Organic and Free Range Eggs - What's The Difference?

It is not hot news that the hens on regular farms are treated inhumanely.

Hens are kept in confined spaces and blasted with artificial light to prolong daylight hours in order to increase egg production. Do you also know that these hens are fed all kinds of hormones and antibiotics in order for the egg farmers to get as much as they possibly can?

As a result of this a great number of people have moved to buying free range eggs instead. Believing that it was better conditions and the hen is actually walking around the yard pecking at the grass and enjoying life and laying eggs naturally. In short people thought they were buying organically produced eggs.

Most people look at the cartons marked "free range eggs", which are much more expensive than the others believing that they are healthier; however you will not find on the carton anything that actually indicates that this is the case and it most certainly will not have the words organic eggs mentioned anywhere.

If you do find a carton of organic eggs as opposed to free range eggs you will notice that they are certainly more expensive again; but there is quite a difference in the two products that certainly warrants the extra costs.

Free range is most certainly not all you think it is. The USDA allows the use of the free range egg label for a farm that allows the hen access to the outside for at least 5 minutes per day. It does not mention that the hen even has to get up from the cage and actually go outside; it just has to have access. There is no mention of the fact that the hen has to eat healthy food i.e. food that is hormone and anti-biotic free; certainly not the impression that is given with the term free range eggs.

It is once again clear that the USDA and the FDA are more concerned with protecting the income of the producers more than they are interested in protecting the interest of the general public, not to mention the inhumane treatment of the chickens.

This is not just confined to the eggs; we are also fed these chickens as well. The chickens that you get out the supermarket freezer, unless they are labeled as organic are treated in the same way and carry the same chemicals as the eggs do. Not everyone approves of this as shown in this headline from 2002.

"US confinement-raised poultry not good enough for the Russians"

Imposing a ban on importing U.S. poultry, Vladmir Fisinin who is the vice president of Moscow times commented: "I would like to note that American farmers are injecting chickens with antibiotics used to treat people. This is prohibited in Russia." he further went on to comment "U.S. poultry producers use such large doses of these drugs that they accumulate in the tissues of the birds. It is dangerous, especially for children and older people." Mr. Fisinin also shared his view that by continually giving antibiotics to chickens it will encourage drug-resistant bacteria to grow and effect the bird population and create further complications.

Here is another headline:
"Antibiotic-resistant bacteria NOT found in free-range chickens"
This is obviously referring to truly free range chickens and not the ones that lay the free range eggs.

When you have a large number of animals living in a confined space it is much easier for disease to spread. The way that this is handled is by using a large amount of antibiotics to treat the disease. The problem with this is that the bacteria that the antibiotics are meant to destroy mutate and change so as not to be effected by the drugs.

When people then get infected with the drug resistant bacteria there is not a lot we can do about it as the common medication is no longer effective.

A survey conducted on the E. coli bacteria isolated in a confinement poultry operation found that all the bacteria were resistant to the commonly used treatments, Streptomycin, tetracycline and sulphonamide however the opposite is true for the bacteria that was in a free range farm. (Ojeniyi, A. A. (1989). "Public health aspects of bacterial drug resistance in modern battery and town/village poultry" Acta Vet Scand 30(2): 127-32.)

It is also clear that the pharmaceutical companies are also more than happy for this practice to continue. Baytril is another pharmaceutical which poultry are being treated with which has similar properties to the anthrax fighting antibiotic - Cipro.

Bayer, the producer and supplier of Baytril have been urged by the FDA, Health professionals and The New England Journal of Medicine to withdraw the sale of the drug to poultry farmers, however they do not agree with this move. It seems they are to continue to make millions of dollars rather provide protection for the public.

Their argument is that if it were withdrawn there would have to be a fundamental change to the U.S. poultry raising practices. But isn't that what we want and need to happen.

It is illogical and inhumane to raise animals in the conditions that require a huge amount of drugs to fight diseases that are prolific because of the environment they are raised in.

Bayer insists they need more evidence showing how this practice causes damage to humans before they will refrain. It seems that the mass of proof that already exists is simply not enough for anyone to act on this.

Today, hens are riddled with disease and dead within 2 years unless they are slaughtered before this time for food purposes. Hens produce eggs in abundance in the first and only year in production. This is not the natural way.

Young hens grow at exceptional rates and have a premature burst of egg laying in the first year. This effectively wears the chicken out. This happens because they are treated with growth hormones and antibiotics in their feed from day one.

If this does not kill the hen, then the amassed poison soon destroys the hen's liver and it develops liver cancer inside of 2 years. These hens are sent to the slaughterhouse before the onset of cancer as they are effectively finished their productive life of egg laying; these hens are then bought from the supermarket and fed to people.

Hens raised naturally, and supplied with natural feed commence laying around for 10-12 months. Hens that are fed with hormones and antibiotics have almost effectively finished their laying cycle by that time. Organic hens also live at least twice as long as farmed chickens.

It is sad that we are so dominated by money that this practice can go on and be endorsed. But more than the treatment of the hens, what are the effects of people eating foods that infected by all these chemicals and drug-resistant bacteria. It is no surprise; the amount of diseases that are around today.

Unless laws are passed to stop the way poultry is raised, there is one other way to change it. Quite simply don't buy it. If they are not making the money they want, then things will have to change. But it takes a real commitment from everyone to make a stand.

It may cost a little more money, but you need to stop endorsing free range eggs and buy organic. If the free range eggs and farmed poultry are not selling the producers will have to react; and make the changes themselves.

Not only are organic eggs much tastier and better for you, you can help to change an industry that does not have the morals to change themselves.

This article was written by Ira from Global Health Supplements. He is in his 80's, and when he was diagnosed with heart disease he turned his disease around and took control. Ira discovered an incredible nutritional program that delivers because it gives your body the nutrients it needs to become... The Great Self Healer!”

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