Eggs (cage free) (Boston, New Bedford, Bedford: apartment complex, buy, subsidized)

[timberline742]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

I had a cousin who bought a chicken farm in Delaware where they raised large numbers chickens for meat - industrial style chicken farming, as I guess is common. At a certain point I heard that he had to wear a respirator inside the chicken coop because there was e.g. suspended manure dust, ammonia, mites, fungus, etc in the air, and I thought wait, he's got to wear a respirator to be safe in there on a walk-through, but the chickens have to breathe that foul air every minute of their miserable lives? It really sounded terrible - I never visited him there.

Maybe laying chickens are raised in better conditions?

As a part of school in VT I visited several such places, and slaughterhousea, complete with the arrival of a downer cow.

I actually think such experiences should be part of a standard high school curriculum, perhaps home ec, to understand and see first hand the types of places (for better and worse) where our food comes from.

Learning how to dress game and filled fish wouldn't be bad either.

[CaseyB]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

I had a cousin who bought a chicken farm in Delaware where they raised large numbers chickens for meat - industrial style chicken farming, as I guess is common. At a certain point I heard that he had to wear a respirator inside the chicken coop because there was e.g. suspended manure dust, ammonia, mites, fungus, etc in the air, and I thought wait, he's got to wear a respirator to be safe in there on a walk-through, but the chickens have to breathe that foul air every minute of their miserable lives? Apparently they died in there on a regular basis so picking up the dead ones was one duty on the walk-throughs. It really sounded terrible - I never visited him there, as I knew I'd be upset seeing the animals subjected to such conditions.

Maybe laying chickens are kept in better conditions?

Not really. That's what the bill was for.

[SUPbud]

I'm a visitor from California, but the thread caught my eye. You guys are just catching up to where we were a few years ago. I have also raised backyard chickens, and I will do so again before I die.


I promise egg prices should stablize, once the bad old factory farms re-tool, retrofit, and setup a more humane kit.


Chickens which can move around and flap and see a variety of scenes and elevations, are happier, healthier chickens. it only takes 18 weeks (126 DAYS) to go from little yellow fuzzball to harvest as the "young fryer hen" in the bag on sale for Weds night din.


It's the way the industry is going, in California they've extended the minimum space/pen requirements to include veal and pigs. Even if you're not IN CA, you cant sell it here, and we are the largest market (most populous state in the Union) so you cut off your own nose to spite your face if you dont modernize.



If you have an open ear for the whole 'sustainable' thing, I recommend Polyface Farms in VA. They have lots of videos on Youtube + elsewhere. I too raged at $5.99/dz eggs when the law first passed, but now they are $1.99/dz like before the law.

https://www.polyfacefarms.com/

[r_p]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

So a struggling low income person in an urban apartment block is going to raise chickens. You just doubled the price on their cheapest protein source.

So let's condemn millions of birds to battery cages because of maybe 2% of the folks who are unwilling to pay $10-20 extra per month, unwilling to farm their own eggs, and unwilling to eat alternative sources of protein.

We live in one of the richest states in one of the richest countries and cannot afford eggs from humanely raised hens. Talk about misplaced priorities.

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by r_p

So let's condemn millions of birds to battery cages because of maybe 2% of the folks who are unwilling to pay $10-20 extra per month, unwilling to farm their own eggs, and unwilling to eat alternative sources of protein.

We live in one of the richest states in one of the richest countries and cannot afford eggs from humanely raised hens. Talk about misplaced priorities.

Ok. So you can personally pay the out of pocket difference in egg cost for all the struggling low income people who use eggs as a primary protein source. Me? I can afford it. This issue isn’t about me. It’s the social cost induced on the poor by PETA people. Massachusetts has a ton of food-insecure people and most are children. Your crusade is picking chickens over those nasty brown and black children.

[robr2]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Ok. So you can personally pay the out of pocket difference in egg cost for all the struggling low income people who use eggs as a primary protein source. Me? I can afford it. This issue isn’t about me. It’s the social cost induced on the poor by PETA people. Massachusetts has a ton of food-insecure people and most are children. Your crusade is picking chickens over those nasty brown and black children.

It's a short term issue. Once the producers get in line, supply will increases and prices will drop.

What gets me is that the egg producers have had two years to prepare for the new regulations. They've fought it, done nothing to update, and now we have to pay more.

[mdovell]

The other part is you can't really sell for export unless you have a usda or fda permit. I've heard of stories of cattle from Vermont and western mass going to NY for processing and then break because it was closer than going to Eastern mass. Another packing/slaughter house would help.

You can learn alot economically by looking up the ramifications of taxes, distribution and authority

[timberline742]

Backyard eggs can be great, but there are issues. In a region like this, with hundreds of years of industry history, much of our soil in more suburban and urban areas is lead contaminated. With how chickens feed in free range, this very often shows up in the eggs. A significant number of tested urban area eggs are rather high in lead. It's the one area where store bought/factory farmed eggs may be better.

I don't like how this may disproportionally negatively impact the poor, at all. I think we do need to remember we pay very little in total income for food. We're among the countries that spend the least on food (we are usually at the very bottom, always at the bottom 10 in the world), at least out of pocket. If you include subsidies that may be different, but like usual, subsidies distort markets, and how we do it isn't very healthy.

[r_p]

Originally Posted by GeoffD

Ok. So you can personally pay the out of pocket difference in egg cost for all the struggling low income people who use eggs as a primary protein source. Me? I can afford it. This issue isn’t about me. It’s the social cost induced on the poor by PETA people. Massachusetts has a ton of food-insecure people and most are children. Your crusade is picking chickens over those nasty brown and black children.

Backyard chickens are good for food security. Free-ranging birds don't need as much feed as they eat grass, bugs, and leftovers. A lot of low-income households actually raise them here in MA. In cities like Framingham, unlike other relatively more affluent Metrowest towns, you don't even need a permit for up to 6 hens.

Your underlying assumptions are flawed. In most of the world, it's the poor that tend to keep livestock for their own food security.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...11912416301043

[GeoffD]

Originally Posted by r_p

Backyard chickens are good for food security. Free-ranging birds don't need as much feed as they eat grass, bugs, and leftovers. A lot of low-income households actually raise them here in MA. In cities like Framingham, unlike other relatively more affluent Metrowest towns, you don't even need a permit for up to 6 hens.

Your underlying assumptions are flawed. In most of the world, it's the poor that tend to keep livestock for their own food security.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...11912416301043

This is totally bizarre. A low income person in a triple decker tenement building in New Bedford doesn't have the opportunity to become a chicken rancher. Exit the limo and consider the housing occupied by low income people.



"Livestock" is even more laughable. Low income people in high density housing can't raise cows and pigs. You live in some PETA-clouded alternate universe.