in the pan will be as free range as you can get. Conscious consumption at its most basic!

Now…..I wonder what would our local Council guys would say about us getting a pig….

This issue has been recently discussed in the mainstream Australian media at http://www.theage.com.au/national/free-to-roam--on-a4-sheet-20111205-1ofl0.html. The result of the Federal Court case can be seen here http://www.theage.com.au/environment/animals/100k-fine-over-freetoroam-claim-20120123-1qd6y.html with the ACCC winning the case against the misleading term 'free to roam'. Go the ACCC! 
...and wait, there's more. As of november 2012, the ACCC looks like rejecting the Egg Corp Free Range definition to mean up to 20,000 birds an acre, see http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-11-02/accc-rejects-free-range-definition/4349634