WHAT DO THE LABELS ON EGG CARTONS REALLY MEAN?

CAGE FREE, PASTURE RAISED, ORGANIC & FREE RANGE
What do these mean? Have you ever read the labels on egg cartons at the grocery store to try to decide how to be frugal, but also thoughtful of how these animals are raised?
To be honest – it may hurt your heart a bit to read through the meanings and reasoning behind why these labels are need and the truth of how they are defined.

LABELS

Free Range: Eggs labeled as “free range” must be produced by hens who have unlimited access to food, water, and access to the outdoors during their egg-laying cycle. Now – this doesn’t mean they are walking around someone’s yard. It is mostly likely means they have access to some type of chicken yard – if they go outside.

Pasture Raised: There are no FDA guidelines on this as one of the labels on egg cartons. But most hopefully it means a chicken has access to grass. Most farmers will tell you this if they have chickens on pasture or grass

Cage Free: a chicken that is allowed to walk around, not locked in an individual cage, unable to walk around. Although it likely means the chicken is still in a closed building or in a chicken yard. Which is not necessarily an inhumane environment, but there is a wide range of acceptable buildings. The USDA states that eggs labeled as cage free “must be produced by hens housed in a building, room, or enclosed area that allows for unlimited access to food, water, and provides the freedom to roam within the area during the laying cycle.”

Organic: The USDA’s Organic Program requires “accommodate the health and natural behavior of animals.” This includes “clean water for drinking, and direct sunlight, suitable to the species, its stage of life, the climate, and the environment: Except, that, animals may be temporarily denied access to the outdoors…” This exception has allowed some producers to keep hens inside a majority of the time. Which isn’t usually what consumer think they are buy when they buy “organic.”

LOCAL FARMERS

Just ask your friendly local farmer about the living conditions, if that is a concern to you. Don’t be surprised if they reply they keep them in a chicken house full time. A chicken house at a small local farm is probably much more humane than any large scale production facility. Most local farmers will care for their animals, give them extra care if they notice sickness and in bad weather – go out multiple times a day to check on the animals. That’s just what they do.
There are many reasons a farmer might have chickens indoors full time. The most important being protection. There are so many dangers to chickens, between the humans, vehicles, farm animals and other predators that are around a busy farm.

When a local farmer tells you they pasture raise their chickens, it likely means the chickens are in a moveable coop and run so that they can be places on fresh grass every day or two. A coop is used to protect the birds throughout the day and night.

A free range chicken, likely means they have a fence around the chickens – but a large enough area for the chickens to move, scratch, dust bath. It might not mean it is on grass. The reason most farmers wouldn’t allow their chickens to walk around the yard is that it makes eggs harder to find, chickens get lost or taken and there is poop on everything.

Cage free is common for owners of small scale farm. This would mean that chickens move around in a chicken house, possibly have access to the outdoors. But the biggest point is that they are not in a small cage that keeps them from moving or standing.

As a side note – if you wondered what is the difference between a green egg, brown egg and white egg? Click to find out!