What is a vegetarian diet for egg laying hens? One might assume grass, but it is actually corn and soy; according to the Land O Lakes label, their all natural eggs are produced by feeding hens a whole grain diet. The eggs are brown, packaged in plastic...but the whole grain diet sounded like a marketing soundbite so I looked a little closer. Then I looked at the Egglands Best, once again - vegetarian diet, but no details. Is that what makes them so spectacular, beats me. Reading labels can make grocery shopping quite a hassle...I ended up looking at a variety of egg production websites for further information - they all seem to indicate that the cage system is cheaper, healthier, and overall better while non-conventional methods such as cage-free, organic, etc have associated pitfalls. Things that make you go hmm.
And what precisely does all natural mean? Clearly not ingredients that come from the ground. The FDA doesn't even provide a clear definition. I had to laugh on a recent trip to BJs, not only did they carry "all natural" eggs, but they also had "all natural" cinnamon rolls.
My friend picked up the package and studied it intently trying to determine what made these rolls all natural, considering that the ingredient list went on for a paragraph - all kinds of compounds, and certainly more than the flour, sugar, milk, butter, yeast, cinnamon, and vanilla that I used to make cinnamon rolls in my 7th grade home ec class.
Times have certainly changed. All natural can mean just about anything in 2010.
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I exclusively buy the Land o Lakes brown eggs you mentioned. If you ever happen to have Egglands and the Land O Lakes, crack both into a bowl. (I came upon this by accident finishing up one carton and starting another.) You will see the Land O Lakes yolk is bright orange while the Egglands is a pale yellow. I don't know exactly what this means scientifically but The Omnivores Dilemma discussed yolk color at length and apparently the brighter orange the yolk is, the much better it is in flavor and nutrition.
ReplyDeleteTo me the brown Land O Lakes eggs in the plastic carton are the lesser of the evils.
From several websites including the Georgia Egg Commission (who knew!) yolk color has everything to do with the hen's diet and living conditions. Free range hens produce uneven results (though probably better for us definitely better for them) due to their uneven diet. Confined hens: wheat or barley diet = lighter yolks, corn, corn-mash, alfalfa meal and things like marigold petals = yellower yolks which American consumers prefer. From another farm blog (http://coyotecreekfarm.org) that uses organic methods, the hens need to be pastured, that is, like you said LG, they need grass. My brother-in-law gets eggs from a farm in NJ that are have blueish colored shells and pale yolks. They are the best I have ever tasted. I was curious, so I tried to check a couple of sources. You need a PhD in organic chemistry and biology to shop sometimes...
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