... that half the chickens in America be slaughtered.

Now before we get all up in arms (as I of course did upon hearing this flaming statment), they are doing it becuase they are demanding that the companies drastically improve the living conditions of egg laying hens. And they have now halved how many hens you are allowed to have with in a square foot of floor space for a commercial laying yard. HOW COOL IS THAT? (although I feel bad for the ones that are being slaughtered... it is a step in the right direction for the practice)

The price of eggs should triple with in the next year, and they are talking about how that will effect many Americans (including vegitarians, espically those who are lacto/ovo, and what that means to the price of their diet), but at the same time, that means that buying organic/free range eggs will no longer seem like a huge price jump, and in fact could become very tempting to even the most mainstream thinking shopper out there.... I mean after all those chickens eat better too.

Has anyone else heard of this? What do you think will be next? I heard this all stems from the finding of Mad Cow in the US. But I am not sure as I am hearing most of my info 2nd hand... anyone hear what this is from?

Love Val

Hey I never thought of it as being closer in price to free range. Cool.

I heard it was from the whole mad cow thing too, but don't understand it, since I don't know how space would be an issue related to mad cow. I also may be wrong, because I wasn't interested enough in it since I'm vegetarian, (when the whole mad cow thing comes up, i only half listen) to actually absorb it fully. :D

Right on, better lives for chickens! woo hoo! The gods will see that they get rewarded for their sacrifice. they'll come back as fully free range chickens.

I hadn't heard that, but I know that in my region, there is somewhat of an outbreak of avian flu that is causing lots of slaughter in the chicken industry.

Originally posted by mikifrogspapa
The gods will see that they get rewarded for their sacrifice. they'll come back as fully free range chickens.

OMG Ian......... I just literally burst out laughing!! They'll come back as fully free range chickens... lmao... omg! Thats funny $hit...

Love Val

I am not sure how slaughtering 1/2 of the egg layers is affected by mad cow but I know that commerical meat chickens are fed all kinds of dead animals. Thus they have the potential for contact with mad cow but I am not sure about contractability. The price of free range natural eggs is already the same here as regular eggs, $1.50 doz. They are about to seem really cheap.

Not mad cow, but the chicken flu that can be passed from chicken to human.

Oi, I *so* live in a farming community now!

Actually there is a connection between mad cow and chickens...I posted on this thread about it-my second post on the second page has the link to the National Public Radio Stories about it. Chickens don't get mad cow though...

I didn't hear about the story that Val is talking about...
http://www.amitymama.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=144944&perpage=15&pagenumber=1

Yet another reason to give my hens an extra hug tomorrow!

My local grocery store had a notice about this posted above the eggs :D

Originally posted by mpeel
The price of free range natural eggs is already the same here as regular eggs, $1.50 doz. They are about to seem really cheap.

I'm curious, is that for free range or free range organic? That is really cheap if it is organic. I pay $2.29/dozen for free range, vegetarian, organic eggs.

I don't even think we could get free range NON organic for that price :eek:

The NON organic eggs around here are about $1.50/dozen currently and keep going up, and I didn't know why. Not that it affected me because I always buy locally raised, free range organic, but I noticed that now, the eggs I buy aren't much more than buying conventional. Thanks Val for explaining why that is!
And just wondering...who would buy conventional when the free range organic are now so close in price to the conventional, plus, the FRO taste SOOOOOO much better!?!

Also, I was wondering...I know this has been discussed here before...but is it worth it to buy organic milk vs. conventional milk that I KNOW is not produced by cows treated w/ hormones? To save some $$$ I have been doing the latter, but now I am wondering if I should just splurge. Plus, there is a local dairy here that puts their milk in glass bottles--yummy! It just is really expensive--like at least double the price of the milk I have been buying, plus you have to pay the deposit for the bottle. Just wondering what you guys do. Thanks!

I just noticed that the free range organic eggs at my grocery store are $3.29/dozen. And to think, I've been selling ours for $1!

At trader joes, they have half dozens of free range/organic, for $1.59. Free Range were $2.29 for a dozen, and regular large eggs were $1.59/dozen

I just got free range (not certified organic, but no hormones or abx) from TJ here that were just $1.99/doz.

I have seen them at other stores ranging from over $4 (!!!!!) to $2. Conventional ones are only slightly less except at Fred Meyer (Kroger) where they are always doing a buy on get one free thing it seems.

We have 4 hens, and get 2-4 eggs a day. I've been giving them away when they build up on us. :-)

They are free range (well, they won't go out into the snow), organic, vegetarian chickies (do bugs count? :-)).

The ones I get are free range and all natural (no hormones, antibiotics, etc.) and they are fed natural feed with no animal products. They are not "certified" organic, though. They are huge too. Jumbo size. I love the price. They were $1/doz but costs for supply containers and all that caused the price increase.

I can't imagine paying so much for eggs. But, I get them from a local homeschooling family, not a grocer. I think "cage-free" here are over $3 a doz.

yep, i think michelle and I prolly get our eggs at the same place-- and they are great eggs :) They don't keep a ton of chickens, and the kids take care of them, and get the money from the eggs too :)

Actually cage free aren't that much if you want to go to walmart--- 1.89 dozen. If it tells you anything about here, Walmart actually carries more organic than most stores -- that is slowly changing, but it is still pretty bad. There are 2 teeny health food stores, only one of them has a smidge of produce. There is however a group that sells organic produce at the farmewrs market every other week... just a lot of going and doing and a lot of extra work to try and eat healthy!
heather

Heather,

I guess I have not been to Walmart in a while. Last time I was there all you could get organic was bagged spinach and milk. Have they added some? Winn Dixie has a lot of organic in the one at Promonade, the one at Dalraida and the ones out east of town.

We actually have three HFS. The one in the Promanade, one on Atlanta Hwy and one on Burbank Drive. The one on Burbank is HIGH.

I usually avoid Wally World like the plague. Should I be reconsidering? If so, which one?

I wish we had a Costco here. They seem to be getting a lot of stuff I need lately.